{"id":468,"date":"2018-02-15T02:06:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T10:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamesman.com\/secure\/?page_id=468"},"modified":"2018-02-19T01:14:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T09:14:16","slug":"knack-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/jamesman.com\/secure\/knack-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Knack 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project Date:<\/strong> 2017
\nCreated with:<\/strong> ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Photoshop, & JStudios\u00a0Proprietary Engine
\nResponsibilities:<\/strong> Environment Lead, Creating natural vistas and non-gameplay environments for cinematics, Hero props for cinematics, In-house outsourcing direction<\/p>\n

Environment Breakdowns:<\/strong> I was responsible for creating cinematic environments, which typically had to wrap around, extend, or otherwise interact with existing level art from JStudio’s in-house team.\u00a0 This process typically started with getting the level art from that team, creating a very, very optimized export that our animation team used, and then blocking out the artwork.\u00a0 Depending on the importance and time sensitivity of a cinematic environment, that blockout would either get sent to outsourcing (where they would bring the environment to 75% completion and then I would finalize them) or I would take the blockout and begin to create final art on top of it.\u00a0 Most of the individual rocks, trees, and structures were created by JStudio’s team, but the large scale terrain, mountains, and layout of the natural landscapes were done by me.\u00a0 Some of the environments didn’t exist at all (like Monky\u00a0City or Control Center Island, for instance) and were built entirely by me from blockout to finalization.<\/p>\n

Prop Breakdowns:\u00a0<\/strong>Most of what came in from outsourcing worked well enough, but occasionally there were props that had to hold up to higher scrutiny, and those were my responsibility.\u00a0 For those props I typically started in 3ds Max, creating blockouts\u00a0for animation to use.\u00a0 Then I would sculpt the blockouts\u00a0in ZBrush until they had a nice finish, and finally, put them through the standard asset creation pipeline.\u00a0 JStudio’s\u00a0engine created interesting challenges as the shaders available to work with were somewhat limited and new shaders weren’t an option.\u00a0 The end results, however, present\u00a0well in the style of the game.<\/p>\n