Virtual Worlds – Diablo II (2000)
Click on the Diablo II CLaw Viper Temple Artwork to best view it in full-size
| “Hello everyone!, I decided to do an interpretation of how I think an environment from the game Diablo 2 would look like as if it was seen from the ground, similar to a view from an MMO game or someone taking a photograph.
The name of the place I choose to paint is, the Claw Viper temple, it’s a part of a quest you as a player have to do when you visit act 2 which is one of the five different acts (environments) that exists in game. Recreating a scene from a game is a really fun task. However, it can be really hard sometimes because some environments are very hard to make it work from a different point of view since they are designed to be viewed from above, which means when you are trying to paint it seen from the ground it just doesn’t work out as good. You also sometimes have to add a sky and mountains you don’t really get to see in game, so there is a risk that the feeling of the environment people had when playing the game is lost, so I usually |
 |
|
“Explaining a bit more how I made this image, my first step after I had figured out which environment I wanted to paint was to find enough screenshots around the scene so I would know what kind of props I could expect to see in the area, example different kind of rocks, trees, After that, it was important to figure out exactly the angle it was going to be viewed from, so I did a few very rough drawings playing around with composition so I could make sure all the things I wanted to have fit into the scene, but also making sure there was depth in the picture, so I avoided placing the structures viewed straight on in the middle of the picture, but instead slightly from the side so objects diminishes in size from the perspective. After that I had to slowly start painting on the picture, figuring out colors and values as I went, referring back to the in-game screenshots for some reference, but I also had to keep in mind that I might not be able to replicate the lightning or colors from the picture too much since it’s something I wanted to figure out and improve on my own, so I used the image mostly as reference for the textures, how things look like, placement and the scale of things. Once I had figured out the lightning to the best of my ability, thinking about the physics of light, example the torches are the main light source so I had to make the areas around them the brightest, then we also have the moon and the sky adding a blue light slightly from the top and the sides, I also had to keep in mind what happens with the light in the scene and how it interacts, example with the bounce light, reflections, ambient shadows and such to help create the illusion of light. Than, after I had taken the image, painted it and lit it accordingly to what was in the scene, I then finally could go and searched online for some reference photos of real rocks, sand, clouds and so on. This is to prevent me to be too influenced by photo’s, since if I have had photo reference from the beginning, the lightning might have been altered to look more like what I saw in those, so by establishing the picture as much as I can without reference, just trying to get it to a stage where I like it with the mood, the colors and composition, then I can go and look at reference to help me Also the reason I was inspired to do these kinds of pictures in the first place, comes from I have played a lot of games throughout the years, especially the older games where the technology really limited the look of the games, it was just so much fun thinking how things would look like if it was more real or fully detailed, I hope you will enjoy the image! because it was really fun to work on.”
Diablo II, Claw Viper Temple Entrance Environment Illustration and description by UnidColor, Sweden |
Main Gallery of the Virtual Worlds Art Collaboration Project on Game-Art-HQ
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
