2006 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

Concept Art

October 10, 2006: EA Concept Art Team Talk Superman Returns Videogame

CGSociety.org has published an article which takes a close look at the Concept Art team working at Electronic Arts. Here's a portion of the article which examines the team's work on "Superman Returns: The Videogame"...

    One environment - of a twister - illustrated what the team calls a "memorable moment." "When we talk about moments, it's staging a certain event or a certain type of game play - the action shots," says Straub. "The illustrations showed how the big twister would look like when it comes down, when it's far away, in the city, and from inside the twister. When the twister comes in, the lighting changes, the color palette changes. It creates a pea green effect."

    Concept Art To illustrate another memorable moment, a battle between Superman and Metallo, the artists created a drawing of the metal villain reaching for Superman who is stretching up out of Metallo's grasp. The illustration encapsulated palette, lighting, and even the surface texture that would be rendered; it was a memorable moment and also a visual target."

    Concept Art The artists created that image in Photoshop by painting over 3D geometry built in Maya. For other images they sometimes use Corel's Painter. Some find Painter best for character work and Photoshop best for environments because of the layers. They find that working in the computer makes iterations quicker - it's easier to change the lighting and shift the color palette.

    Character design for Superman began with ideas and descriptions from Lorenz, the art director, and the games' producer. Because the artists were working with a licensed property, they had to re-imagine the mythology to keep it fresh and dynamic without upsetting the license holder. All told, they sketched hundreds of characters, preexisting characters from the Superman mythology, and new villains.

Read the complete article at the CGSociety website.



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