September 10th, 2024 Livestream

Special Guests: Anna & Torsten

https://youtube.com/embed/1GH5SZkrv2M?autoplay=1&start=2911&end=4446

Topics

• Concept Art
• Environment > Biomes > Grass Fields
• Technology > Physics
• Features > Pioneer
• Satisfactory Updates > Released > Satisfactory 1.0
• Special Guests
• Environment > Biomes > Spire Coast
• Satisfactory Updates > Teasers & Trailers
• Environment > Biomes > Titan Forest
• Coffee Stainers > Torsten
• Coffee Stainers > Anna
• Features > Buildings > Alien Power Augmenter

Transcript

out at some point, so that side just to make sure all right and I am no longer alone I have guests welcome to the set Anna and toron hello hello who are you and what do you do after you yeah yeah I'm a Le 3st, and I'm art director for satisfactory good time so you do like art stuff yeah yes we draw all day yeah make we doodle all day yeah yeah I mean it's kind of true though cuz like when you're in we meetings you guys will sit like just with post this notes and like that is true that is true we doodle a lot I mean all through meetings yes yeah but it's good you need to like use your your both brains whatever the the both sides of the brain to be able to focus I guess all right yeah because it's both creative and Technical anyway so welcome we're going to talk art today we're going to talk about, I guess you guys have prepared a couple of slides that we're going to check out yes, if they want to work hello it's the stuff that we drew in posters yeah there are posts actually in this slide so it's kind of true, so before we get into that just real quick like can you just describe sort of your roles like what it entails it just just like do you actually model stuff or like how does it work you start okay okay now I start, I do, partially I'm responsible for well for art Direction which means, for, quality for visual coherence meaning whatever we create for the game needs to, visually fit the game so any any additions that we have, well they need to look good and they need to look like they fit into the world of satisfactory, apart from that I'm also, happy to be able to work Hands-On, and meaning design doing concept art and doing like over paints of stuff along the way, yeah cool y, my role is very representative I represent all the 3D artists and, also animation and vfix, and I basically sit for them in a meeting so they don't have to, but I also do some art planning and, I'm happy to be doing art myself as well, I think that's really important because you stay in touch with, with the tech and with the creative part of it and, yeah- I think it's important for leads to continue doing like actual Hands-On work as well, so yeah so what is the pipeline when like when it comes to, like H how does like something become like from nothing come into the game like what is the steps that needs to happen sort of oh it starts with an idea yeah, it starts with the question what what does the game still need what do we want in the game what do, players want in the game and then of course yeah it starts with an idea, usually driven by Design and then we try to, yeah we talk within the team between the Departments there's a lot of back and forth of what could that idea be turned into what should it be and what kind of, for example in the case of building what kind of what does what job does the building do what does it make what does it do what does it require and then we can start actually thinking about how do you build this building what does it make and how how big is it what shape or form will it have, how can we make it work and how can we make it in time and with the resources that we have with the team we have gotcha so it's many people are involved in the yeah many me many meetings and many people, but yeah and once, once the idea is conceived and, maybe there also some hopefully Concepts or sketches, we take it with 3D team and we visualize it in 3D space whatever that means it's a lot of different steps that I'm not going to go into, and depending on what what are we making if it's, something, either alive or maybe it's a new building, then also animation comes in play and, makes sure that all of these static models are animated and moving, and also quite often, vfix that's usually at like pretty much the end of it, or alongside animation and of course, there's always sound that needs to come and play and, it it's it sounds like step by step but we actually also talk a lot, while, developing something because whatever H whatever is happening other departments need to stay aware of what going on so they can also, chip in with their knowledge yeah cool so we're going to check out some like designs that that's like I guess process what am I trying to say yeah there there's there's we can we can have, we can have a little glimpse into the process, for the alien power augmentor which is one of the latest editions for 1.0, for players really exciting yeah it was it was fun A lot of work a lot of back and forth too, but, yeah we can show, just a little bit of of the process of, how the sausage is made, so yeah here it is the big laser Mach the big loud laser machine that's been yeah the big laser yeah is anything else you want to add on this or just do we just, no we can we can continue so, I many people have seen it, I'm on the wrong computer wait what so confusing there we go, so we had very early, very early sketches and ideation so, what you see for example in the in the top there's some kit bash experiments which means we just take elements in the game and parts in in the 3D space and Bash them together and see what kind of shapes what do we want what is possible and go for just play around essentially what it might be because this machine is incredibly, Advanced it's because the early machines are pretty much based on H human factories on Earth that we know like the like the, the Constructor but this one is a bit more out there so we had a little bit more fun and challenge to yeah make it whatever so we went on through idea sketches, these were done by Sophie our concept artist, just to find like a basic approach what what could it even be what is the basic shape looking into what shapes do we already have and what shapes are we still missing and what could we go for and then usually when we find something interesting we go for an, we go iterate on that idea sketch and have a bigger sketch a little bit more detail and then figure out like do we want this do we not want this and then we discuss it a little bit, and then the next step, we found another one that we kind of liked more and we iterated on that so we had, at that point it was called alien power generator which was a work working title, and yeah we got we got this thing going on and, we kind of like the over shape the levitation kind of thing so yeah and yeah we iterated on that so I do also want to add that at that point we were going into alien technology which meant very experimental very put together out of different parts but kind of more unstable than other buildings, so that was something that also, influenced the concept MH MH gotta and then if we move over here and then the next step from the basic shape was we still had the levitated levitation parts and the the arms and the the base Foundation thing of the building and, then we looked a little bit into what could it do is it just a static building or does it do stuff, does it move along kind of spoil it here in the slides a little bit well you you saw you saw in the teaser video you saw already it is you got to speculate a little bit Yeah but, it does things, we're not going into that next slide oh sh here's the block out yeah and then, usually when we think oh yeah that might be that might be cool, then what I did here is, yeah go into like an in-engine blockout which means, in the game engine we put together like the rough shape of that building, just to get an idea of how big is it how does it look from first person perspective how big should it be because of course, we need it to be connectable how many how many walls is it high and how many foundations does it cover and so it's, so figuring that out how does it feel, and where should the inputs and outputs be potentially if they have any Etc also sense of scale which always throws me off in this game especially when I'm making cinematics cuz everything looks smaller in cinematics than it is in game oh yeah, it's not until you're like even in first person sometimes you feel like you're running around you still don't really get a sense of scale CU like it feels like oh it's just you just jump up on this thing it's it's nothing but then you have the Pioneer standing there like down there is just like whoa everything is crazy big comparing to Pioneer, it it goes for factory but it's also all the world things are just incredibly big yeah it's crazy all right let's see what we got next, and then usually after the blockout when we feel like okay that could be a thing we try out some Concepts that add in a little bit more detail, this has been a concept that has not been used in this form that's also a thing, concept art gets thrown away all the time so don't get attached to a Concepts they might just be thrown in the trash because we want to revisit another idea so that's the sad reality so you iterate and iterate, so we had this first concept, and then we yeah it got changed because of the the basis was round but then again when we did a new block out with the round Foundation it didn't look as nice, and then yeah the next, step was essentially going into a little bit more detail and have the production, ready concept is that the next slide here and that will be the next one and, by production concept still it is compared to other production Concepts you would send out to sourcers or in or how other Studios generally work our concepts are relatively rough we deliberately leave in a lot of things to figure out for 3D artist because they're not, they're not work machines they're not robots they're artists so you give them the concept and they fill in a lot of the, creative gaps that are still there, so we have this is a really good plan but, yeah well we'll see how the plan goes in reality and what usually happens is then we go back and we do over paints and we check out what it, yeah what works and what doesn't work so there's a big of back and forth until we have the final, yeah the final esset for the game well that was not what that I was like and then you get to see the final thing but it was not no but, you will see the final thing in game in game exciting all right what's this next slide about, tree this is a tree obviously, something you guys know much about when the game comes out because you're not be outside for much I guess yeah that's true forget about the what these look like, so here we wanted to also talk a little bit about the environment art or the world of satisfactory and, all sorts of changes that happened there while, we were on our road to 1.0, so in this case it's a it's it's just a fun comparison of how far the Titan tree go from a very sad stump with thin branches to a very impressive tree might I say, yeah it's, and it's it's a lot of those things that, kind of shaped the the landscape and the environment and gave it a bit more character gave it a bit more believability and hopefully made it compelling to explore also it's it's probably fair to to to add that, like some of the reworks are not just not only done for like coherency and like yeah polishing up, and upping the quality but also for optimization reasons sometimes the measures, yeah need for for performance reasons some of the measures some of the game assets need to be reworked, for players to have a smoother experience yeah exactly and since these are very decorative you kind of want more more of that performance going into Factory and machines and, yeah this tree was was a mess it was a mess I kind of understand like the original intent behind it where like it's funny it's like a big thick trunk and then it's like tiny big Tres but I really prefer the the the second one like very Loft crafty and yeah horror when I when I talked to one of the artists who was here way longer than me, she said that this tree was attempted to be reworked like three or four times, it it has a very rich history but we're happy we're really happy with the result and it also creates hopefully more predictable, Collision that you can actually maybe build some tree Huts I don't know could be fun what are you doing don't kiss it sorry sorry yeah, cool so yeah next next this place got to glow up many yeah that place was quite Barren and again we put a lot of effort into dressing it up and making it more final and just in general giving it some character some recognizability, we did a lot with, just reworking the the trees and the Flora of that area but also the water was quite a big focus of that area because there's just a lot of water it's a very Coastal area so we also added some stuff in the water which we didn't do that much sadly in the game but as I would like, but it's, it just became more like tropical more colorful and Rich and, again like the the trees also inspire a lot of platforming so, yeah it's just it's just way more fun and vibrant it feels like done like it feels like it's oh it's finally a proper like place to go you know like there's so many things to see and I don't know I really like the this picture looks so good this I feel like it's spruced up even more we did yeah we this is just screenshots from the game so we did not we did there's no trickery involved like I don't remember the the water having what's it called the algae or the the oh the corals the corals having that much detail yeah they they I mean the old version was an empty canvas essentially for the factory building now you can build a factory there but you also will have to remove the gorgeous beautiful nature which is a little bit of the satirical Vibe and, because well obviously nature is nice but grown factories of course as we all know way nicer yeah and and it feels very alien too it's like yeah exactly and it's always kind of a challenge we had with keeping some of the trees recognizable so they still associate with environment or forest or jungle, but also adding here and there some alien stuff to remind you that you're still on the alien planet, and of course with the image like this there's a lot of components not just seaweed and trees it's also of course reworked water it's reworked atmosphere there's a lot going on that is hopefully coming together as just a beautiful image that is, yeah that you want to go in and explore the water I'm very excited about yes in 1.0 the water made me very happy yeah I don't feel like I highlighted that enough in the videos that I made because like the almost all water has been replaced on the map, all of it Lakes, ocean, waterfalls yeah yeah seams have been fixed up us used to be like where like oceans and rivers would meet there would be like this hard seam that now has like proper like VFX on it so you don't see it as much and all that stuff so yeah yeah exactly, and I also want to clarify something real quick because because, we talked about this a long time ago, we used to have the intention to have like the rivers would have like physics with them and we're not doing that 1.0 we decided to not do it, but the waters the all the rivers and everything have been replaced so like visually everything looks the way that we intended it for and same thing with all the waterfalls and what all right let's see what's next o grass fields yeah, something very recognizable cuz that's I mean one of the basic starting areas, again just as and example of how far we went, and this is not even the oldest image on the left, couldn't couldn't really yeah it was we just didn't have time I guess to find an older one but still, gives a pretty good, idea of, just how much more believable the grass, became and the trees and, we worked a lot on the sky as well and introduced some Vol volumetric clouds so they actually behave similarly to clouds, and of course the the sky bodies like the planets and, more stuff in the sky to see, that kind of again reminds you that you're on an alien planet, and there's, yeah there's, the Earth is not nowhere nearby yeah very nice if you haven't played this game for a few years you're in for treat in the sky like the clouds the the lighting, the the the whole mood at Sunset and Dawn couple of interstellar planets even in the sky I don't think they yeah you have like a nebula and like, the planets have been reworked so, yeah it's it's a fun space experience yeah oh we got Pioneer nice, new model and the old model Pioneer what happened there A lot happened actually, we so it all actually began with us wanting to introduce some customization and, make it so that it's possible to change colors, and then we realized that, well it's not really possible with how the model is set up and we don't have we don't have the means to fix it it's actually just easier to completely redo it, and we wanted to keep we wanted to stay true to the original design, as much as we could so it was Mo mostly about making sense with what's already there so just, improving the the harness and the belt and making it more functional looking making it look like it has a bit more thickness and weight, removing all the weird details that did make sense and just created more noise that, we just had to constantly like make look like it's not not really there on the promotional shots, so there was a lot of trickery but this this is just a cleaner nicer model with, better textures and better materials, and it is fully set up for customization so you can change the colors, you can change the orange and the blue but we also can change the overall colors which is so exciting a lot of customization because it's it's the main it's it's the biggest part of the body so it felt like it's it had to be customizable as well and I yeah what I what I really really really wanted more of is like the yeah the functionality the believability that, it was a it was already a very iconic character, for the game but I still felt like once we had to re work we might as well redesign a few elements that make it a lot more believable more grounded in our reality in our world so like the yeah like the closing like the belts how they are connected how they're closed off, you can relate to that because these things exist, might also make it a bit easier for cosplayers because these are definitely things that exist in the real world and I think we wanted to go a little bit more for that for this believability mod much cleaner so we fixed finally fixed the, this is something that me and Max have been struggling with is the the suspenders would clip into the model when you're like over again that was always a hassle when we made trailers is like all right we want to do this thing we want to turn it's like can't do that because the harness ruins it so like all right we need to like fix the shots so she turns just so it doesn't clip yeah and of course the hands the hands is something you see on screen pretty much all the time and and, honestly from artist perspective they they they were anatomically not not very accurate, they were very like thin, long fingers yeah right like I've always thought about that when I was when I was animating it because it feels like the fingers are too long they were a bit spidery yeah right it's like yeah I so we intended to fix that and, with that came realization that maybe we need to make a bit more sense of the glove as well and make it a bit more functional like something that you would actually want to wear when you're exploring or building or crafting something so, yeah, this this design came to be and, we removed a weird display I don't know what it was intended to be oh the display on like the oh there were a lot of there were a lot of details that that made it sci-fi looking but again, it it felt very cybernetic all of it and I think the vibe we needed more was was the worker yeah you were work you do work stuff you you work at a factory, and at the same time, it's worth mentioning that we we were really really wary of changing, the hands because the hands they're such an integral part of you screen the whole time so we were extra careful and iterated on it so that it's going to still fit and look good and again, you might notice also the factory color in here and, yeah you can, now we'll see customization also in first person so it's not just a multiplayer fun thing to not going to lie I don't think I've ever seen that display- I don't think I've ever notice that display that's on the old model yeah it wasn't really visible from first person yeah I don't think so damn, oh the last SL didn't update bummer oh that's a shame wait wait wait I can I can go to this camera and then I'll just do a little of I think I just need to refresh the page little magic behind the scenes no wait I don't have permission to edit this I sent it to to chat oh is it a new one, yeah there should be oh then then it might be bo oh well okay well imagine the fire everyone it was cool it was the best slide in the history of slides but, well it's lost forever and no one will see well that's how it sometimes is yeah but cool that's that's yeah- I mean I feel like in general the game has gotten a visual facelift, even for things that, like I think a lot of stuff will seem very familiar but like it just look a little bit different and I think a lot of stuff looks in general much better in like in the game even like the general lighting and all that stuff looks so much better in in 1.0 yeah everything is is everything is polished up everything is a bit more coherent of course there's also a ton of new, content a ton of new stuff to play around with, which is really really good but, yeah, yeah we're excited yeah cool it's we're I'm super happy with how it turns out, how it turned out and it's yeah it's going to be great and it's going to be available to you all in 1 hour and 50 minutes is can't wait yeah big round of applause oh just do it so many all right all right thank you so much for tuning for for coming on and, we're going to do a quick checkin with Mikel and see how the build is going oh yeah oh, but thanks for coming all right thanks for having us have fun everyone and, we're going to whoops wrong camera my bad so professional and