Search the Community

Hello everyone. My name is Rob Nesler, and I am the Art Director on Project Eternity. I've been told I'm a potty-mouth, but since this is a public and safe (PG-ish) space, I will do what I can to control my bad words in this: FIRST ART UPDATE. There will be many more, hopefully with some visual candy for you guys, if I f’n feel like it, or if Fearg’ f’n makes me. Right now, my intent is to bring you up to speed on what we’ve been doing for the last several weeks. It’s called: laying the groundwork; building the foundation, or doing the nitty-gritty. Often, when starting a project, the artists and I just want to start drawing sh-ssstuff. Especially with contracted 3D games, we have a basic idea of the world we’re making, an initial list of some of the things in it, the basic parameters for making assets, and so we just get started. With Project Eternity, we are starting the development of a rich storied RPG from scratch, zilch, nada. Oh, and we rendered that really cool image for you all at update #20, and so we felt we could take a step back--Waayyy back. We are stepping back some years in visual “perspective”: to a fixed isometric view--so, NO “perspective”--of an essentially two-dimensional world. The traversable environment is pre-rendered to a high degree of realism, but we’re using a modern 3D game engine: Unity, for 3D characters, creatures, effects and animated props to be rendered in real-time and to assemble it all together, seamlessly. With this decision we’ve opened up a whole kit and caboodle of possibilities in terms of visual fidelity, occlusion, lighting, effects, and physics. At the same time, we’ve created some immediate technical problems that needed to be solved, before we could all go out and start making sh...‘er...stuff. If you’ve been reading/watching Josh’s updates, you must understand that we are creating a brand new yet substantially familiar RPG experience essentially out of thin air, complete with a fully realized fantasy world, including new rules, new races, new places, new nations, new lore, new creatures, new story, new characters, a whole new combat system, with specific armor and weapon types, new this, new that, and a whole bunch of other new stuff--really we’re creating everything from nothing but what spews forth from Josh’s blazing fingers and angelic vocal cords. “How does that work?” you ask. Well, I’ll tell you: what happens is we all sit around a fire, in a far off and desolate wilderness, as he chants: what things were, and are, and what will be and sometimes why. We listen, we ask questions, and we discuss. We in turn, propose thoughts and ideas that are considered, further discussed, sometimes dismissed, but also sometimes gathered up and swirled into the glowing embers of this primordial glowing emergent world that is floating--NO!...LEAPING!!--out of the creative fuel, breath of air, and heat of our collaborative works. As well, we’ve decided to abandon the application we would normally use to create everything, for a supposedly-more-popular-more-capable app, and nobody really knows how to use it... ...BOOM! Yep, I just wrote and you just read THAT!... ...So, with our new software: Maya (the old software was Softimage) we’ve been making test worlds--we call them gray boxes. We’ve been making test characters--we call them gray characters. We’ve been giving them gray animation, we’ve been giving them gray (actually sometimes white, we’ll make some black ones too, we’re not racist) weapons, and we’ve been inserting them into our prototype worlds to prove to ourselves and you, that we know what we’re doing, and to lay the groundwork for expanding these vacant golems into player and non-player characters, that can interact with the world and other characters in a more meaningful and varied way--you know: picking up stuff, and hitting others with it, and taking their stuff and putting it on, or selling it--oh yes, and with color! Just kidding! Haven’t you been reading what I’m writing: this game is going to be DEEEEP! So what the hell have art people been doing?? Character Team: We have a very talented lead character artist, named Dimitri, and yep, he’s Russian, but he doesn’t speak it so well anymore--his mother is not happy about it, more on that later. In addition to a tremendous amount of early help getting basic traversable geometry, with a rendered scene that occludes 3D characters when they walk behind things (in essentially a 2D world--remember!) he’s been establishing the basis for weapon, armor and equipment attachment on our player characters, with Adam. As part of that he has to write documents. Booo!!! Documents Buh-LOWW! Our other Character Artist; James is from China, but says he's from Fresno. He is essentially Dimitri's slave and willingly does whatever he’s told to do, because he doesn’t have to write documents. I sometimes give James direction, but I’m pretty certain that Dimitri tells him to ignore me immediately after I’ve left their office. Remember Dimitri is Russian, so he’s a little controlling, very direct and has high expectations. This isn’t a problem, however, because a) it’s his job and b) it just so happens that James is pretty good and making characters. He made our first character Edair, who can be seen running around with a morning star flail the size of a medicine ball--not his fault. He seems to know Maya better than Dimitri, but let’s his boss learn the hard way--keeping his ear buds in, pumping up the volume, and modeling and texturing his cares away. He’s making gray weapons now. For some reason Dimitri speaks Russian expletives perfectly. Mark is our Lead Animator, and he knows his sh-tuff, but he made the Medicine ball. Needless to say, he will not be asked to make any more weapons. No no, it just so happens, that he was making it so he could test physics on weapons. So, it’s all good--we don’t care what things look like right now, we care about making things that matter, and making them right. Lately Mark has been testing cloth physics on our characters, as well as physics on weapons, and attachments. Prior to that he was building a basic set of traversal animations and getting them into the game. Crucial. Antonio is our Technical Animator. He makes rigs, writes scripts that make rigs, and rigs the rigs. It’s all very technical. You wouldn’t understand. He’s a professional. Polina is our concept artist, and is the only one really making pretty pictures, and you've seen a lot of her work, already. Kien is currently on loan to Project New York, aka. The Stick of Truth. Don't worry, they are paying for him. We use code names for our projects, because we’re professionals. Project Eternity (also a code name) is Project Trenton. BOOM! Yep, you got it! And nope! I’m not gonna tell you any more about that.Environment Artists:Sean is making a dungeon! He’s been working with our programmers to come up with the correct way to build a massive and awesome level so that we can do all we need to do, as big as we need to do it, and in as little time as we can do it in. Again, crucial. Minecraft is his best friend. Hector, our Lead Environment Artist is on a sabbatical. Yes! we get those here, again, because we’re professionals and only sometimes. Nobody knows why or how, but we're certain it's painful. And boy! is he in for a surprise when he gets back; he loves Softimage. People on sabbatical don't get images of their work posted. Okay, so that’s it. Oh, what about me? What the hell have I been doing all this time? That’s a really good question. Aside from running around and keeping everybody busy and doing meetings and stuff, and writing this update, I've been developing a style guide which involves a bunch of meetings and discussions, and I've been drawing a few things, which I will show, if I'm allowed, in the next art update. Rob Out! Update by Rob Nesler

I mentioned in the P.E. Kickstarter threads that my husband is an artist and crafter RL, at what you'd call a 'Master' level. I think I should back that boast up... This is a custom made 5-Bottle winechest with an infinity celtic knot on the top. I wanted to show off his amazing work to y'all... BTW - these are hand-made to order and Yes, you can buy one if you're interested by PMing me... Also if anyone at Obsidian wants to buy one with a company logo engraved, you're welcome to PM me too. :D

Today we have a meet the developer update with Dimitri Berman, Lead Character Artist on Project Eternity. We are planning for a design update next week, and then we will be going on hiatus for two weeks due to the holiday break! Q: Hi Dimitri! What do you do on the Project Eternity team? A: Hi everyone! I make sure all characters and creatures meet our set quality bar as they enter the game, this includes creation of high poly and low poly models, textures and materials, and occasional skinning and rigging. I work closely with animators, programmers, and designers to make sure our stuff looks and behaves as best it can, and also prototype new systems if we find something particularly cool we can do that the players will enjoy seeing. Occasionally I will jump over and help out the environment guys if they need help with complex set pieces. Q: What are you currently working on today? A: Today we're doing a couple of things. Firstly, we're getting our first weapons into the game, properly equipped by characters. And oh boy, there are going to be a lot of weapons, you can thank Josh for that! And then I am working with Antonio, our character TD to prototype the character rigs for other playable races. Different races in Eternity will be different scales and this poses various challenges to making their equipment and animations. Q: What's your typical work day like on Project Eternity? A: Usually when I get in I make a cup of coffee. And then another. Then I usually Facebook until it is lunch-time. After lunch I take to Twitter like a madman, Pinterest and Instagram my fingers off, and then after more Facebook it is time to go home! In all seriousness, I usually check my work email, and get to work on our current goal. Right now we are not creating content, we are figuring out our pipeline for building every single thing in the game, so when the time comes to creating art (during Production), we can focus on the art itself and not fighting technology to make it all work. RPG's are really complex especially when it comes to characters and there are a lot of things we always keep track of, so players in the end can have a wonderful, bug-free experience. Q: What are you most looking forward to on Project Eternity? A: It's exciting that it is a brand new IP, which allows us to put creativity into characters and art that we would normally not be able to do due to IP constraints. Eternity is also going to be a really big world, with lots of stuff in it - it is going to be rewarding in creating so much art for our fans. Q: What other projects have you worked on at Obsidian? A: I have worked on Neverwinter Nights 2, its expansions, Dungeon Siege 3, and sadly a couple of cancelled projects. Aliens 4EVER. Q: Where do you like to eat for lunch? A: Southern California has cuisine from everywhere, so I like to mix it up, be it Thai, sushi, or In-n-Out. But I think I eat more Mexican food than any other. It all started with me living in New Mexico for 10 years and then moving to San Diego. Q: What do you like to do when you aren't making art? A: What? Q: Who's your favorite artist? A: I would say HR Giger and Zdzislaw Beksinski are two of my all-time faves. Q: And your favorite Ninja Turtle? A: Leonardo, hands down. He is the true ninja. Q: What about Rafael? A: I find his equipment lacking. Q: What's your favorite game? A: Oh god, I don't know where to begin. There are tons of good games, I don't know if I have a favorite. I've always been a PC guy, and I grew up on first person shooters (Dooms, Quakes, ROTT's), RTS games, and of course old fashioned RPG's. I would play Eye of the Beholder non-stop, drawing out my own map by hand because minimaps weren't invented back then. But with games like Shadow of the Colossus, Dark Souls, and Journey, there are jewels in the modern console world that I really, really enjoy. Q: And finally what's the best brand of Vodka? A: Vodka is vodka, can't go wrong. I've heard about these two being good, but I've yet to try them - пять озер or зеленая марка (Five Lakes, supposedly Siberian, and Green Mark) . Honestly lately I've been drinking Absinthe. Thanks Dimitri! If you have any questions for Dimitri post them in this thread!

Hi! Wanted to first say what an amazing piece of art. Good job. It is very beautiful. I've looked at it with a zooming glass, just because I appreciate the detail you managed to capture half a face in the waterfall as well, an angry God perhaps? Maybe even a statue in the waterfall which the water runs off from? No matter. The rock just next to the boat looks like a bearded man's head as well. Has the thought struck you about one big world? One giant canvas? How intriguing does it seem versus the workload it naturally presents? Out of the scope or possibly a reality? A sandbox painting. There'd be prestige in it, no doubt. But is it something anyone would like to touch or even work with? Is it easier to create split areas instead of having a large painting?

I'm not sure if there is going to be zooming or not, but I had an idea that sort of involved that. As we know, the backgrounds in PE are going to be prerendered and our models are going to be 3D. However, the prerendered backgrounds are going to be first modeled in 3D. That allows the artists to play with changing the perspectives whenever we are in "smaller rooms." I believe JSawyer talked about changing the angles shown whenever the party would be in a building, but I think this can be taken further. Imagine this tomb (and many similar "small rooms" in BG2.) Now imagine if the camera was changed, and the room was zoomed in. The room would feel a lot bigger, and more could be done within the room. Imagine that you could search a corner of the room. You could change the feel of the experience, by just changing the angling and the zooming of the camera.You can see the tomb and the lich that comes out of it a little better. That can make for a more terrifying experience. It's more up-close and personal. Of course, it would still be isometric and not 1st person. Now, perhaps the narrative sequence requires a more "close" feel. Perhaps, an NPC is sharing a secret with you in this room. But now you can see the room a little better. Imagine how the atmosphere of this room could be changed just by zooming in a little and changing the angle of the camera. Imagine meeting in a small room, lit only by a singular candle. Your party shifting in their gear and a singular individual talking to you by that candle-light. "Coo! Changes the atmosphere quick as ye blink!"

This is a minor suggestion to embellish and give a deeper dimension to characters and companions and also making players get more art related to the game. Since we will be playing this game for lots of hours and my characters will probably face months or even years in "game hour", i would like the possibility to make them register their journeys and i could get those registrations. This could be a very funny way and a great excuse to players to get fine desktop wallpaper, epic poems, cool songs, all made by the great artists that will be part of the making of Project Eternity. We could get JPGs with sketches of monsters, NPCs, simplified 1 minute versions of the soundtrack, poems and epics written in text... Instead of making us go to Obsidian forum to get these pieces of art from PE staff (whenever available), we could get those inside the game: "In the village in Storm Mountain Peak, after reaching the temple belvedere, you character can get an amazing painting from INSERT ARTIST NAME" These could be done with paintings, sketches, poems, chanting, songs... What exactly I am talking about: Example 1: After a major victory in a hard battle, my companion could say "This battle inspired me, i'll write a song about it this night", and your character could enforce or reject that artistic inspiration. Example 2: As reaching a completely remote place or a never seen before dragon, the talented priest wants to paint or draw the scenario to show to his church. Again, a dialog comes and you can enforce or reject that "We have no time for that now". Example 3: After 3 months of journeys together, the bard could make a poem about your travels "The Ballad of My Character". Example 4: The druid, inspired by the greatest forest he has ever been, plays a new tune in his flute to express that happiness. Example 5: The "exotic" barbarian that recently joined the group, excited about being part of our part, grabs his awesome tabla and makes fine rhythms with it. ****

... I wonder if I detect the hand of someone behind the (here comes the geekery) fantastic 3rd Edition D&D Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book? Rob Lazzaretti or Dennis Kauth or someone like that? That particular book is probably one of the best role-playing supplements ever produced, and it's great that Eternity already carries some of the flavour and hallmarks of quality that I associate with it. Not just in the maps, but in a lot of the concept art that's coming out as well. Anyone else see the similarity? Same cartographer at work? Forgotten Realms 3rd Edition map (very big image file): http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/wd_maps/FRposterLarge_150.jpg Project Eternity map (very small image file): http://www.primagames.com/media/images/news/Map_jpg_436x242_crop_upscale_q85.jpg

It would be amazing if you could bring back these two awesome artists to do the character portraits and other graphics: Justin Sweet Vance Kovacs They did a fantastic job on the previous Black Isle games and their art contributed A LOT to the general mood and immersion of the setting. Eventually you can create a stretch goal to get these two guys involved in the project. Thank you! some examples of their artwork: Vance Kovacs: Justin Sweet: