Models, Music and Mischief.

Hello and welcome back....wait....we're back...not you.  Welcome back us!

Lots to talk about so let's jump right in:

Models:
We're trying something new here at Skyride Studios.....more videos,  That's right, you read correctly unless you can't read then obviously you didn't.  We are going to start adding more videos of behind the scenes stuff just for you.

Up first is this timelapse we'd like to share.  After we model our buildings, we then go and add textures to the buildings, add collision proxies so that you can't run through the walls and then apply it in-game and tweak the textures until they look like whatever we set out to make them look like, I.E. concrete, glass, wood,etc.

 To do these last two steps it took us a hour and a half for just one building (City of Rain has something like 90-100 buildings) and in a attempt to keep you from watching the whole 90 minutes, we sped up the footage to 2 mins and 30 seconds. (You're welcome).  We also added a new unheard track to the timelapse so you can enjoy some music while it goes.  So here's that:




In the future expect to see these types of videos from our composer Luis and our concept artist Leandro.  These talented SOB's are still working on those videos for you as we speak...or type...or whatever.

In addition to exteriors we are also working on interiors.  Here's a screenshot of reference art and the final in-game art:

There will be final tweaks later on but the first run looks pretty good we have to admit.


In other news, I don't know how many of you went/knew about it/missed it but the amazing Los Angeles GameSoundCon happened this week and Skyride Studios sent Luis to attend.  Crazy enough the event sold out this year.  Over 300 composers/sound designers attended and Luis came back with mountains of knowledge and smiles.  Here are a few pictures he took of the event:

If anything the experience has made us want to work even harder on the game and we can't wait to attend next year.  If you end up attending the next one, hit us up at: will@skyridestudios.com and let us know.  We'd love to meet up and hang out.

As a final note, I wanted to share some of Leandro's concept art (still a work in progress).  After we completed Willow we moved on to Willows counterpart Winter.   Winter is the brains to Willow's brawn.  We first started with a few variations.

We then move on to a rough, refined draft:

And then finally the detailed finalized version we then give to our character modeler:

This time around we even gave a detailed version of his gadgets and toys:

After Winter was complete we started work on our first female character (Lielah).  Lielah is Epios's sister and the whole reason Epios goes to Rain is to look for her. (She's been kidnapped and it's your job to find out where and by who).  We chose #3, #4 and #6 as different costumes she'll have on throughout the game depending on what's happening within the story.

Just the other day Leandro sent me the rough draft of #6 Lielah:

Probably by the end of the month or so this character's concept will be completed and we will move on to the next which I'm hoping will be Metis.  Metis is one of my personal favorites and here's a little sneak peak at his description:

  

Hope that was worth the wait.  Hopefully we will be updating more frequently as we get closer to the end of the year.  Thanks for everyone's kind words and support.  It means a lot to us and please spread the word if you like what you see.  Talk care, talk soon.