3d Mesh

Creating assets for AAA games is very different from creating assets for mobile devices. The complexity is much higher for AAA games. And some of the things you learn from mobile game development don’t apply or, what’s worse, they are a hindrance to creating complex assets.

All “small mistakes” are much more visible on larger screens and bigger resolutions. Lighting also needs to be done on a whole different level and has a science of its own. On the flipside, I learned to make as much as possible with as little as possible! I understood that readability, silhouette, the composition and atmosphere of a scene are much more important than small details.

You should try to inhabit the world you are helping create.

One of the most important lessons I learned is that you should try to inhabit the world you are helping create. Your assets and environments should always try to tell a story. When they do, you know you have something worth showing.

Building Assets

The first step with any piece of art is a bit of pre-production, which usually involves sketching an idea, researching as much as I think I will need to know about the subject I’m creating, gathering lots of references (ranging from movie stills and photos to concept art). Major influences for this piece were Blade Runner, Mass Effect, and Cyberpunk 2077.

For the Alley Project all I knew was that it needed to be a cyberpunk environment in which two characters were going to be placed at a later time. Working with Vlad Ricean, I made a few rough block-outs which he detailed and helped to find the mood and visual style: