Hello everyone!We are happy to share with you our November Dev Log! This month, we will be talking about the Licer fortress as well as the process that we follow to create the backgrounds and the environment in the cinematic clips.
The Licer fortress was built a long time ago after the first Urlag invasion of Azur. It’s purpose was to defend the territories in the Zargos region and surroundings which are located in the southern mountains of Azur. This fortress was named after the Courine guardian Licer who, with his efforts and along other brave guardians, defended their lands resulting victorious.
Over time, this fortress became one of the emblems of Azur. Due to the fighting style of the guardian Licer, the Courines who train here are distinguished by their aggressive training and fighting style.
Throughout the game, we use short cinematic clips in order to capture that feeling and provide the context in the places of the game. Our artists follow the following process:
Step One - The Animatic of the scene is made.To present a prototype of the scene, an animatic is made. We create a simple storyboard version of our cinematic so we can iterate on the shot as well as the movement of the camera.
Step Two - Assembling the building structure. A decision is made on a style for the structure based on the animatic. In this case we changed the design to match the in-game asset. For this kind of animated scenes, the style match is always our main goal.
We build a 3D model of the fortress using blender which allows us to keep the perspective as well as use the model as a reference to create other environments if needed. We always try to keep the traditional workflow for our backgrounds, but for scenes like this one with a complex perspective, the 3D object is very useful.
Step Three - The first color pass is applied.In order to get the colors for the scene to match the style of the game, a first rough color pass is applied. During this preliminary phase, the scene is presented and it is later on edited as necessary to achieve the final result.
Step Four - Detailing and composition.During this step, we refine the details of the scenery. We also separate the scene in several layers that are needed for the animated version.
Step Five - VFX and Implementation.Once the composition is ready, the visual VFX for the scene is created and animated in Photoshop.
For example, we add simple animated loops that repeat over the scene to generate the rain sensation.
When putting everything together we make different combinations of fog effects and play around with the illumination until we achieve the desired result.
Step Six - Final Details.As the final step, we add into the clip any animated characters which will be featured on the scene.
It's always best to try them without any VFX to see if there are any corrections that have to be made.
(If you want to learn more on the art process for the animated characters you can have a look at our Dev Log #1 - “Welcome to the lands of Azur!”)
Finally, here is a short preview of how the clip will look inside the game:
Each cinematic scene for Greak is a challenge of its own in order to make them blend in as much as possible with the game, and we always solve each one of them in a creative way. It's a fun process!
We hope you enjoyed this month’s Dev Log! We look forward to sharing more of Greak’s development with you!
Thank you for your support and see you next month! : )
You can wishlist Greak: Memories of Azur on Steam now!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1311070/Greak_Memories_of_Azur/#:~:text=About%20This%20Game-,Greak%3A%20Memories%20of%20Azur%20is%20a%20side%20scrolling%20single%2Dplayer,escape%20from%20the%20Urlag%20invasion
