Detailing hard-surface
Hi!
That's more about designing rarther than technical talk. How do you manage to detail hard surface models to achieve the level when it has a sense? You have some alphas for Zbrush etc. but I don't think that solves the problem, because you have to know what you're doing.
I watched some gameplays of Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy that show Milano spaceship. It look consistent and believable, but when I look closer I can't find the sense of some things, for example what's the purpose of these arrayed things:
I know I can just try to make the games like this my reference, but look: the Concept artists, 3D Artists also had some references. Maybe from different games, but in the end, even some of those different games had to be inspired by something real. Of course real spaceships looks different, but in the way between someone knew which scenographical props will work.
So I'm asking about your references and thinking of designing hard surface and designing details of it.
When I do this, I most often look for a common element for different references, but I think that's not enough.
Replies
“Good writers ... do not write for knowing and over acute readers.”
Just my opinion of course, but being an artist, you are a "knowing and over acute reader."
I would bet those repeating "things" are there because otherwise the hallway felt a tad empty. None of this stuff makes any sense at all, it's just there for artistic reasons. Probably someone looked at the hallway and said, "it feels incomplete, add something." And a level artist grabbed "generic air duct thingamajig" and repeated it along the wall and that was that. Maybe they tried several different thingamigs of different shapes and colors but this final version is the one the lead artist felt looked best.
I don't think there is a universal artistic principle that works here. It depends on the game. The theme overall, and perhaps how the player is meant to feel in this specific area.
I havent played this game and dont know anything about the super hero genre, but I'm guessing all these clean primary colors is telling me this is like, home base ship? This is a safe place. I think that the "not enough" piece of the puzzle maybe you feel that youre missing is just that the extra 50% of design comes from the specific game. In other words, there is a specific emotion meant to be evoked, and that is the guiding principle.
Just copying some reference or adding detail mindlessly hoping that somehow magic happens won't accomplish the goal.
To me they look like some kind of hasp lock-y clip things, maybe in this universe ships are mass produced and somewhat modular (ALMOST... like in a game engine.... HMMM) so you would snap in these nice plush walls, perhaps over all that exposed roof wiring.
But that's trying to make sense of it after the fact-- like Alex_J said, it probably just felt wrong without something there. 😜
"Just copying some reference or adding detail mindlessly hoping that somehow magic happens won't accomplish the goal."
yet 90% of the time that's exactly what we get...
I grew up with a regime of art direction where we applied pockets of focused, purposeful detail and left space for the eye to rest.
judicious use of detail vs calm allows the artist to direct the player, frame enemies and cause things to read a lot better at distance.
The posted image is a noisy mess IMO - you're pretty much relying on the high contrast floor panels to describe the shape of the environment - the walls and ceiling are just mush and effectively apply camoflage to any navigational cues the player could get from the environment.
its easy to see how it happens - people design modular components largely in isolation and then other people start slapping them into levels and if you're not able to keep on top of it, you can very quickly end up with less than desirable results.
working iteratively is realy the best way to prevent this - block everything out, change the modules that don't feel right once you've built with them and repeat the process until it stops looking shit.
That's a good association with the lock hasp and I though about it too. I'm wondering more about the process of finding the shape that will make the lock looking sci-fi.
Maybe I'm complicating simple stuff. I talked with an experienced car designer once and asked him about some cuts in hard-surface shapes. He said that of course some of them have a purpose connected with engineering and mass producing (modularity :P), but mostly it just has to look modern and cool to a client.
But then you can ask yourself what is modern. ;)
Thanks! I love the answer, I wanted to hear that type of perspective. I felt the same after watching new Ratchett & Clank gameplays, but its problem is more about color palette than mindless meshing level.
About the art direction regime – I don't know if I understand it correctly. I thought you don't always need restrictive purposeful detail. Isn't level art something more like a scenography? It may have stronger points, but it's mostly background anyway
the function of working like that is that the vast bulk of screen space is taken up by relatively simple shapes and colors that allow the player to see the shape/sillhouettes of the environment and assets.
the player/eye is then drawn to the more interesting parts of the composition - that could be a door, ammo station or whatever represents the design/art goal of the environment.
its the same principle you'll see applied to composition of a 2d image - you use areas of information to direct the eye and areas of calm to allow it to focus on the information.
Ah got it, I misunderstood it.
Just out of curiosity what are the games released in last 5 years you find the best in creating composition, which is as informative to the player as it is visual attractive?
I'm not sure I could name one from the last 5 years in all honesty - I generally play sandbox survival/shooty games so I'm not really up to speed on latest releases in the single-player/competitive AAA space (they leave me pretty cold as a rule)
I'm watching one of the kids play valorant at the moment and I think they do a lot right. Overwatch is similarly well composed.