The Conclusion

By working with only post-processing shaders, image overlays and lighting you can create environments in a style you want much faster. Of course, it is not 100% accurate in terms of the reference, and such accuracy can’t be achieved only with shaders. To get the highly-precise result you would need to hand-paint the scenes just like in the Graphic Novel itself which would take way longer.

If you aim for the general effect and use shaders, you can work around 3x faster. As proven by my graduation work, you can make a small game with a general look resembling the Graphic Style in this specific time limit. The effect gives a look that is easily adjustable for each environment. With this, you can create a lot of variations by simply changing the images in the masked materials.

Another conclusion is that you need to take your time and analyze the project thoroughly. You build it up subtly with layers just like a painting itself. An appealing and finished result will appear by doing a lot of smaller things that complement each other instead of one ‘big’ thing: shaders, lighting, colors, VFX, grunge, gameplay, interaction and so on. Piece by piece you will receive what has been portrayed in your reference, and eventually get a 3D Graphic Novel.

This was such a fun project and I sincerely hope this small blog was a bit helpful for some people out there.

If you are interested to see more or if you just want to message me you can do it here:

Cheers!

Nic Belliard, 3D Environment Artist