Step 1

a smol mood board

pre-planning still applies, but the goal: a master level board you can show to anyone, by combining this, the bubble map, and the concept paragraph!

(1) Starts realizing the look and feel's art direction
(2) Synthesizes into the concept to begin modeling

Art Question #1

how to light an area

Start from the area's desired emotional beat in the story to pick:

• Time of day
• FX volumes: rainy fog/reflection, sunny god rays, nighttime fire...
• Light/Shadow color contrast (yellow/blue, orange/purple, etc.)
  • How saturated/intense/warm these lights/darks should feel
• What the scene's light sources will be (cf. exterior vs. interior)
  • Exterior: sun+direction -> sky+fill -> light sources in shadows
  • Interior: more design over what light/shade can come from
• What focal/hero objects to angle the lighting composition toward

how to guide modeling an area's assets

Art Question #2

how to paint the area's surfaces to convey the right emotion for the scene as a whole and for each model's own identity

Art Question #3

• Combine the above three answers + main look & feel refs!
• Stick to 2 gray tones to pump out 50-100 fast, loose options like KNKL's bootcamp -- goal of so many is to grok all the possibilities this concept could convey visually
• Think what it'd be like to stand in each area, and to live there
• Mix the distinct ideas with the Shovel Knight combo-mindset
• Find a personal touch to add into the mix after extracting a form, color, etc. out of a given reference or references
• Ask what we haven't seen before -- but don't reject an unoriginal idea if you'd wholeheartedly love it = shine!

Create a Concept

Look & Feel Concept

Feedback Check

Step 2

an asset list

(1) Split concept into 4 big environment art types
(2) Matching up to a corresponding texture atlas

(It's own project => Repeat reifying-worlds!)

Focus on composition as a story tool, remind player of their active goal, nod to prev/next area (Souls!)

Can use vert blending/decals masks repetition, e.g. a door has color variants, [no] handle, [no] glass, metal/wood surface type variations -- all same asset w/altered material params

Remember your toolkit against basics/generics

Take each concept image and break it into major textures, minor textures, and decals/details -- then model texture atlas by seeing the scene broken into:

Ref/Concept Mix -> Spec

A nexus of design + art creates the best constraint-solving results

(vs. an emotionless/unconnected asset salad)

aka

don't forget to refer back to the pre-planning and integrate the level design side of things!
(esp. the layout/composition column)

Additional Tips

• Work out the bad ideas (KNKL-style!), but also scene's daily life = the objects in it + the flow through it
• Differentiate materials based on their would-be bump maps (vs. a vert color variant)
• Vertex colors can also fake shadows, lighting, AO, and two-texture blends (cf. terrains)
• Rule of Thirds 201: on 2-3 grid lines => artist primarily wanted your eye to go there!
• Rule of Thirds 202: https://youtu.be/GtXNIfajy3k

Level Art Asset List

Feedback Check

Step 3

reify

beyond basic

beyond generic

Prop Assembly Paradigm

"Organic Moments"

• Details that show the use of an otherwise generic clone.
• Key being that even a few such props or background elements among others with less "specificity" of detail helps dramatically with a scene.
• Applies not just to props but also background elements like floor tiles!
• I'm thinking as a latter pass after prop assembly et al, so all the generic clones are placed in first and then details can be varied up between them in a less broad, less prefab-y polish/charm/subtlety pass.

Modeling the Art Assets

Start with a base prim and extrude/drag verts, add edge loops, etc. into desired broad shape:

• Focus on silhouette, shape, and beware noise ratios (KNKL 10-S, 20-M, 70-L) esp. in arenas. -- i.e. Proportion of noise first, not detail. Framing should help keep elements from fighting for eye's attention

• Frame elements to be fun to walk around in!

• Pre-texture pass, assign all basic gray “Base_Material”

• PIE frequently to vet path clarity and collision snags (walk up to every mesh!)

• If unsure about something, go back for more refs!

Pixeling the Art Assets

• Sculpt, don't draw: nail big shapes w/blobs, and then subtract from the form, like #knkl on drawing bangs!

• Structure details on form with symmetry, then break it

• Originality check: add personal touch to your ref mix,

• 3D Pixel tips: small palette, pixel density (cup != barrel's #px), surpass 2D (ex. bookshelf/fridge depth)

• Use the #pixel-textures channel-end Slynyrd clustering (i.e. start w/KNKL S/M/L -> outlines -> adj clusters)

• Reminder to revisit one-offs in #pixel-textures to eval!

Step 4

Light

Goal: evoke a strong mood of light/dark to push a player's eye through an area!

Light Types - The Types

• Point Lights: Light that comes from a single point in space, and spreads out in all directions. The simplest type of light, but the one you will probably use the least often, especially for casting shadows.
• Spotlights: You will probably use these the most. A spotlight lets you control where the light is hitting your scene through the use of a light cone, that can be made wider or more narrow.
• Distant Lights: A distant light (sometimes called parallel light) is usually there to act as the sun (or moon). It does not have a cone like a spotlight, and all rays are parallel. Where a distant light is placed in the scene is unimportant, the only thing that matters is its rotation.
• Area Lights: These are generally not used in real-time lighting, and are more likely to be used when you are using lightmaps and baking the lighting. It's a light that has a large, soft surface area, and gives off the softest shadows.
• Skylights: Some game engines also have "skylights", which are normally used to simulate soft/fill light from the sky.
• Eye reflection lights: These are more likely used in cinematic lighting, and give a tiny bright reflection in a character's eyes. Without these, eyes can look "dead" if the main lights in the scene are not causing reflections where you'd like to see them.
• Light Rigs: In some games, lighting "rigs" may be used to speed up the lighting process or allow for more lighting continuity by using rigs. Rigs can be loaded into a level or a cinematic and either parented to a character or left freestanding. They usually consist of a key light, a rim light, and a fill light, and sometimes have secondary lights as well.

Light Types - The Params

• Color (using main contrast)
• Intensity / Brightness [+Flickering]
• Falloff
• Shadow Edge-Hardness = Generally harder edges imply smaller light sources (e.g. holding flashlight close to something vs. backing away), and softer/harder edges leans into cel/"realistic"-shading
• Shadow Color = affords making them warmer/cooler than the default

Ask what you want out of each of these for your area's sources!

Placing Lights

1. Start with the sun, and its direction
2. Then bring in the sky, and its general fill
3. Then it's about cheating to add visual interest
   • "Light Linking. Many engines support the ability to link lights to objects. This means certain lights might only be affecting certain characters, while other lights are linked to (and only affecting) other characters. Again, if this is handled correctly it's something the player will never notice."
   • "Changing the direction of the sun for areas that are near each other, but separate. I've done this a lot...it can even be done where static lighting and lightmapping are being done. A good example is an area where the player passes through a series of caves. If the different outdoor areas between the caves look nicer if the sun is at a slightly different angle in each, you can change the direction of the sun while the player is in the cave. They won't notice that the sun is at a slightly different angle when they emerge from the cave on the other side."
   • "Nice looking God rays (Crepuscular rays) that might be seen in a cave or through holes in a deserted building, that don't actually match the direction of the sun, but placed to look interesting"
   • "An area that would look really cool if only the sun was at a slightly different angle. This can be remedied by the addition of one or more spotlights, that match the intensity and color of the sunlight. If they’re placed properly, players won't notice that it's not just sunlight."
   • Gobos

-- For exteriors. With interiors, your level's design gets to define what the light sources are!

Lighting Passes

1. "When a level is assigned to me for lighting, I'll look at the concept sketches for the level and..." do a
2. "Do a preliminary lighting pass, just to set the brightness, contrast, and color for the level."
3. "The Art Director will take a look at the first lighting and make suggestions for any needed tweaks."
4. "Then as I make my way through the level, I'll check the docs and maps to see if there are any game play-specific lighting requests from the designers."

PBR 101 vs. Beyond PBR

Most studios these days seem to follow the same steps in a process. I've seen this at a number of places, and can only assume it's fairly standard by this time.

1. A master "material test" level is built, that contains lots of different objects with PBR materials applied. These materials will run the gamut from metals like chrome, gold, copper, etc. to different types of wood, stone, bricks, glass, concrete, etc.
2. When an Environment Artist creates a new material, they apply it to an object and place the object in this test level. The test level should have a system where it's easy for the Environment Artist to switch back and forth between different times of day, like early morning, noon, late sunset, midnight, etc. If the object looks good in the test level at any time of day, the Environment Artist is done.

Approach PBR as a means to quickly produce lighting results that obey the laws of physics. That’s all. It’s not an expectation or a goal, just shorthand for describing how light and materials work together in the real world and the technology we use to simulate it.

Hourences 101

1. 1. If you have multiple identical light sources in a row, such as the lamps in a corridor above, it can help to give some of the lights a slightly different color or brightness to add additional variation. (And white light alone is fairly unnatural, always some subtle color.)
2. End. A certain level of contrast in the environment is necessary. In real life this contrast is often partially due to materials. Environments with a lot of radiosity often gain a certain amount of contrast from subtle changes in the materials. For example, subtle reflections and a few shiny elementscan make a kitchen environment appear interesting even though it might only receive indirect ambient lighting.
3. 2. Lighting composition = contrasting where an area's highlights and shadows are for gaze guidance and believability.
4. 3. An interior with only one light = can have interesting shadows, as those are easier to create by one source vs occluded objects, but rarely interesting highlights / highlight composition. A pitfall for outdoors too -- shadows need to to play with the bright highlights even in outdoor scenes.

Hourences 101

4. When I have to light an outdoor environment I always add highlights like small lamps, carhead lights, torches, and any other small light sources that could give off light throughout the area; especially in areas that are already in shadow from the sun/moon. Adding highlights outside the shadows would make them appear unbalanced as they would look much too strong. By adding lights inside darker areas, I blur the contrast between darker and brighter areas, and make the darker areas catch more attention.This also depends on the theme. If the level has a nighttime setting, the environment will be dark enough to support highlights almost everywhere. Nighttime environments need highlights even more than daytime settings. There is nothing worse than a night environment that relies purely on ambient light or, in best case scenarios, just the moon. Due to the complete lack of composition, combined with darkness, the result is often worse than a daytime level that doesn’t has a nice lighting composition. This is because daytime levels can still fall back on shadows and the colors from the textures to form a composition which keeps the player’s eyes interested. In a night setting however this is not possible. The nonexistent, or weak, shadows prevent the level from having a shadow composition and the nighttime ambient light is usually either too dark or saturated to bring out the texture colors.The result is that the only hope lies in lighting highlights.

Hourences 101 - Light Color

1. Consider if the glass around it has a color, e.g. incandescent lamps skew that old yellow vs fluorescent modern cold white. But also what colors the walls it lights up are, if it's worth reinforcing/contrasting that by tinting a light (effectively faking bounce lighting off that surface). Very carefully use pure white/black if any.
2. Try to not only use one color. No contrast = no composition. In paint you use tone values to avoid this, but subtle light strength changing rarely looks like more than fake ineffective weak lights.
3. Natural colors = orange, yellow, red, blue, cyan, some green.
4. Warm/cool, aggressive/relaxing can be key mood terms to direct color choice. => Yellow and blue as the sweet spot for themes not pushing in any extreme, as it balances opposites of warmth, aggro, and value. Can also use e.g. orange-blue, yellow-turquoise. We draw on sunlight's orangle-purple or yellow-skyblue.
5. Sycra for saturation tapering off. + Slightly desaturate primary colors unless it has a side-effect e.g. red turns pink, or the source needs max saturation, e.g. fire. + Very white blue feels colder than saturated blue.
6. In practice, the process works as simply as:
   1. Set primary main light color by asking "What color do people connotation with my theme?"
   2. Set secondary color for contrast and composition = yellow/blue for cold/lava area. (Author likes cliches.)
7. Textures can't be lit well if too dark or too bright e.g. they use pure black/white -- don't fix via light intensity, fix the texture. Texture and light colors generally shouldn't clash either, if lights are blue and texture is orange, change the tex to be more blue / less saturated.

Static/Baked v. Dynamic

A video will showcase more things so you will certainly put dynamic lights and moving objects in there to create a natural feeling to the scene. It also depends if you plan to go for an indoor scene or outdoor scene. For me, outdoor scenes are always dynamic - never baked. For a static image, you may usually use only baked lighting with some dynamic lights if I need extra detail so I don’t have to rebake everything. or a video that will showcase movement, it's better to use both baked and dynamic lighting. This way you’ll be able to use the Global Illumination (GI) from the bake to have a really nice lighting base before going into details. You will begin to set up the mood and ambience of the environment with baked, static lighting and in doing this, you’ll use the GI from the bake to get nice bounce lighting and achieve the proper look that you are aiming for. After, go into more detail and set up lights that you think should be dynamic to create nice moving shadows, or details that do not need to be baked as you already have a base bake from your static lighting. At the end, this gives you nice GI with the freedom to set and have nice dynamic shadows on objects you want to interact with. A quick example can be a lamp in a room. You can have a baked light to create the GI bounces and a dynamic light to get the shadows and a bit of volumetric for something you can interact with. Of course this method means no dynamic changes to the lighting. However, these days you have new methods to have GI even with dynamic lights like Screen Space Global Illumination (SSGI) or ray tracing, but if you are looking for a specific mood, baked lighting is still on top for good results combined with dynamic lights.