For this game, artists were given a theme, like "Deserted Island", or "Enchanted Forest" and told to create a cool concept for it. The themes I was given were "Dark Alley", "Quiet Aquarium", and "Burning Foundry". Once a concept piece was created and callouts for specific details made (mine went on pages and pages...egh), it was handed of to the 3D guys, who took that hot mess and turned it into a beautiful 3D background. Then, it was handed back to us, where we painted over it, taking it to it's finished look. I tried to keep mine from looking too obviously 3D...with varying success.
The first one I did was the "Dark Alley". For this theme, they wanted it grim and noir-esque, as well as being "timeless". So for this one I worked with Craig K. to create a really cool, contrasty light set up, kept the buildings' architectural detail to early mid-century, and kept "modern" details (like spray paint and posters plastered on the wall) nondescript and ambiguous.
After that came the "Quiet Aquarium". For this level, they wanted a peaceful hallway with tanks on either side, floor littered with treasure. And I'm like "EW NO THAT'S UGLY", so I tried out a couple ideas and eventually settled on the submerged room, dome-roofed look. A lot of architectural detail went into this piece (like the nautical compass flooring, and the fish sculptures at the bottom of the structural pillars) that ended up unseen because of furniture in the way (and Chris C. did such an awesome job of modeling them too...).
The last theme I did was the "Burning Foundry", which is my favorite. For this piece, they wanted something that was imposing and not modern, so I went with a Brick Gothic style blended with 1850's Federal look. The brick work stays more true to the Federal style, while a lot of the iron work in the support structure takes on the classic arched, gothic look. Not that you can really see a lot of it because of the composition, BUT IT'S ALL THERE I ASSURE YOU. As for the actual equipment, it's a lot of bastardized rule-of-cool stuff (with some helpful suggestions from Craig!). Don't even ask me what's going on with those furnaces.
