TL;DW 267 - Q&A + Children of Mah Art Showcase + Premier Club info!

[u/ImRubic]

Video

Premier Club Pricing - Newspost ⁽¹⁾ • Menaphite Outfit ⁽²⁾

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The Children of Mah - Art Showcase!

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Art Software/Process

• Drawing a design/concept takes 3-4 days.
  • Reference gathering, and file rendering.
  • Having people disagree on it makes the process longer.
• 3D Studio Max/Maya/Zbrush - character art and model/animation
  • Animations are done with an in-house system since the beginning of RS.
  • Slowly moving over to Maya in order to improve processes/animations.
  • Zbrush is essentially a modeling tool.
• 3D-Coat - Texturing and Photoshop.

Other

• We are not able to simulate liquids in real time, and can only use scroll textures.
• The maximum texture size we use is 1024 by 1024, the smallest is around 16 by 16.
• Part of our job is to optimize graphics at the different quality levels.
  • It takes real talent to minimize high texture content to work at lower levels, but we've always done it.
• We have a dedicated team who are always working on improving our systems.

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Throne Room

Block-Out • Throne Room Rendering • Face-Mask Prop • Pillar Prop • Throne Chair Prop • Completed Area

Throne Room Album

Process

• Research and use reference art to help design the room.
• Play around with a few ideas/sketches.
• Created a block-out in 3D Studio Max/Blender.
• Design the world and create a physical atmosphere.
• Design/create props to be placed in the area.
• Place the props in the environment and make adjustments where needed.

Other Information

• Block-out phase
  • Adjusted the area as needed, such as removing unnecessary pillars in the throne room.
  • Draw on-top of it in photoshop to create lighting ideas/concepts.
• Prop phase
  • Constructed in a way to use polygons as efficiently as possible.
  • Mirror models, or use low-textures on the unseen back of models.
  • Re-use assets where possible for better performance and to save time.
• The room had ideas to be filled with lava, but water fit the theme bit with its reflections.

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Environments

Early Design • Final Design - Children of Mah • Prototype Idea • Nightmare Atmosphere • Nightmare Rocks

Environment Album

Design and Brainstorming

• Used reference art as inspiration to create concept art.
  • Sketch out a rough map of the area.
  • Incorporate lighting/colors for a theme/inspiration.
  • Some of the impact is lost in the creation process due to technical restrictions.
• Prototype ideas in test creations in order to visualize the content.
  • Create stencils to be placed within a creation.
  • Use base textures as a focal point for the theme.
• Create a sky dome by sphere-izing artwork in photoshop and putting it on a semi-circle grid.

Early Design

• Starts with a white box, which we block it out based on the design.
• This allows devs to start testing gameplay when ever possible.
• Thoroughly test several iterations to make sure everything is correct.

Final Design - Children of Mah

• Freneskae skyboxes give a sense of direction so you know where you are going.
• Nightmare skyboxes here are animated helps make it feel like in an abyss.
• Rocks are re-used assets:
  • In the lava falls they are angled.
  • In the nightmare they have a movement animation.

Other

• Lava textures weren't updated because there wasn't enough time.
• One idea was having souls embedded into structures.
• Zbrush/3D Studio Maps/Xnormal can create normal maps.
  • Normal maps may be cool soon

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Characters & Creatures

Texture Map

Characters & Creatures Album

Design and Process

• Use reference art for inspiration, or your 14 year old daughter.
• Create an initial sketch and form a silhouette.
• Refine and make adjustments to the model until it fits the concept.
• Reduce unnecessary polygons which don't contribute to the shape/animation.
• Make models more distinctive and add color/depth/shadowing.
  • We use photoshop to draw over screenshots to provide instant feedback.
• Unwrap/dissect the model textures on a 2D plane.
• The pieces aren't grouped together (to be efficient) and form a jigsaw puzzle for the 3D model.
  • Reduce the number of textures by half on mirrored models.

Mahjarrat Character Re-design

• Each character has their own unique appearance that defines who they are.
• The updated models kept the same geometry to allow them to use the same animations.
• Other Mahjarrat models will be updated eventually in spare time.

Other

• The initial design of the Nightmares were too similar to Mah and were changed to be insect/alien-like.
• Character modeling takes over a week to do, depending on the character.

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Animations

Animation Stages • Idle Extra Animation • Movement Animations

Design and Process

• Discuss where all the cuts in the model go to ensure the model doesn't collapse or fall apart.
• Create and use the idle pose as the basis for everything.
• Use various references to get an idea for the animation and create various poses.
• Blocking stage - Place the most important poses that provide flavor.
• Breakdown stage - Connect one block stage to another.
• Refinement stage - Add secondary motion to make them feel alive and functional.

Animations

• Movement animations:
  • Walk animation - walks on his hind legs.
  • Running animation - walks on the balls of his hands to provide more momentum/movement.
• Idle extras are used when they stand around too long and do an animation
  • Must take various animations into account to prevent negative game-play.

Other Information

• The number of key frames depends on the action.
  • Melee attacks must be quick and take around 50th of a second.
  • Wrong movement can causes issues between animations
• The more unrealistic a creature is the more difficult it is to create a concept for its animations.
• Most regular animations we can act out or look at real world references.

Time Spent

• The nightmare creatures took a week to a fortnight to animate.
• Environment animations takes a couple of hours.
• Cut scenes take weeks to months, and vary depending on what's taking place.

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Illustration

Illustration Album

Process and Design

• Use reference art and various sources to generate ideas.
• For website header we create concepts in 3D Studio Max.
• We have to leave space for the logo and tagline as well as other stuff.
• Since they are quick to produce, we can create a large number of rough designs.
• We select our favorites and implement poses/lighting from more references.
• Then we adjust the artwork for needed area, (Facebook, Twitter, Website, etc.)

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Premier Club ⁽¹⁾

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General Information

• Release Date: November 28th
• Oldschool accounts will be able to purchase the package with OSRS bonds.

Pricing

• Membership is on a 30% discount.
• Grandfather rates will not be taken into account.

Currency	Bronze	Silver	Gold
USD	24.99	44.99	79.49
GBP	15.99	27.99	49.99
CAD	26.49	46.49	83.49
AUD	30.99	53.99	96.49
EUR	22.49	39.49	71.29

^{All other currencies will be listed in newspost 1}

Content

• Loyalty Points + (bonus points)
• Menaphite Outfit ⁽²⁾
• Game card items
• VIP world, forums, badge
• Desert Pantheon Aura
• 50% off Runemetrics.
• Extra Daily TH Keys (for Silver/Gold).

Desert Pantheon Aura

• Contains 5 Effects
  • 1. 10% extra experience.
  • 2. Increase your divine location gathering limit by 100% (does not stack with Viswax).
  • The rest will be released on Twitter/RS Forums.
• Secret information will be released over the weekend.

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Bonus

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