- 7 months ago
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🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00Hey, I'm Cory Strader. I was Art Director on Subnautica 1 and Below Zero, and on Subnautica 2 I'm the Visual Development Lead.
00:22We know fans have been looking forward to learning more about the creatures in Subnautica 2.
00:27So in this dev video we want to take you through the process of how we create a creature from the very beginning all the way through the various stages of development.
00:35We're going to show you how we created the Collector Leviathan, starting at the beginning with the concept art.
00:43The visual design for this Leviathan started with multiple rounds of quick, low detail thumbnail sketches.
00:49Here we're focused on exploring a wide range of shapes and silhouettes.
00:52It was important to find a look that both aligned with the design brief and was distinct from the Leviathans in our previous Subnautica games.
00:59Out of all these designs, this Cthulhu-inspired beast resonated with the team.
01:03There's four tentacles to grab, crush, swat, and terrify players.
01:07The next pass, though still rough, reworked the head and body and added some color and patterning.
01:12We wanted to move it further from the giant squid look and add an element of surprise to the design,
01:17so we explored having the body split open to reveal a glowing internal structure.
01:21Further refinements and iterations on various elements followed.
01:25Explorations of different looks for the internal structure, mouth anatomy, head patterning, and deadly tentacle tips.
01:31Eventually, we ended up with this final concept of the Leviathan in all of its nightmarish glory.
01:37As a final note, the concepting doesn't always stop once a creature has entered production.
01:41At multiple points after the first pass on the model had been done, and we'd had a chance to see it in game,
01:46we did paint overs to improve the head patterns and reworked the mouth design.
01:50Hope you enjoyed this look at how we concepted the Collector Leviathan.
02:00Hi, my name is Marcelo, and I'm the lead character artist in Subnautica 2.
02:04And today, I'm going to give you guys a quick glance behind the curtain on the process of modeling the Collector Leviathan.
02:11As with pretty much all creatures that we make, it starts out as a single sphere, then it then starts modeling its shape.
02:18This process is very similar to traditional clay sculpting.
02:22At this point, I'm focusing on getting the main forms and proportions of a creature down,
02:26so that I have everything where I need it without worrying about detail.
02:31This is by far the most important part of the whole process, where I establish a strong base that I can put upon.
02:38After that's done, I start building the model structure, and this is where I can have some fun making it look and feel believable.
02:46As this guy is very large, it takes a lot of detail to make sure that it holds up in quality up close.
02:52And that means many, many hours of drawing little wrinkles and pores, so that in the end it looks just right.
03:02And after many hours of work, here's the final sculpt.
03:08After we get the sculpt done, we go through a lot of technical processes and iterations that I won't bore you with,
03:14until we get to the final resulting engine that we can play with and that you can see now.
03:18Thank you for watching, and I can't wait for you guys to see this in-game.
03:24Hey everybody, my name is Collin Knipple, I'm the principal animator on Subnautica 2.
03:34I've been with the studio since Natural Selection 2, and I was lead animator on the past two Subnautica projects.
03:38We animators that own worlds like to wear a lot of hats in our department, so I'll be showing you some of the rigging work I did on Collector Leviathan.
03:44Something different we did for Subnautica 2 is that we're using Blender. Blender is an open source project, meaning all of you can go and download to use this tool for free right now.
03:54Blender was a tool we investigated way back to start at Subnautica, but it really hit its strides around the time of below zero, and it felt production ready when we began this project.
04:02I've enjoyed using the rapidly developing software, and I'm pleased to know our fans can get inspired by using the same software the Subnautica devs use.
04:10Another new aspect of Subnautica is our use of Unreal and our adoption of Unreal Control Rigging.
04:15The workflow has some cool innovations new to rigging systems. With this new tool, we can bring previously impossible rigging techniques into our game.
04:22I love learning new systems and seeing what I can get out of them, so this has been a lot of fun for me.
04:27What Control Rigs have allowed us to do is build our cinematics within our game world. With this, we can build nuance and exciting cinematics faster than we could have dreamed with our previous tools.
04:38These new tools will allow us to push cinematics and creature interactions to a new level of immersion.
04:43The Collective Leviathan has been a labor of love for a while now. I think we have a great team on it, and I hope you all enjoy this new terror when Subnautica 2 comes to Early Access.
04:57Hello, my name is Stefan Sorensen, and I am the Senior Tentacle Animator on Subnautica 2.
05:03And in this video, we're going to discuss the tentacle animation tech that I worked on for the Collector Leviathan.
05:12So, to start off, for its general movement, the tentacles operate within Unreal's physics system.
05:20I set up how the tentacles react and simulate within the world with an aim to give a sense of weight and flow within water,
05:31and making them feel more grounded and realistic within the world.
05:37Now, one of the challenges was to have the player or vehicle interact with the tentacles while they were simulating.
05:47So, additional animation technologies were leveraged, such as physical animation and control rig.
05:54This allowed that to take place.
05:58Finally, a custom-built synchronization system for animation for the complex interactions when the tentacle grabs the player or vehicle.
06:09When all the systems are working together, this provides a fairly cool visual experience for the Collector Leviathan when it grabs the player.
06:24Hi everyone, I'm Louis, designer on Subnautica 2, currently focusing my work on Leviathans in the game.
06:31Here, I will walk you through some of the process for developing one of our main Leviathans, the Collector.
06:37The first step is a design document where ideas are outlined for achieving the desired challenge level and emotional tone.
06:44Here, I detail the sequence for when the Collector has grabbed the player and is about to swallow them whole,
06:49using storyboards and references to complement the detailed brief.
06:53Because of my past experience as an animator, I was also able to jump in and help out with some of the animations on the creatures as well, including this one.
07:01This sequence was done directly in Unreal, using its native animation tools.
07:06After putting in the main poses and deciding on the overall beats, I can start refining my animation curves,
07:12which track the position, rotation and scale of every part of the rig.
07:15After days of fine tuning, incorporating feedback and the occasional raging of my screen, I handed off the finished file to be incorporated into the game.
07:26Of course, animation is only part of it. Visual effects, sound effects, simulations, these are all layered by other team members to enhance the moment.
07:34On the implementation side, we use lots of built-in Unreal tools such as the behavior tree.
07:41However, our engineers also provide custom-made tools based on design needs, providing extensive control over every element of the behavior.
07:48From general conditions under which the creature appears, to its speed and weight, to its moment-to-moment decision-making, based on the environment as well as the player's actions, every aspect is accounted for.
08:03As you can see here, it's spotted the player from afar, and now that it's close enough, well, dinner time.
08:09It's always so satisfying to see all the elements come together after a month of hard work alongside talented colleagues.
08:17And Leviathans make this extra special. I really can't wait for everyone to experience the end result.
08:26Hi, I'm Lauren Adol, I'm a VFX artist on Somnodica 2.
08:30Here, you can see me prototyping the Leviathan's mood feature, using shaders in Unreal Engine 5.
08:34The FX has to translate the gameplay into visual cues for the player, but also, it needs to sell the idea that this is an alien creature, not just a gameplay element.
08:45Let's take a look at its exhaust vents.
08:48Different layers of a particle system create this effect.
08:51We ask questions like, is this emitting energy? Does it need more bubbles?
08:55We start from a simple base, and then, we continue to iterate until the final product you will get to see in the game.
09:01Thank you for watching and see you soon.
09:07Hi, I am Antonio, AI gameplay lead in Somnodica 2.
09:12Today, I want to show you how we create creature behaviors.
09:16We use what we call classic AI. Here, you can see Unreal Engine behavior trees.
09:23In this demo, I want to distract the Leviathan with flares.
09:27To achieve that, I will be using our stimulus system.
09:31As you can see, it's pretty easy to add nodes, conditions, and connect them like a flowchart.
09:38Once the game is running, the creature will follow this blueprint to decide what to do.
09:42And... there it goes! The Leviathan is now chasing the flare instead of me. Pretty cool!
09:50Our main goal with creatures was to make them feel reactive.
09:55We have improved the hero trees to use dual utility reasoning, so the creature is constantly reevaluating the situation in real time.
10:04Of course, it is difficult to process all this information.
10:09We have developed powerful debugging tools so designers can actually see what's happening.
10:14Can't wait for you to discover all the cool behaviors we have created.
10:18We have created.
10:22Want to know more? Come join our Discord and follow our social channels.
10:26Clear!
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