Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/57248
Special Gaming Section custom sorting methods that allowed the art- ists to go in and tweak the cards, to make sure all the overlapping sheets interacted with one another. Also, they employed translucency lighting models that aggregated the effect of those layers into a result that is very soft. "So rather than have all these overlapping polygons fighting with each other, which is a very com- mon result in previous generations of games, in Gears of War 3, we were able to achieve a more cohesive look that is more realistic for the hair," says Johnson. The stubble on the characters' faces, howev- er, was baked into the diffuse maps of the char- acters. For longer facial hair, like beards, the artists employed the same process as they did for the head hair. For the most part, though, the characters are relatively clean-shaven. much. "When he moved to Gears of War 3, the game takes place in the heat of summer, and we wanted to take off his bulky armor plates and expose his skin. Plus, we had new technology to take advantage of features like better hair, better skin shading, and better lighting," he says. "However, we still had to be careful. When you want to take a character that you consider the pillar and main focus of your franchise, you can't alienate people who are used to what he looks like. Yet, you still want to make a fresh experience for the player and show off the new features of the game. It was tricky to find that right balance for the old Marcus Fenix and the new one." Aside from the human characters, the title is filled with creatures—from Locust to Lam- bent. The Locust have some humanoid char- was influenced by that mood and the story arc. "It makes for a more believable environ- ment because how the characters interact with each other and how the gamer sees the world matches the emotion we are trying to elicit in those environments," says Johnson. "That is why everything feels a bit more cohesive and real because we put more emphasis on that kind of environmental design for Gears of War 3, and it absolutely paid off for us." Almost all the environments were built us- ing 3ds Max and textured in Adobe's Photo- shop. ZBrush was employed for damage passes and other organic work. As Johnson explains, artists would generate concept art for a given environment to establish a look and feel, and then would look at things like the infrastruc- ture—floors, walls, ceilings—and break those out from the concept art into a modular set. In short, they would determine which pieces could share resources or model data/textures, thereby freeing up space and time for the cre- ation of hero pieces that were custom-built and new to the game. "We share as many resources as possible so we aren't spending processing power to render the infrastructure of an environment. This allows us to create unique, over-the-top set pieces that are only possible using modular environmental design," Johnson adds. The game contains 15 environments, all The game includes creatures of all sorts. Some are bipedal and have humanoid characteristics, while others are more fantastical that pushed the imagination of the artists. The game also incorporates some simple physics simulations for things like ponytails, coattails, and dangling pieces of cloth—al- though this was used sparingly because the technology is performance-intensive. Neverthe- less, when there was an object that needed to react in real time to a physics simulation, the artists were able to rig it with a chain of bones and simulate the motion in real time on the characters. "A large portion of our characters have those physics assets integrated into them, whether it's a big, crazy flap of cloth or something subtle like a canteen that jiggles slightly when a char- acter runs," says Johnson. "We would use it when it gave us the biggest bang for our buck." So, which characters were the most difficult to deal with? Marcus Fenix, says Johnson, for the fact that the artists had done two previ- ous Gears iterations in which he didn't change acteristics, are bipedal, but are feral and more visceral than the humans. The Lambent are mutated forms of the Locust; they are found in many forms, from the more humanoid-like to giant, more fantastical monsters with long tentacles, and everything in between. "We have all manner of the traditional monster, some really over the top," notes Johnson. Construction Challenges Gears 3 's environment work started with con- cept art. According to Johnson, in this wrap-up to the series, they wanted to be more careful about the emotions of the player, originat- ing at the start of the story and continuing throughout the game. For each environment, the concept artists came up with color styles and concept art that reflected how the player was meant to feel in the particular settings. Once construction began, every decision vastly disparate—from the Locust dead lands full of bleached, exposed bones, to blow- ing sandstorms, areas overrun by glowing creatures, and more. "By far these environ- ments in Gear of War 3 are the most varied we have ever done here at Epic," says Johnson. "There's a broad range, and the look of the lighting, to the mood and feel that each en- vironment elicits, is amazing. I think it is the most mature effort we have made in creat- ing a space in a world that is fully realized. It makes the player feel grounded and like they belong in that world, as opposed to an out- sider looking in." The game opens on the deck of the aircraft carrier that has been overtaken with people es- caping the threat. The hardest environment to create was the so-called Raven's Nest, a small floating city made out of the carrier and two other ships, due to its mechanical and organic complexities. "We had to make it believable but figure out what the ships would look like in the Gears of War 3 universe, and what they would look like when taken over and the decks used to grow crops and the torpedo tubes used to raise chickens," says Johnson. When designing the environments, the art- ists like to start with places and objects that February/March 2012 21