Artist development related questions.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Hey guys, I've been following along on what you are doing here, and while I know it's going to be a ton of work, I think it's a great idea. If anything to help give players the perspective from a dame dev point of view.
I've been working in video games since '99, starting at Atari, helped start Cryptic Studios, and most recently have scooted out of Sigil just before the whole implosion.
For a little credibility you can check my website here.
I'm now back at Cryptic and the Lead Character artist for Marvel. I can't offer any actual art, as my time is very limited, however if anyone has any questions at all, feel free to ask here.
Anything from the art tech pipelines, to Zbrush, to simple 2D sketches. I'll try to answer what I can.

[Vatoreus]

sounds pretty cool. I'll probably have some questions, especially as I get further into my classes (game art and design), so hope you don't mind if I pester ya too much. =P

[kollos]

texturing tips and tricks are always welcome =P
think only color and alpha maps work with our engine

current orc... not really statisfying yet

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Is there a poly limit you guys are shooting for? Because your orc could be beefed up considerably. What you have there is lower than even RTS standards. =)
Most MMOs coming down the pipe are aiming at 5-7k per character. Even just hitting meshsmooth or whatever program your usings equivalent will help that orc a lot.

The textures are a decent start. One way to get a good quick start to texturing is to take a photo and modify it via Photoshop. Google Image is my best friend.
Grab a shot of some steel breastplate, and paste it on there. Even if your end result is 100% different than what picture you have, it will still give you the basic structure, and color tones needed. Like most people don't realize stainless steel has green and blue hues in it. Starting with a photo and just smearing it all around will really help your color applications.
Also, start all textures at huge resolutions, like 1024x1024. You can always downsize, and detailing in larger sizes and reducing looks much MUCH better than trying to draw details on a 256.

[Laerazi]

I would focus more on the fake lighting/shadow, in regards to the musculature of the orc, than the actual texture of the skin, which it looks like you're doing. Especially with such a low polygon model, you want to make it look smoother.

[Faille]

Great to see someone who works in the industry willing to help us out. Hopefully we can get more involved as well!

I do have a couple of questions hopefully you can answer.

First, the work flow I've got as far as art goes, is, Designer comes up with what he wants, say a church. Provides any specific details he wants to have included. The concept artists then uses that description to provide sketchs of the church, which can then be used by the modeler to actually create the item. Is this an efficient method of working and getting the art created?


Secondly. Art Direction. How do we do it?!
Seriously, ignoring the the fact we don't have enough artists, the ones we do have are doing some great work, but how do get an overall art style happening. I guess having an Art Director would be a good first step, but no idea how to find such a person.

[kollos]

what concept artists?
(we really could use some, at least one)

as for art direction, i guess we need to write up some sort of styleguide.
what kind of look do we want to go for, what level of detail, polygon count, texturing style, color palette, mood, etc. maybe put in som examples for reference.

[beepbeepbeep]

You definitely need to lay out some idea of the game world you are trying to create, and the "feel". Gritty and real? Utterly fantastic and lighthearted? What's the history of the world, what themes does it contain, who are the major inhabitants?

Tolkein started with a world and wrote a story that occurred in it. You might want to try the same, to a lesser degree.

I might take a crack at some concept art but I would need a comprehensive idea of what you were shooting for.

[Laerazi]

Would it be possible to post art requests so that potential artists can give it a go? I'd like to try some concept art, but I don't even know what needs to be done; and I don't think I can fully commit to saying I'm going to be able to do a ton of it.

For instance, if you want a creature made, post it in some threads like "Art Request: NPCs", and detail what it is you want; so people can actually start coming up with stuff on their own. It's not a formal way of doing it obviously, more FFA atm, but I would like to know how well it turns out for myself.

I might take a crack at some concept art but I would need a comprehensive idea of what you were shooting for.

I'm in the same boat, really.

[kollos]

as for as theme, story and the likes, you should take a look at the wiki, it has zone descriptions and background lore and that kind of stuff.
NewbieWorld - UberWorlds Development Wiki
NewbieWorldLore - UberWorlds Development Wiki

heres a little summary from the wiki:

Zone connections

Dungeon 2 <--> Outdoor 2 <--> Village <--> Outdoor 1 <--> Dungeon 1


[edit] Village

Newbie World - Village

Name: Silversage

Zone Name: village

Silversage is the village that represents home for players. It will be where new players start off from and where they come back to, to sell, repair, complete quests, train new spells.

It is not designed to be a combat zone so the availability of mobs will be limited, and players should really look to venture outside by the time they hit level 2.


Levels: 1-10
[edit] Outdoor 1

Newbie World - Outdoor 1

Name: The Silver Plateau

Zone Name: outdoor1

Description: The mountains surrounding the human village are filled with goblins and orcs fighting to rule the land and keep possession of the rich silver mine located atop the mountain; The humans however, have plans to recover it in order to ban the undead from these lands by crafting powerful silver weapons.

Levels: 2-6

Setting: Mountain setting with a mix of rock, snow and grass. Many height variations and 3 separated plains to host the 3 factions.
[edit] Dungeon 1

Newbie World - Silver Mine

Name: The Silver Mine

Zone Name: silvermine

Description : Silver mine. A source of weapons that are extra effective against the undead, but guarded by orcs and goblins who are doing the mining and forging.

Levels: 2-6

Setting: 'The Silver Mine' is at the peak of a mountain. Sent in search of some work hoping to make some decent coin. Defending against the northern pass attacks you'll soon find there is more going on here than you planned.
[edit] Outdoor 2

Newbie World - Outdoor 2

Name: TBD

Zone Name: outdoor2

Description: TBD

Levels: 4-8


[edit] Dungeon 2

Newbie World - Dungeon 2

Name: TBD

Zone Name: manor

Decription : TBD

Levels: 6-10

if you want to get involved, i reccomend joining the irc channel, and reading the wiki, we are using dotproject/forum and not this forum for internal organisation. some of the needed things are listed there, but the best way would be directly talking to the zone designers in irc about what they have in mind

[darksensei]

Originally Posted by kollos

what concept artists?
(we really could use some, at least one)

as for art direction, i guess we need to write up some sort of styleguide.
what kind of look do we want to go for, what level of detail, polygon count, texturing style, color palette, mood, etc. maybe put in som examples for reference.

This would help a ton.

[Faille]

I'm all for having a guide like you've described, but I'm also pretty sure its going to take a decent artist, or someone with experience in art production, to write one. That would be almost the same as having an art director I think.

If anyone wants to step up and give the job a go, and are able to dedicate adequate amount of time doing it, then let me or brain know and we'll work on setting it up.