The role of the Environment Artist is to help create an immersive 3D world in which the game takes place. Usually taking up the majority of the screen space during play, the environment graphics are a very important aspect of the games visuals. A good game environment needs to be immersive, fitting and consistent in style with enough interesting features and variety to keep its exploration fresh.

There are many techniques which can be employed to make an environment more visually interesting. Some that I use are:

Shapes & Structures: Breaking up simple linear outlines (for example, roofs, fences or walls) with other objects to keep the scene unpredictable for the players eye (non-uniform shapes stimulating the brain more).

Lighting: This can be used to guide the player from one area to another as well as being used to dramatise the scene; picking out strong shadows and highlights to prevent the scene looking flat and helping define the shapes of the main structures. This is important as the player is viewing it on a flat screen so distances to background features can be difficult to read, its dimensions can be made more visible at a glance with good use of lighting.

Colour: Colour (or lack of it) can be used in a variety of ways. Use slightly exaggerated colour saturation for a more pleasant, lush feel and washed-out colours for a bleaker slightly depressing feel.

Texture: Having textures with a baked in light direction of subtle use of Normal Mapping can make the scene look far more detailed than it actually is (unless Normal Mapping is being used). Using to much can detract from the overall effect though and the scene ends up a noisy mess.

Sense of weight: Including features in an environment which give the objects a sense of weight is good way to add believability. Placing solid objects leaning on flexible objects such as wood against a mesh fence, causing them to sag or lean. Ropes, chains or material draped over solid objects.

Animation: Movement can dramatically bring a scene to life and should be used where-ever possible. Things like animating flags, swinging ropes or chains or smoke rising from chimneys can all help to create a feel of a living breathing world.

A lived-in feel: If a game environment is supposed to be inhabited it should reflect this in the environment graphics. Not just by people but anything alive in the environment, plant growth around objects can give the scene a cohesive feel, rather than a series of objects that seem to have been placed together and seem to interact with each other. Ideally every object should look like it has a history, a story to tell. Why is it there? Why is it dislodged?

Who broke it?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 12:26 am and is filed under Art, How To: Art, INSPIRATION, RESOURCES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.