Projects

“Lighting here invites a warm, welcoming aesthetic. As comforting fireside glows meet the setting sun. Ambient Occlusion sets objects solidly in the scene. Elongated shadows bring visual interest as bounce light fills the darkest of spaces.

Lighting Artists Frank Lalonde and Sandrine Neill are wonderful at finding great balance between high quality aesthetics, performance, and gameplay needs.”

- Marisa Erven

A closer view of a corner of the level. The balcony overhang is a fun place to explore in the space, as the lanterns and glowing chest guide the eye. There is a thoughtfulness to the placement of props and decor.

In the game, placeholder elements are present to support gameplay, but are also intended to be replaced with thematic assets later in production One example of this is the treasure “chest” container concept.

“For Art Direction, I provided Victorian Glass Terrariums as a reference and inspiration. Anneliese took that idea and ran with it beautifully, combining elements of architecture, terrariums, and a stylized fantasy look to the metalwork.

Pushing the idea MORE conceptually adds uniqueness. It also distinguishes from the original default chest. This approach delivers a more memorable and iconic takeaway for players in-game.”

- Marisa Erven

For this location, foliage and dramatic lighting is key to bringing a serene, peaceful aesthetic. Sarah did an absolutely amazing job with the creation of diverse foliage types, with Yuliia also helping to ensure a variety of sizes and shapes across all content.

Mandy visualized the water and waterfall VFX with a highly stylized technique with a nod to traditional 2D Animation. The multi-layered approach for waterfall sections, and how they organically break over the rock formations really enhances the feel of the space. Added layered textural splashes and ripples combined with a customized depth treatments really enhanced the dimensionality.

“Each area has a definitive aesthetic and voice that Anneliese Mak brings forward with quality and consistency. I always have confidence that Anneliese will take asks and bring them to life in a way that honors both the location AND vibe.”

“One example of this is visual language around the Cinematic Splash Screen art, graffiti decals, and stylized street signs Anneliese created for a specific location.

As the project expands, I look to grow the consistency of voice and artistic application. This is a great example of how that is done successfully - while also letting each item be unique in its own right.”

- Marisa Erven

“Jin made an incredible spatial tearing visual as a tiny part of a different concept art ask.

Once I saw it, I knew it had potential for becoming THE defining visual for distinctive world reveals. I asked Jin to create a sequential concept series to focus on and push the idea more boldly, to reveal new worlds.

From there, our amazing VFX Lead, Mandy Morland, elevated it in-engine further to become one of the most poignant defining reveals of the whole game.”

- Marisa Erven

A collaborative process to help visually tighten the scenes for consistency and refinement is the paint-over process for level block-ins.

This started initially at level block-ins done by Kris, then Kass took to environment art block-ins. Often there would also be Level Greybox Renders and Gameplay Area Redlines from Yuliia with notes, reference and requests from AD, as well as any added Gameplay Level Q&As from Kris or Keith.

Once the paint-over is underway, Jin provides iterations based on AD notes to achieve the next visual goal for the space. This can focus on art ask callouts like enhancing texture path layering or modifying the location of string lights and lanterns to enhance parallax in gameplay further. Some asks are faster to iterate visually through concepts. Both Jin and Kass helped bring this 2D refinement process to life at Timbre!

This is a preliminary level concept block-in using aspects of similar architecture from other regions but with added layers of an outdoor park region combined with aspects of the mountainside, freshly thawing from the cold season.

” When artists are working on the designs for new locations, there’s always a want from my lens to push not only the style itself, but also to bring little spontaneous moments of joy to the player.

Asking:
What can we add to enhance the experience?
What does a moment of joy mean in this location?

For this particular environment, the magical glowing cavern adds a bit of mystery and intrigue for players that like to explore and find special takeaways.”

- Marisa

In this world, there are areas where the veil between universes is thinner. A goal for the Liminal Spaces is to solidify a visual language around that concept.

The project has an existing visual language for universe, but not as much one that represented a 1:1 transitional space between worlds. By finding the voice of this approach, we unlock added gameplay functionality as well as an enhanced visual connection to story moments in time.

“As an AD the goal is to explore concepts around visualizing the invisible. Bringing references of string theory and quantum physics to light. Spinning it with a magical fantasy approach. Creating a visual language ruleset that works within the construct of the existing IP, while adding layers of mystery and intrigue.”

— Marisa Erven

Jin visualized what these spaces look like as that fabric of time starts to shift and flux. These are preliminary interior concepts of what that may look like, before the area fully revealed the other world tethered to it. This idea continued to grow and shift over time, ultimately being a core visual language for transitional spaces.

Once we had some exterior effects of interest, the focus shifted to adding a Universe VFX spatial layer over top, allowing for added visual interest and clean transitions to the new environment. This “bridging” treatment ended up further informing the Secret Spaces concept art shown above.

”Of Lucia’s thumbs, the top #1 really stands out. Lucia took it forward to another level once it hit the color and light blocking stage. It draws the eye through the scene with overlapping arcs and an open centralized walkway. Moving forward, Lucia excelled at focusing on defining textural differences of areas in the flooring. Lucia also incorporated great natural lighting and a central focus area for Bella at the end.

The thread treatments draping throughout the scene really accentuate the woven aesthetic and bring nice contrast to the surrounding hard natural surfacing. It also brings a fluidity to space, making it feel as if there is a “threaded waterfall” from the flooring to the tensile layers below. The colors also tie into Bella’s aesthetic fantastically, intentionally reinforcing the connection from environment to character!”

- Marisa Erven

“The approach is more 3D and pure shape language forward as a concept render base, to build up to final output. The thumbnails really show a lot of nice contrast that lends well for the final output!

There was a lot of experimentation around organic repeat shape language, as well as spatial depth for the content from foreground to background.

It also was important to be attentive to the camera, due to the gameplay type and angle the flooring and roof so that they would be visible from game camera view, then show more dynamically during cinematic sequences. References provided helped indicate also how this can be approached to ensure gameplay and visual fidelity.

For the materials, there is a focus on keeping more natural than metallic, so there were some iteration rounds and references provided to help support this. The spacious, mysterious feel and lots of dynamic light and shadow shapes in this environment really were quite neat to observe. The shell itself ended up feeling organic, but also reminiscent of gothic architectural elements due to height and elongation.”

— Marisa Erven

As this piece moved forward, there was a want to simplify and open up the shapes and texture areas. For example, where the glass had a craquelure pattern, remove to simplify and let in more light. Keeping primary light and dark contrast value areas’ focus aimed towards the back entry was important also. Tightening focus and detail to where Bella resides helps clarify the scene as well.

The original went through a few rounds of notes and brief paint-overs, with a focus on adding gestalt to clarify and simplify the visual statements overall for enhanced focus. From there, the focus shifted to material selection from metallics to a more natural, unique and identifiable visual aesthetic.

For the project, we are trying to keep towards more natural than man-made materials relating to the shared hub space. In that, we stepped away from metallics and go towards wood/shell/etc.
This is a first past example of that revised look. There were natural materials refs provided to guide the look to a more focused outcome that fits with the environment and lore preferences.

This is a rough composite of some materials and surface types integrated, from an art direction lens. The goal was to get more duality in tones (contrast between wood and shell/chitin) and also have inlay of actual shell into some of the beams.

The duality of the environment shows a balance of contrast of worlds, as well as Bella’s pertinent role in it all. The elegance here is specifically for Bella’s hall. It was not only to be more readily visible, but also so Bella can concentrate and have solace amongst the buzz of the hub “hive”, whereas other areas would have vendors, stalls, and the hustle and bustle of a centralized hub.

This minigame came with an opportunity to PUSH aesthetically. To find the fun visually in an intentionally over-the-top way.

A goal for this was to bring a new level of immersion to the player. That brings the opportunity to push the EXTRA factor. Reference was provided of theatrical set designs, elevated carnival styles, and immersive spaces.

That exploration added overhead lighting, animating light colors, moving flags, a team-based score system, and rocket launch win state! It truly was a collaborative effort with aspects originating from core gameplay and narrative in addition.

“The minigame designs were such a fun visual design departure.

From an Art Direction standpoint, you can allude to the connected environments - but really push and pull the scale and contrast further.

That and the added layers of celebration and multi-state play visual language really created a fantastic monumental occasion in a bite-sized moment of joy!”

— Marisa Erven