October 21, 2017 at 11:07Creating the sky for 3D games
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Stunning artist Blizzard Philip Zhang shared some techniques that will help you create better and more interesting skyboxes.
Introduction
My name is Zeyan Zhang , also known as Philip Zhang. I am an environmental artist and am currently working on World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment. I was born and raised in China, and as a child I was always fascinated by drawings and stories, which prompted me to study digital media at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. After graduation, I moved to the United States to continue my training in game graphics at Laguna College of Art and Design.
After completing my studies, I gained my first experience at Disney ABC Television Group as an intern and concept artist in 2014. A few months later, I took part in the Blizzard Student Art Contest and was accepted by the intern into the World of Warcraft team. Since then, I have worked on World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor and World of Warcraft: Legion.
Tasks
In the process of collaborating with the World of Warcraft development team, I worked with the props development team and the environment developers. Before starting to describe the process of working on skyboxes, I would like to share the lessons that I learned while working with these teams.
In the World of Warcraft development team, the artist must create concepts, models, and textures from scratch to the end. As an intern in the props team, I worked on a variety of tasks: sets corresponding to cultures of different races, resources with the theme of fractions for battle arenas, and armor for different classes. The most important thing I learned from this experience is that each resource has its own story; each resource is a unique character with its own personality and background. For example, the gates of the orcs are made of roughly cut wood, scratched and covered with blood splattered leather screeds, animal bones and metal spikes. At the gates of the night elves there is a lush vine and tree shoots decorated with forest flowers and fruits, because the main value in their culture is the conservation of nature. In my opinion,
My way of telling a story through my work was well suited for the development team. After completing my internship, I officially started working at Blizzard as an environment artist. Surrounding artists create trees, vegetation, skyboxes, and land texture tile sets for zones. The most important lesson for me was that in the first place, the overall picture of the scene is always created. A beautiful tree may look good in itself, but spoil the whole composition, attracting too much attention to itself. The environment artist should always think about the color and shape relationships between all resources so that they positively affect the overall appearance of the scene.
When I start working on a skybox, I strive to visualize the skybox not only as a separate element that tells the players a story, but also as a background image that fits into the whole scene.
In August, I became the first environmental artist to start work on Shadows of Argus (patch 7.3). To illustrate the mass of land of the destroyed Eredar native world, the designers and I decided to add the drawn World of Warcraft environments to the skyboxes. I started sharing my story with the players - Argus was once the homeland of the proud Eredar people, and thousands of years ago it was conquered and destroyed by the demonic Burning Legion. At the sketching stage, I allowed my imagination to create chopped earth, demonic fortresses, erupting volcanoes and the ruins of the cities of the Eredar. Later, when other artists and designers created the image of most of the game space, I removed some of the elements that attracted too much attention and took screenshots of the game relief and buildings, after which I added them to my painted environments,
Structure
Skybox in World of Warcraft is a picture that stretches over the playing space. It affects the player’s feelings with light, shadows and colors. The development team creates skyboxes based on the nature, history and climate of each location. We also create dynamic weather systems, such as rain or snow, to add variation to the gameplay. Here is more detailed information about the basic structure of a skybox:
The process of creating skyboxes with painted environments is not too different from creating a regular skybox. Here is an example:
Content
When choosing the elements added to the scene, it is logical to start by choosing which elements we can borrow from the foreground. For example, in a painted environment, a mountain with tall pines can stretch for hundreds of miles of skybox. By adding it, we will create depth and a strong sense of atmosphere in this environment.
The textures of the blue planet are created by Servando Lupini (former 3D artist of Blizzard).
Skybox is the background of the scene. Players will not be able to plunge into the environment if the game space and skybox are in dissonance. The colors and shapes used in a skybox should always be a reflection of foreground elements. It is also worth considering how the human eye works, considering the environment in the distance. Objects distant from a person usually seem less contrasting than those nearby. The same goes for skybox resources.
Creating skyboxes with a painted environment can be an effective way to solve design problems. Sometimes an ambitious concept - for example, an ancient city in the jungle or a burning spaceship in the sky - requires thousands of hours of work by artists and designers to recreate in 3D space. However, the same effect can be achieved by drawing in a couple of weeks a painted environment on a canvas measuring 2048 × 2048 pixels. I believe that the key to creating a successful environment-related environment is effective communication with the team, the presentation of the vision and its subsequent visualization in painted environments.
Features of creating stylized skyboxes
Old masters centuries ago developed many effective ways to create stunning environments. Over the past two decades, hundreds of amazing digital artists have appeared, inspired by their work. I visit websites such as Blogger, ArtStation, and Pinterest often for examples and inspiration. Here are some of my favorite artists:
Lighting
Skybox lighting should match the scene lighting. After completing the skybox, the environment artist should carefully check the lighting in the scene and make small changes so that everything fits perfectly.
Dome of the sky by Servando Lupini (former Blizzard 3D artist)
Dome of the sky by Servando Lupini Lupini (former 3D artist of Blizzard)
Advice
Knowledge of traditional painting - while studying at Laguna College of Art and Design, I did a lot of environmental painting. Although such a practice would by no means be enough to create a World of Warcraft skybox, it helped me learn the basics of color, lighting, and composition. This knowledge greatly helped me in creating skyboxes with painted environments. No matter what style the artist strives to achieve, knowledge of the rules of traditional painting is always useful.
Tell a story with fiction - in comparison with other resources of the surroundings, the skybox gives the artist almost endless possibilities for self-expression on his 360-degree canvas. Let the players experience their craziest art ideas!
Pay attention to the transitions between important points. At work, I often communicate with level designers. They talk a lot about transitions between important points. When players move from one location to another, the geographical transition should seem natural and logical. I believe the same applies to the drawn skybox environments. For example, in a scene where there are streams of water pouring from the mountains, these streams can join into a river. The river flows into the canyon and becomes a huge waterfall. It will look much more convincing than a waterfall that appears without a source. The combination of various sources in the environment is a key point in creating a skybox with a painted environment.
