Created for a project where players will explore planets in our universe, this interstellar buggy 3D model was created to be a rugged, reliable, and flexible vehicle. We had a chat with the artist behind the work to see what went into creating the piece, how he approached the work, and if he had any tips for other 3D game artists.

Creating A 3D Game Model

Creating video game art in all its forms is a diverse practice, requiring a huge amount of skill and talent. From 3D modeling for games to the striking 2D concept art and the 3D environments we see in games, each avenue has its own path to master.

For this piece, our artist knew his goal was to create an all-terrain vehicle that could be used in reconnaissance missions. These missions would take place on a variety of new planets so the terrain would be alien, unseen, and brand new to our player. To him, this gave a clear direction of stable, robust, and agile. Lastly, any far reaching recon mission might encounter danger! So, defence mechanisms were considered as well.

Special Considerations for Video Game 3D Models

Magic Media’s artists often mention that all art has a reference in reality. No matter eldritch or interstellar or alien, everything has some kind of grounding in our world. Of course, this doesn’t need to be 100% accurate and faithful to our lives and world. The artist says that a balance of “70% imagination and 30% reality” when designing hard surface objects is a good one.

Another tip our artists mention is that ergonomics must be respected when building these pieces. In particular, it must be considered when working on the level of stylization of the objects and characters. 

Approaching the Creation of 3D Game Models

Visual storytelling is integral to our artistic process. Our game art production service is founded on communication and storytelling. In pursuit of the latter foundation, our artists always think about art and its context. The “What, Who, Where, When, Why, and How.” If you can answer these questions, your approach in the design stage will be far easier.

This kind of approach requires strong client communication and a clear brief. Once we have a direct description of its need and function, aesthetics can be built on top and adapt to the art direction.

Tools Used in 3D Modeling for Games

The initial sketches for this piece were done in Photoshop. The primary shapes and colors were built here which, once set, allowed the artist to move into 3D blocking in Blender. For 3D game models, Blender is a fast-rising talent in the video game art sphere and worth keeping an eye on!

The next stages are described as a “ping-pong” between the two programs where blocking and adjustments done in Blender are analyzed in the 2D art space of Photoshop. The artist describes this method as their preferred workflow as “2D gives us agility and ideas, while 3D guarantees order and structure.”

Common Mistakes in Video Game Art

While we could spend weeks talking about mistakes and problems to avoid, the artist behind this buggy believes most come from trying to rush the game art process.

In this way, the best tips he can offer is to take your time and look for feedback from others. He says not to be afraid of “reevaluating the process and its results.” The process might remain the same but it’s important to always remain flexible in the sense of each game’s context. Lastly, our artist mentions that a plan is always needed. A plan of what needs to be done, which will be constantly evaluated throughout the process. The key is to remain flexible!

If you’d like leverage our 3D game art services, get in touch with us today! From comprehensive art production to 2D concept art, real-time VFX, and animation, we also offer full-cycle game development, game porting, and much more. Our A-Z services cover all your needs in the gaming, entertainment, and tech industries. So, chat with us today and let’s create magic.

Weapons, and in particular firearms, are a particularly fun piece of 3D game art. They’re front and center for much of the gameplay, right in the hands of the player. Even if it’s not an FPS, they are something that often draws player attention. For 3D game artists, creating a fun, high-quality, and interesting weapon is a challenge that is often encountered.

In this scenario, one of our very talented 3D game artists was tasked with building out our internal portfolio with something that packed a punch!

Creating 3D Art with a Bang

This scrap shotgun was built with the Cobray Terminator shotgun as its base. The goal was to deliver a weapon that could be at home in a post-apocalyptic setting.

The basic 3D art production pipeline was followed. Reference materials were collected, a base concept was established, exploration followed the concepting until a core identity was found. From there, a high-poly model was created, then a low-poly model. From there, the geometry was baked on and the process ends with texturing. The tools utilized in this process were 3dsMax for the modeling and Substance Painter for the texturing.

The stage of texturing is important as it allows to double down and focus on the signs of wear and tear established during modeling. As a post-apocalyptic piece, it needed to tell the story of its survival and its crafting. Leather windings were added to differentiate it from a fresh weapon, rust and chipping were introduced. It’s important to our art team that every piece of a game helps tell a game’s story and expand its world. These are the elements that tie players into the narrative and the lore, encouraging immersion.

Tips for Creating 3D Weapons

A simple and reliable weapon, this is a unique design given its single shot capacity and unusual frame. Our artist described it as “brutally beautiful” and said that “creating any kind of beauty is fun.”

One piece of advice our entire art and animation team is to gather the right references and as many of them as you can find! If you’re recreating something from real life, the key to high-quality 3D game art is the references you can draw from. If you’re creating something entirely fictional, it will have to have some kind of base as a reference – either as inspiration or as the core of its design. Either way, quality 3D game art is foundationally based on high-quality references.

Another tip given by this artist was to understand that a firearm is a mechanism. “When it comes to modeling a mechanism, you must understand how it functions. To truly create it faithfully, you must know its operation.”

There you have it! When creating 3D game art of firearms, expand your thinking, go beyond the mind of an artist. Get into the headspace of an engineer!

To leverage our 3D game art expertize, or any of our other stellar services such as full-cycle game development, our comprehensive art production, or real-time VFX, get in touch today! Together, let’s create magic.

Our latest look behind the magician’s curtain is into this 3D game art of an eerie and dilapidated looking cabin. This piece was conjured up by one of our stellar artists to showcase our technical and creative skills. Pieces like this are often just as useful to our portfolio as they are a challenge to our talented team, testing themselves against new limits and creative processes. 

Let’s take a look at how this piece was made and what went into creating it.

Inspiration and Experimentation with 3D Game Art

Magic Media’s art team find inspiration everywhere and this section of the team particularly found themselves drawn to post-apocalyptic games and settings. Their setting and atmosphere are enigmatic, the mystery and the strangeness of its setting are so hard to define but are huge draws to players. Games like The Last of Us, the Metro series, and a few of the more striking Call of Duty levels, served as the main inspiration. The goal was creating a cabin as a post-apocalyptic hideout for a soldier or survivor. The artist didn’t have much more to go on, only that they wanted to show it was an active site in this new post-apocalyptic world and that much had happened.

The early exploration of the piece involves a lot of reference gathering and developing moodboards. While it’s not shown here, the team wanted an interior created as well so experimentation began with different 3D asset blockouts and environments until something was created that everyone liked. During this team, other members were experimenting with lighting, colors, and real-time VFX set-ups which were settled on around the same time.

Creating a piece like this goes through the typical 3D art production pipeline with explorations and sketches turning into blockouts and rough drafts. From there, they are refined through art passes, texturing, high-poly, baking low-poly, across multiple passes of tweaks and alterations. This process was done on both the internal and external properties. The goal was for the environment to look and perform well in 1st and 3rd person, which meant a lot of work in its silhouette, layout, and texturing.

3D Game Art and Storytelling

While the 3D game art team were working on the lighting setup and processing moodboards, they were also considering how best to immerse the player and create the right tone. Of course, lighting is important in this endeavor but it’s not everything.

They wanted the cabin, even remote and isolated, to show the story of the decaying world. Where the person inhabiting it is fighting tooth and nail to survive against persistent and constant threat. Bear traps, barricades, windows that have been broken and sealed, and cracks in the roof are all efforts of the team to set the scene for any player approaching it. Even the woods themselves seem welcoming but they also mean there’s plenty of places to hide for the things that go bump in the night!

The 3D Game Art Production Pipeline: Making it Feel Real

All elements of 3D game art, assets and environments, need to feel real and lived in. Nothing is clean, everything has been handled and used, maintained, put down, and picked up a hundred times. Making a piece of art feel part of a living world is key in the delivery of high-quality 3D game art.

Key in delivering this quality is asking questions. That is how you get answers on what comes next for your 3D game art. What is the life like of this lonely survivor? What are they afraid of? How do they go about living and dealing with this situation? Eating and sleeping, how is that handled given the danger? How do they defend themselves from said danger? Do they try to light up their cabin for comfort and if so, how do they hide that light from potential threats? Our team asked themselves these questions and many more.

All of these questions make you think about the person, the life. And that is what our 3D game artists do, that is the key in delivering not just high-quality game art, but realistic and believable game art. That’s why the interior was designed as someone’s home while the exterior says “watch out and stay out.”

The Tools of 3D Game Art Production

Simple enough, our team are using the industry standard for tools. For modeling we see a lot of Maya and ZBrush. Substance Painter and Photoshop are very useful for texturing, with Substance Painter being a real front-runner for all your texturing needs. Lastly, the piece was rendered out using Unreal Engine 5 which is a stand-out in the latest generation of gaming engines.

Whether you need our comprehensive 3D art production services or more, Magic Media can deliver any service you need for gaming, entertainment, or tech. Our teams can seamlessly deliver art production from 2D concepts up to game VFX, and animation. Full-cycle development, game trailers, and cybersecurity are just a few more of what we offer. Get in touch with us and let’s create magic!

Video game art production is the process of creating the visual content for a video game and integrating it into said game. It contains a wide range of artistic and technical talent, from concept art and character design to environmental design, animation, and texturing.

In this blog, we’ll discuss a few of the key elements of game art production and the game art production pipeline, as a model goes from concept to creation.

The Game Art Production Pipeline

A question we often hear is what is involved in 3D art production for games? There are several steps which begin with some ideas and early concepts and end out with the incredible 3D game art you see in modern gaming. This typically begins with concept art and ideation, moves onto 3D modeling, then onto texturing, next into rigging and animation, lighting and game VFX, before final polishing, and the final integration.

Ideation and Game Concept Art

First up, you need an idea and a base concept. Whether you’re creating environmental art, character art, asset art, or developing your game’s art style, everything starts with an idea and a rough concept. Concept artists, naturally, play a big part here, beginning the process of creating the visual that will grow into a finished product. Rough sketches and explorations will help the teams get to grips with the visual style and help narrow down existing ideas. Sometimes a character just doesn’t look as you imagined or an environment is missing that special something. Here, as a team, your concept artists and you will help flesh out and begin the game art production pipeline.

3D Modeling for Games

Once explorations are narrowed down to a single idea or a much tighter spectrum, the 3D modelers can begin their work. 2D concepts become full 3D visualizations. Using tools like Blender, 3ds Max, or Maya, the concepts are built out and explored in the 3D space. For 3D game art, the earlier you can lock in changes, the better. This helps with timing and resources down the line as the further into the art production pipeline we go, the more expensive and time consuming it is to change something. 

Texturing

This stage follows on from completed 3D models where the game art is truly given its life and feeling. Texturing takes a plain, grey model and turns it into something that feels lived-in and real. Weapons are given their metallic shine, scuffed and scraped from use. Leather is given the rugged material it deserves, showing its use and its history. Clothes, vehicles, environments, people become video game art come to life. Texturing isn’t just ensuring that metal looks metal, and fabric looks like it should in real life It’s about giving the items, assets, and characters their life and story. This can help any good video game art become great.

Rigging & Game Animation

While technically two separate steps in the video game art production pipeline, this can be combined into a single stage for the case of this article. Rigging is the process of game art production where 3D models, usually just characters and creatures, are given a skeleton for all intents and purposes. This skeleton is used to puppet and move the model around for the sake of the next step – game animation. Our game animators take the precise work done by rigging specialists and begin creating core game animations. Walk cycles, jumping, climbing, basic attacks, talking and interacting with the world. 

This step in the game art pipeline involves a comprehensive knowledge of movement in all walks of life, pardon the pun. Game animators must understand how we move and why we move in specific ways. That goes for the variety of creatures that might need animation. Four legs, two legs, hunched, upright, running, climbing, these are all variables, and each have real-world counterparts that our animators understand through rigorous research.

Lighting & Game VFX

Lighting in game art production is more in relation to environments while game VFX can be for any aspect of game art. 

Lighting helps set the tone and the mood. Mist filling your vision as you approach a log cabin can help drive up tension and uncertainty. A single beam of light from a lamp post in an otherwise dark street can guide players to safety or doom them to a trap, helping to seamlessly improve the visual aesthetic while aiding the gameplay.

Game VFX are any special effects added to the game’s existing visuals. This is a huge array of visual effects from the weather to weapon effects and explosions, magical phenomena or spells, smoke, fire, sparks, and everything in between. For game art production, VFX is like a scale you must control as per the game’s needs. Sometimes it needs a subtle flicker of light, a spark, or a gust of wind. Sometimes you need the world itself to tremble and storms to swallow the sky itself! Maybe it’s the clipped muzzle flash of a suppressed pistol or the blinding flash of magical might. Game VFX helps to sell all of it and to guide players with a learned visual language.

The Final Steps of the Game Art Production Pipeline: Polish and Integration

Integration is a technical step of game art production where the assets are imported into the game’s engine, such as Unreal Engine or Unity. This stage also includes any further optimization of the assets to ensure the game’s performance is unaffected.

The polish stage is any further refinements and adjustments to all elements of the assembled game art. Tweaking of values to lighting, adjusting timing on VFX or animation, making final touches to 3D art assets or characters.

Through these stages of game art production is comprehensive collaboration and feedback from every member of the team. Concept artists and 3D artists consult with one another for a fluid and seamless transition from 2D to 3D, animators discuss the 3D model as it’s being built to ensure the rigging and animation won’t cause clipping. 

With Magic Media’s comprehensive art production services you can be sure of a seamless production pipeline that will deliver only the best results for your game. Get in touch with us today for any of your game art needs or any of our comprehensive services such as game VFX, full-cycle game development, and much more.

At Magic Media, we had the incredible opportunity to contribute our VR gaming and art production expertize to nDreams‘ surreal, dreamscape adventure PS VR2 title, Synapse. We were thrilled to work on this project and deliver our industry-leading art production services to such an interesting and engaging title. In this blog, we’ll take you behind the scenes of our collaboration with nDreams and share how we helped bring the mind-bending world of Synapse to life.

Optimized VR Art Production

As a VR project, Synapse presented unique challenges that required careful consideration for performance. VR titles demand a delicate balance between visual fidelity and optimization to ensure a smooth and immersive experience. Our team understands the importance of stable and consistent FPS in VR gaming, as any stutters or lag can lead to motion sickness or render the game unplayable for most players. With this in mind, we employed our expertize to create high-quality assets with minimal polygons, meeting the demanding requirements of the VR experience.

Creating 3D Assets and Environments

In Synapse, a militaristic, looping shooter, our team seamlessly integrated with the game’s unique and surreal setting. Our goal was to develop a range of 3D assets, including environments, weapons, and various active items. Additionally, we had the opportunity to contribute scenes and UI elements that complemented the active items.

From concept to creation, our dedicated team, consisting of a producer, an art lead, a concept artist, and several skilled 3D artists, meticulously crafted these assets. Typically, we find ourselves contributing to the art production pipeline in part or delivering assets at a set stage to be completed by the internal team.

In this case, it was an enjoyable opportunity for us to experience the creative freedom of taking assets from their earliest concepts to the final delivery. We thoroughly enjoyed contributing our art production expertize to Synapse, a game that has garnered praise for its stunning visual style.

Embracing the Surreal Tone and Style

Synapse stands out in the gaming world for its refreshing departure from ongoing visual trends. The game’s weird and wonderful surreal mindscapes are composed of dark, gloomy grey tones and a black-and-white aesthetic completed by vibrant accents. This fantastic visual style provided a fun challenge for our team. It was a refreshing change of pace, pushing us to explore texture and shape as powerful visual devices. The limited color palette sparked our creativity, as we discovered new ways to maximize the impact of each element. As they say, limitations boost creativity, and our team embraced this challenge wholeheartedly.

Streamlined Art Production Pipeline

To ensure a seamless art development process, our concept artist played a pivotal role in creating the majority of the final assets and scenes we worked on. This close collaboration allowed for efficient communication and a smooth workflow with the whole team being involved constantly.

Throughout the project, the art director at Synapse provided comprehensive feedback, ensuring that our work perfectly aligned with their vision. Our pipeline involved starting with around 10 initial concept sketches, which were then refined into 4 or 5 more detailed concepts. From there, one concept was chosen for further development, undergoing the standard pipeline process, including high-poly modeling, low-poly optimization, and texture baking. Our concept artist also took on the role of an art lead to preserve the creative vision of the work and creating skill icons when needed.

Successful VR Gaming Collaboration with nDreams

Working with the nDreams team on Synapse was an absolute pleasure for our team. The collaboration was characterized by positivity, open communication, and a shared commitment to excellence. We greatly appreciated the honest and professional feedback we received from the nDreams team, and they were equally responsive to our inquiries throughout the project. The entire process was smooth and efficient, resulting in a successful partnership that brought Synapse to life.

If you’re seeking exceptional art production services for your VR or traditional game, look no further. As part of the Magic Media group, our collective of talented artists and creators is ready to scale and meet your project’s unique needs. Whether it’s creating immersive 3D art, designing captivating game VFX, or providing comprehensive art production solutions, we have the expertize to deliver excellence. Contact us today and let us bring your vision to life. Let’s create magic and unlock the full potential of your project!

At Magic Media, we prioritize delivering industry-leading quality services to our clients and that is how we stand out from the competition. With a global team composed of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and skill sets, we offer a wide range of services, from full-cycle game development to specific art production, game VFX, and video production. But how do we achieve this level of quality? What is it really like working with Magic Media?

Let’s dive into the internal processes of Magic Media’s workflow with our clients. Spoiler alert: there are no hidden technologies or secret formulas! Instead, we rely on a passionate and talented team who work collectively to deliver the results you desire. Let’s have a closer look.

Magic Media’s Outsourcing Process

When you choose to work with Magic Media, you can expect a high level of commitment, investment, and passion from our team. Our experts seamlessly integrate into your game development process, immersing themselves in your team and workflow.

To ensure this seamless integration, we have established our own processes that align with how we work. Our game development process is marked by constant communication, agile approaches, and rigorous quality assurance.

Project Initiation for the Game Development Process

Before we begin creating, coding, or utilizing our expertize, the first step in the game development process is project initiation. This is where our team leaders and yours come together to understand your requirements, goals, and desired outcomes. Together, we establish a project plan and communication pipeline to ensure an effective and streamlined operation.

Planning and Scope Definition

During this early stage, we also define the planning and project scope. If we are assisting as co-developers, it is crucial for us to have a clear understanding of the project’s direction. We discuss deliverables, timelines, and budgets. Together, we create a detailed project plan, identifying necessary resources, team members, and setting milestones.

Agile Development Approach

When it comes to the actual development work, we adopt an agile development approach. This approach is highly effective for game development, given its iterative and incremental nature. It also aligns well with our flexible, adaptive, and continuously improving work style.

Game Development Built on Communication and Client Collaboration 

While delivering high-quality services is important, ensuring that our work aligns with your vision is equally crucial. From the beginning of the project, we provide a single point of contact to ensure your voice is heard, and requests are efficiently communicated. You have access to our entire team, and we maintain regular check-ins through meetings, emails, and other project management tools.

We offer micro and macro check-ins at any point to track project progress, address challenges, and ensure we meet your expectations. Through these regular check-ins throughout the project lifecycle, you will have a clear understanding of our progress and how we align with your expectations. This direct line of communication allows us to address any concerns or queries promptly.

The Game Development Process and Quality Assurance

Quality assurance is a constant aspect of all our video game outsourcing services. Whether we are delivering art, development, or game trailers, our team has internal processes in place to ensure the promised quality is achieved.

Before any work reaches your screen, we conduct comprehensive testing, bug fixing, and iterative improvements to meet our high standards and yours. We strive to deliver our work to you with the utmost quality, meeting established milestones.

Market Research

We are committed to continuously improving the quality and efficiency of our work. Regularly assessing the game development process is crucial to stay ahead of modern trends, tools, and methodologies.

Our teams actively research market trends, investigate target audience preferences, explore new technologies, and keep an eye on our competitors. This research ensures we stay current with player interests and maintain efficient game development workflows.

With these insights, we implement new practices. Our talented game development team, consisting of artists, animators, developers, designers, and more, constantly test new technologies and methodologies. Alongside user feedback, our experts are always prepared to deliver engaging and marketable games.

Team Composition

At Magic Media, we tailor each team to suit your project’s specific needs. We don’t just provide a concept artist; we provide an artist who is genuinely interested and passionate about your game’s genre or style. Our diverse and global team ensures that we always have the right person for your project.

We don’t just want to deliver experts who can create industry-leading results. We want to provide you with an outsourcing or co-development team that is genuinely interested and enthusiastic about being a part of your work.

If you are interested in utilizing our expertize in full-cycle development, co-development, game porting, art production, game VFX, or any of our comprehensive services, please get in touch with us today. We are always ready to create magic together!

Creating 2D concept art for games is a crucial step that helps visualize the game’s world, characters, and overall visual style before principal production begins. 2D concept art lays the foundation for a game’s visual identity, carried through its development right through its release and any subsequent content updates.

Magic Media has extensive experience crafting concept art that guides game development. We understand the importance of creating 2D concept art congruent with the game mechanics and story to create a sense of harmony that will resonate with players when they play the game. This, among other factors, is critically important to creating high-quality concept art.

2D Concept Art Influenced by the Game’s Themes and Setting

Concept art must be aligned with the game’s setting and themes. It’s important to bear in mind the game’s genre, period setting, and overall atmosphere when beginning work on concept art. 2D concept art for a game like BioShock perfectly encapsulates the retrofuturistic visual styling of the game, in addition to its horror influences and isolated atmosphere.

Before artists even begin work in earnest on their concept art pieces, it’s critical to conduct extensive research for reference materials relevant to the game. A notable example of this is in Dark Souls and its fearsome Anor Londo location, which was chiefly inspired by the exterior of the Milan Cathedral.

Character and Environment Concept Art

Two significant aspects of any game’s visual identity are its character and environment designs. For character design, it’s critical to consider their personalities and how they fit into the game’s visual aesthetic and narrative. In hyperrealistic military shooters such as Battlefield and Call of Duty, it would make sense to use real-life military personnel, their uniforms, weaponry, and behaviors, to create fitting 2D concept art for games of that style. Stylized character designs would likely be inconsistent with a realistic military shooter’s overall visual identity and narrative.

2D concept art for environments, similarly, needs to match the game’s overall style and should take inspiration from relevant references. The teams behind the Assassin’s Creed series, with its many portrayals of vastly different period settings, research appropriate environments for their games’ 2D concept art extensively. Assassin’s Creed Origins is set primarily in Egypt and, as such, Egypt was used to form the basis of the vast majority of its environmental concept art and adapted to fit its approximate 40 BC setting.

2D Concept Art as an Iterative and Collaborative Process

Regardless of department, game development is a collaborative process, and concept art is a critical component of this collaboration. It’s incredibly important for concept artists to work closely with animators, modelers, and designers to ensure their work is congruous across the board, and that the work of one team member won’t negatively impact another. With this comes the opportunity to receive constructive criticism that helps improve stylistic consistency, overall quality, and cohesiveness with the game’s other aspects, such as mechanics and narrative.

Concept art, just like all aspects of game development, is an iterative process that builds upon itself over time. By leveraging the feedback of team leads and peers from different departments, revising concept art can mean a marked improvement with every iteration. Another consideration is the technical aspects of a game and how concept art can factor into this.

For 2D games, any 2D concept art must consider the game’s resolution and aspect ratio to present concept art in a way that resembles how the game could look in its builds and final release versions.

At Magic Media, we’re experienced service providers for the gaming, entertainment, and tech industries. Included in our range of dozens of expert services are full-cycle game development for all platforms, art services for games of any style and scope, real-time VFX, and much more. Get in contact with us today, find out how we can collaborate, and let’s create magic!

An often under appreciated element of video game development is the amount of artwork required. Video game art covers every visual element of a game, from the backgrounds to the assets, the characters, and the effects.

With modern video games constantly growing in size, depth, and complexity, co-development is becoming essential in delivering a successful game. And art co-development is no small part of that service.

Video game art co-development is the specific branch of outsourcing or outstaffing where you expand your team with a collection of artists who will match your style and aesthetic.

Whether you’re in need of concept artists, 2D artists, 3D artists, environmental artists, or a combination of them, game art co-development will help you to quickly fill any staffing gaps and meet deadlines.

What Does Game Art Co-Development Mean?

Game art co-development is simply a process of taking on extra staff for a temporary timeframe. In full-scale co-development, that timeframe might be indefinite or the length of a certain project.

At Magic Media, we’ve engaged in a wealth of different co-development projects. In some, we worked closely with the internal team daily. In others, we had daily check-ins for progress reports and discussions of the work but were left to our own devices to deliver.

Co-development and art co-development is a cooperation established between two teams. Whether outsourced entirely to deliver results or working closely together, it is a collaborative process to ensure your game and its art are delivered to the highest standards of quality.

With Magic Media’s art co-development process, we establish milestones and a comprehensive production pipeline which includes in-depth QA on every piece before delivery. The goal for our team is to make your job as easy as possible.

Choosing Magic Media as Your Art Co-Development Partner

It’s important to find a co-development partner that shares your passion and idea. It’s also important for game art co-development to choose a studio who can match your aesthetic and visual language.

At Magic Media, we pride ourselves on our capacity to adapt and emulate any style, aesthetic, or execution. In our portfolio, you can see some of our diverse work and our previous clients show an array of different work and results we have achieved. We guarantee that our global presence of over 1000 art experts and specialists will hold the artists your team requires to deliver your ideal experience. 

If you’d like to utilize Magic Media’s expertise on art co-development, full-cycle development, real-time VFX, game porting, and more, get in touch today! We have a global presence of over 1000 and are driven to help in creating magical experiences for audiences everywhere. Work with us today and let’s create magic.

Magic Media is proud to have had the opportunity to work on Amazon Games’ MMO sensation New World to create new 3D video game art. We collaborated with the tech giant on New World’s expansion, Rise of the Angry Earth, specifically, where we contributed numerous 3D video game art pieces in the form of weaponry and armor primarily.

Though Magic Media is no stranger to collaborating with industry-leading clients, projects of this stature never cease to amaze us with their scope and the technical and creative requirements to provide the highest quality work possible.

Creating 3D Video Game Art for New World

For our contributions to this project, we received detailed and specific specifications for creating 3D video game art. As part of these specifications, there was a clear pipeline for creating ID maps for texturing and a defined polygon count, among other technical details.

For our work on this project, we stuck as close to these guidelines as possible to help Amazon Games realize its defined vision for New World and its expansion’s 3D video game art. In addition to helping this clear vision for the game’s art come true, we needed to adhere to guidelines from a technical standpoint to ensure smooth performance for players.

To bring 3D video game models to life, we employ a range of software and tools, and New World was no different. We used Marvelous Designer to simulate high-quality fabrics. Retopology, which is a major process in 3D modeling for simplifying meshes so that they’re cleaner and easier to work with, was accomplished using Blender and Maya, which we also used for UV unwrapping. Textures were created using Substance Painter, and Marmoset Toolbag was used for baking them.

Our Team and Collaborating with Amazon Games

A total of 22 people worked on the 3D video game art for New World, a combination of talents from various Magic Media teams, including Ringtail Studios. The team was comprised of 16 artists, four quality assurance personnel, and a head of production. At the beginning of the project, our team didn’t start with 22 people, rather we gradually scaled it up during the production pipeline so that we could better meet our requirements more efficiently.

Our artists focused on specific types of 3D video game models for this project. Some of our artists worked specifically on armor and clothing, whereas others worked on weapons exclusively. This allowed every individual to leverage their skills in the best way possible. We had two art leads on the project who played a key role in ensuring our work adhered to Amazon Games’ requirements as closely as possible throughout every stage of the project.

Amazon Games was fantastic to collaborate with on this project. Our 3D video game models for New World were reviewed by the Amazon team, along with feedback and recommendations to make certain our work was in line with the project’s requirements. At every stage, the Amazon team was communicative and forthcoming with their feedback. Our client was extremely satisfied with the final result, noting their appreciation for our approach to the project specifically.

Magic Media is an experienced services partner specializing in the gaming, entertainment, and tech industries. We offer dozens of expert services including full-cycle game development, real-time VFX, and full art services, including 3D art like what we created for New World. Reach out today, and let’s create magic!

Cyberpunk 2077’s latest expansion, Phantom Liberty, is a recently released project we at Magic Media had the pleasure of working on. In collaboration with CD Projekt Red, we delivered numerous services to help the team create the best possible experience for Cyberpunk fans.

Our work primarily consisted of intricate 3D artwork, which helped optimize the smoothness of the overall experience. Considering how numerous critical reviews and fans have pointed to the game’s technical performance in the released version, we couldn’t be happier with the impact of our work!

Services We Provided for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

A significant portion of Cyberpunk 2077 work was working on the LOD (level of detail) of the game’s environmental objects. This was done primarily for the in-game location, Pacifica. LOD refers to an in-game 3D object’s level of complexity relative to the camera and the playable character’s position. When the camera is closer to an object, it’ll present with more detail than it would if the camera was at a further distance. This is a common technique in modern game development that assists with rendering large worlds without impacting frame rate and overall technical performance. This can be commonly seen in games where foliage would pop up as players get closer to grassy terrain.

Our LOD work covered a diverse range of in-game objects, including but not limited to buildings, statues, tents, terrain, rock formations, and much more. The process of our LOD work began by extracting the asset we needed to work on from the game engine, CD Projekt Red’s proprietary REDengine.

Using a 3D packet, we optimized the texture as much as possible using trims and overlaps. We then baked the textures in-engine and set the LOD distances required, along with numerous other parameters which varied wildly depending on the object we were working on.

Collaborating with CD Projekt Red

Our team for our collaboration with CD Projekt Red on Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty consisted of 12 3D artists, two QA team members, one head of production, one producer, and one CEO, a total of 17 team members actively working on the Cyberpunk 2077 project.

From the very beginning of the project, we cultivated a communication pipeline with CD Projekt Red to ensure any issues on either side could be communicated and effectively addressed. While getting to grips with REDengine, we communicated with CDPR frequently to understand their proprietary engine as quickly as possible. They were exceptionally quick to provide all the technical support we needed to get to grips with the game engine.

We were also in frequent contact with CD Projekt Red’s environment and production leads. Most of our communication happened over Slack, which every team member had, and it proved to be highly effective for resolving any queries or issues promptly. CD Projekt Red provided most of their feedback using Slack and also using Jira tickets. Our involvement in Cyberpunk 2077 lasted roughly a year, and it was a fantastic creative experience to work with CD Projekt Red on this incredible world it has built.

Magic Media is an experienced service provider for not only game development projects of all kinds but for the entertainment and tech industries as well. Among our dozens of expert services are full-cycle game development, real-time VFX, and full game art services, like those that CD Projekt Red availed of for Phantom Liberty. Get in contact today to leverage our experience for your projects, and let’s create magic!