Development Diary: Fairy Area Improvement
From the RuneScape Wiki, the wiki for all things RuneScape
Fairy Area Improvement is a Development Diary detailing the rework of the graphics for Zanaris, the city of fairies and its inhabitants.
Contents |
[edit] Part 1: Concept
- Date of release: 17 April 2009
- Update: Update:Development Diary: Fairy Area Improvement
Hi guys, I’m Mod Joe, RuneScape's Art Director, and I’d like to give a rough overview of one of our graphical improvement projects. This will hopefully give you insight into how we choose projects for improvements and also take you through the different art departments that will then produce the final game assets. In this first part, I’ll talk about the concept stage. In the second part, we’ll go through modelling of game assets, such as creatures and scenery, then, in the third part, we will give you an overview of what it takes to bring things to life through the animation process.
The art team works very closely with the rest of the content developers, and when I heard that Mod Ingrid had been given the final part of the Fairy Tale trilogy to start briefing, my initial reaction was that we’ve gotta improve that area first. Zanaris itself had already undergone one graphical improvement a few years ago, but I think it’s important not to understate how much both the engine and our tools have changed since then. Many years ago, when I first started at Jagex, the art team size was only three artists (!) and we did everything (modelling, animation, mapping, etc) ourselves. Now, in 2009, we have a team of sixteen very talented artists who all specialise in one of three areas: 2D concept artwork, 3D modelling or animation. In the first part of this diary, I’d like to take you through the first stage: the concept stage...
Originally, Zanaris was just a standard brown dungeon. I recall we overhauled it to look a little ‘bluer’ a few years ago, but it never really looked as ‘magical’ as it could.
There is also the issue that the fairy race itself could be improved, both in terms of modelling and animation. Back three years ago we had limited time, artists and tools, but now that we have our specialist artists and a much-improved game engine, we have a greater degree of flexibility in how we create the different areas of the game.
Given that a new quest was to take place in Zanaris, we decided to give the area a total rework, both in terms of the fairy race themselves and their environment. Once we knew this, I spoke to one of our concept artists, Mod GG, to get some ideas on what we could do.
One of our goals in the concept stage is getting the balance right between ideas that are unique, but which are also immediately recognisable for players who are new to the game. When we looked at the original fairies, one of the first issues we had was that they were way too small - you can’t see them very well and they don't have enough definition. The first thing that Mod GG did was to sketch a new fairy character that had a much better silhouette and which would be much more ‘readable’ as a fairy.
In terms of the fairies' houses we knew that we wanted them to stay pretty tree-based and close to nature. We experimented with a few different ideas and, at one point in the concept stage, we investigated making the fairies more insect-like, with more emphasis on quick-beating wings and fly-like eye clusters instead of the traditional human eyes. This is something that was echoed in the brown, wax-like tree in the image below; as you can see, it’s more of a nest than an actual home. Given the types of furniture that would also have to be designed (and given the back-history of the fairy culture), we decided not to go down this route, which is why, in the end, we wanted to go with something relatively traditional.
I’ll leave you with our final mood image for Zanaris. As you can see, it's nice, bright and colourful, which we feel is definitely right for the area of game the fairies live in. Tune in next time to see how we approach modelling.
Should you have any questions about anything mentioned in this diary, or other aspects of the game that you feel would benefit from a graphical improvement, then by all means post them on the forums. I’ll do my best to answer them.
Mod Joe
Art Director, RuneScape Graphics
[edit] Part 2: Modelling
- Date of release: 14 May 2009
- Update: Update:Development Diary: Fairy Area Improvement - Part 2
After getting the beautiful concept artwork for the fairy area from Mod GG, I knew we had a lot of work ahead of us! The old fairy area was worked on by myself and Mod Paul B in the days before we had concept artists and the High Detail mode, so I know the area very well and was keen to rework it using all the new technology that we have available to us.
We want the fairy area to feel magical and organic. The fairies work with nature in an astral realm, so I want to distance the area from the rest of RuneScape so that the player feels that they have travelled a long way to get here. To help this we have introduced new types of fantastical plants and a slightly jade colour to the vegetation so that this does not feel like a typical RuneScape area. This is something we had tried to introduce with the previous ‘Blue Period’ rework, which, looking back, was far too garish. I feel the new, more subtle, colour scheme looks magical and otherworldly without being too obvious.
The fairies live in tree houses, so I really wanted to make an important feature of them. The trees they live in are now some of the largest in RuneScape and some of the most complicated models made yet! We also spent a lot of time ensuring that all of the furniture and technology feels as though it was created for fairies - the tables are far too small to be used by the humans that come to visit the area; even the range and furnace are fairy scale. The only problem this led to was having to create two sets of doors: fairies use a pint-sized door that opens at full height for players.
One issue we had was with the roofs of the floor-based buildings. We really wanted to get away from the grotto look of the previous versions of the area and knew that the area had to have most of the main buildings on the ground floor so that players could easily access them. The concept art looked great having small ground buildings, and they looked great in game, but as soon as we started to map larger buildings they looked very plain and boring, like an expanse of wood. We sent Mod GG back to the drawing board and he came up with the idea of open courtyards for the larger buildings. This worked really well, giving the area the feeling of ancient Rome, where houses blurred the line between inside and outside space.
When it comes to the inhabitants of Zanaris, Mod Alec created a couple of character models to make sure that they read well in the engine and had the right look. My main concern with the fairies was that they were so small; Mod Alec made them slightly larger for the rework so that we could add more detail to them, and so that it was easier to create animations that had more life in them. We wanted the fairies to look beautiful and graceful, with a great deal of variety and customisation. We took extra special care with the Godfather and Fairy Queen, who now, respectively, look more malevolent and dignified.
We hope you’ll enjoy the new-look Zanaris; I think you will agree it’s now a really special corner of RuneScape. The next step in the development process is animation, but we will go into more detail about how we made the fairies fly in the next diary.
Mod Nick F
RuneScape Graphics
[edit] Part 3: Animating
- Date of release: 3 July 2009
- Author: Mod Biscuits
Hello, I am Mod Biscuits and I would like to take you through the experiences I had producing the new fairy quest.
With the fairy concept art and models looking great it was up to me as the animator to give them personality and life. It was the first time I had responsibility over the animation of an entire race in RuneScape. Before I could start I needed a clear understanding of how these fairies would behave. To do this I worked closely with Mod Alec, Mod GG and Mod Ingrid to discuss how they would move and interact in the world of RuneScape.
[edit] Developing the characteristics of the fairies
We decided to make the fairies quite similar to insects with very fast beating wings and fast, erratic movements. I also wanted to stay clear from the stereotypical ‘cute’ fairy, while still keeping a delicate and feminine feel to them. Previously, all the fairies moved in a similar way, now the Fairy Queen, Godfather and his henchmen all have unique animations that set them apart. The Fairy Queen and Godfather’s movements are less erratic than the generic fairies to give them a more regal feel. The Fairy Queen’s motions are steadier and more graceful, reflecting her royalty. The Godfather is very similar to the Fairy Queen, with less movement compared to his henchmen, and he hovers with his hands behind his back to show superiority. The Godfather's henchmen both have their own unique style also. Slim Louie looks dangerous and ready for a fight and Fat Rocco is awkward and unfit - he holds on to his hat when he moves and occasionally needs to pull his trousers up.
[edit] Techniques used in animation
I wanted to produce the effect of motion blur on the fairies' wings to enhance the feeling of speed, but it is very difficult to achieve this effect without processor-heavy graphics techniques. Motion blur is an effect usually seen on film when something is moving too fast for the shutter to capture, thus resulting in a blurred image. In a game, the image is drawn to the screen as quickly as the screen can refresh, resulting in no blurred effect. In order to make the wings look as though they are moving fast enough to blur, I’ve modelled the path of the wings' motion with polygons. I can then animate the transparency value of these polygons to fake the effect of motion blur. This makes the wings look like they’re beating faster than they actually are.
I’m glad I had the chance to animate such a unique race in Runescape. This project has been a lot of fun and I hope everybody likes what we have done with the fairies.
We've animated a few of the fairies, as you can see, but we still have a fair few more to finish off before the project can to go to QA.
