Some questions about the Al Emmo background art.

[JustLuke]

I have a few questions about the process of creating the background art for Al Emmo and I hope that this is the correct forum to ask them in. I'm sure that many people would be interested in reading the answers to these questions and I hope that someone can spare a little time to answer them.

Are the backgrounds 100% digital art or traditionally drawn/painted and then scanned? Perhaps traditionally drawn, scanned and then coloured digitally?

What steps do you take from the initial concept to producing the final artwork? And how long does it typically take to produce a background?

What art materials do you use? And what software (perhaps Photoshop or GIMP?) and art-related hardware (graphic tablets? Which kind?)

Have you learned anything from the experience of creating the background art for Al Emmo? Would you do anything differently for future products? Do you feel that your artistic skills have improved?

How many people were responsible for creating the background art? If it was more than one person then was it difficult to achieve artistic/stylistic consistency between the works of different artists?

Would you say that producing the art assets for the game was one of the most time consuming parts of creating Al Emmo?

[GameDevBrit]

Hey JustLuke,

These are some great questions.  Being the art director, I will go ahead and try to answer them for you:

Most of the backgrounds were drawn on thick paper, about 7" by 5".  I then painted them using acrylic paints.  That image was then scanned onto the computer and imported into Photoshop.  I would then spend time detailing each picture.  In the beginning, I used the mouse to add details, but thankfully, I graduated to using a WACOM tablet (which made the process much more enjoyable and less carpel-tunnel inducing!).  Creating the drawing and painting would take about 5 hours (although quite a bit of time went into planning the world and creating the initial concepts).  The detailing process in Photoshop took a good 18 hours or so a piece, sometimes a little more.  Near the end of the background creating process, I realized that I could also skip out on the painting process using acrylics, and could do the initial colorizations in Photoshop.  So, some of the images were created completely digitally.

I have learned from the experience, that it is painful creating that many backgrounds and can lead to a bit of burnout!  I would say, next time, I will spend more time discussing EXACTLY what is needed before jumping to work.  A lot of changes were necessary after spending unbelievable amounts of time making artwork.  The last thing you want to hear, after touching up a picture for 18 hours, is that it's not going to work and either won't be used, or needs to be redone again.  I would definitely say that by creating literally hundreds of pieces of artwork, that I received a lot of practice, and continually see myself improving.

I would say that I was mainly responsible for background art.  A few of the interior concepts were drawn by somebody else, and I was responsible for coloring them.  The artist who drew those concepts is highly talented, and I often asked him to add lighting edits once I was done with a background.  I really respect his work. At other times, a team member would help with the initial colorizations of a background, laying out the base colors.  This same team member added some edits of his own to my backgrounds, and every so often, would include a piece of his own work in the game.  I think having fewer artists did make it easier to keep a consistent style; if we added more background artists to the team, it would have been necessary to define exactly what colorscheme and artistic style we were going for.

You know, each department has had one hell of a time creating the massive amounts of assets that were needed for Al Emmo.  Each department is pretty small, so each person is responsible for doing a LOT of work.  I'm majorly impressed with the work that Daniel has done on the screenplay and writing up vast quantities of descriptions.  I am amazed with the amount of top-notch music that was created by Tom and Dianne and Quest Studios.  I'm impressed with how much work went into the coding and testing of the game.  And I would include myself in there--I am amazed I was able to create so many backgrounds, characters, transition screens, comic book colorizations, etc.  Looking back on it now, if I'd known how much work needed to be done artwork wise, I think it would have been intimidating to begin the process!!

Luckily, we all took it one step at a time, and now we are at the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's a good feeling to know we've come this far, and that all of our efforts have paid off, and we have a completed project we can be proud of

Thanks again for your questions!

[rugged]

I am wondering if you have considered something like running a competition to win one of the original background paintings for the game. That would be cool! Something like anyone who purchased the game in the first month goes into the draw.

[GameDevBrit]

Hey Rugged,

Thanks for the post.  We have actually discussed this idea in the past, but haven't decided on the details yet or if we can make it reality.  That is a really cool idea though--I was always a HUGE fan of the Sierra background art, and it would have meant a lot to me to have a chance to win a piece of it!

We'll definitely continue taking this into consideration

[JustLuke]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my pesky questions. I re-read my post just now - Yikes! It was almost a mini-interview!

I'm very interested in the development of creating Al-Emmo. I worked in the game industry for Infogrames/Atari in the past but, sadly, I have never been involved in the development of a classic-style adventure game, nor in the development of a commercial independent game, and I am very curious about your work and experiences.

May I pick your brains about a few other things in the future?

[navynuke04]

What games did you work on, Luke?

[JustLuke]

Nothing decent, I'm afraid. Infogrames is the worst sort of faceless, corporate publisher. It's been quite a few years now but, in no particular order, here's a list..

Actua Soccer 2
Actua Ice Hockey
Actua Ice Hockey 2
Actua Soccer 3
Hardwar
Soulbringer
Hogs of War
Wacky Races
Superman: Shadow of Apokolips
Superman: The Man of Steel
Driver 2
Digimon World
Grand Theft Auto 2
Tanktics
Wild Metal Country
Taz: Wanted

I think that about covers it, but I'm bound to be forgetting some of them.

[GameDevBrit]

Most definitely

[NightShift]

Hey, I loved soulbringer!

[Tom Lewandowski]

Thanks to Eriq, we can now proudly display a poster with the only early mockup of the game artwork in our music room!  Thank you, Eriq!

[navynuke04]

Definately no fair!

Maybe I'll have to post a picture of my signed copy of the preliminary soundtrack CD!  

[Tom Lewandowski]

I forgot to mention; the poster is also signed by Eriq.    Can't wait 'til I can add the AL EMMO II poster alongside this one!

[GameDevBrit]

That looks INCREDIBLE, Tom!! Thanks for posting...makes me want to play Al Emmo

[Tom Lewandowski]

Strange, isn't it ---- made me feel the exactly the same way!  It's also a real inspirational addition to our studio; makes me feel musically creative.  

[Angelus3K]

Wow Luke! I loved Hogs of War!! I'll have to dig that out and play it again. What did you think of it?

[Daniel]

I can't believe what a tidy studio Mr. Lewandowski has The poster looks very cool.

Very interesting to read what you all have done. I would'nt have guessed there was that much work to be done on each picture.

I'm also thinking that perhaps I should change my username, did'nt know there was a Daniel on the team, and I'd hate to have people confuse him with me.