Week 1 - Ideas and reference

To begin my project, I had to choose between 3 game franchises to base my environment on: Warhammer 40k, Diablo or Baldurs Gate. I wanted to push myself for this project and differ from the previous projects I had already worked on. My previous projects had been predominantly sci-fi assets which I have got very used to modelling and are not as challenging for me any more. For this reason, I decided not to do Warhammer 40k due to the large amount of sci-fi features which would not push me to create my best work as much as Diablo or Baldurs gate.

After searching through gameplays of both games, beauty shots of the environments, assets and textures they used, I decided to choose Diablo to base my game on. In my opinion, Diablo had the most potential for a complex modular kit with a good mix of hard surface and organic shapes.

The software I am most comfortable in is Maya, but still want to push myself to be better at ZBrush to create organic shapes within the environment.

Furthermore, Diablo is a good environment to learn trim sheets with, due to the tiled castle floors and repeating bricks which make up the stone walls.

To begin my project, I created a mood board using PureRef with my favourite beauty renders from the game. I found these renders from the "Blizzard Entertainment Diablo IV — Environment Art Blast" article on ArtStation Magazine (Wade, 2023).

I chose scenes that had a large amount of physical structure which I could build into my environment. I came to the conclusion that my scene would be an interior to include the most amount of detail as possible and showcase my architectural modelling within the walls and tiles of my modular kit.

I continued my research on this page and was interested by examples of textures used in the game, as well as assets which are placed within the scenes.

I chose a mix of organic and hard surface assets to focus on, in order to push my environment to a higher potential. Diablo also makes use of this mix of hard surface and organic assets, more so than Warhammer 40k or Baldurs Gate.

The final references I took from this website was a mood board of specific environments within the game which I may take inspiration from. My goal is to make my environment fit into these scenes.

This may change over development but I have chosen these scenes to start due to their clear modular kit while still implementing a range of materials and hero assets.

The architecture of the scenes gives an abandoned dungeon vibe with dark passageways and hidden details.

Due to the project being in a gothic style, I researched gothic architecture to gain some inspiration for the type of structures I will be modelling. I created a mood board with these images to gain some initial understanding for the main shapes and materials I will be creating.

Bibliography:

Wade, D. (2023). Blizzard Entertainment Diablo IV — Environment Art Blast. [online] ArtStation Magazine. Available at: https://magazine.artstation.com/2023/07/blizzard-entertainment-diablo-iv-environment-art-blast/.