In Herald, important cinematic moments will be painted in 2D and animated with parallax effects like you see at the end of our teaser trailer. Aleksander, the 2D art intern we had the pleasure to work with, gives us a breakdown of his progress with one of the shots he worked on for us.
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The process for the tower scene began with a quick 3d setup that I did according to the the initial plan sketches for the room. From there we played with the camera angle so we can have the exact shot we want.
Once the 3D part was ironed out, it was used as a base perspective and some slightly more detailed line-work was layered on top. Then followed the base colors. At this point the room was at its most basic form without any details.
The image was put on a hold and I started exploring designs for different elements like the wooden jali and the balcony arches based on Aïda’s vision.
After several iterations for each, we settled on the final designs.
The room was further detailed with these new additions, and it was also around this time when the supporting columns were swapped for ones that are more in line with South Asian architecture.
With further detailing of the scene we found that putting jali screens adjacent to the balcony opening was obstructing the view of the beautiful arch outside. So the exit had to be simplified, its arch redesigned and new jali had to be placed in different locations to solve that problem.
From that point on it was all about the small details and conveying that the place is actually inhabited. Small furniture, carpets and pillows were placed accordingly to fill and decorate the space. One last pass with a textured brush and some color adjustments and the piece was done!
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Characters and extra props will be added at a later point in time. Each element you see is on separate layers so we can create the illusion of depth and motion when we finally animate it. We hope you will enjoy it in the final game!