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,
00:26so in this dev video we want to take you through the process of how we create a creature from the very beginning
00:31all the way through the various stages of development.
00:34We'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.
00:48Here we're focused on exploring a wide range of shapes and silhouettes.
00:51It 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.
01:03Those four tentacles, the 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,
01:16so 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 on Subnautica 2.
02:05And 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,
02:16that I then start 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,
02:34where I establish a strong base that I can put upon.
02:37After that's done, I start building the model's structure,
02:41and 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,
02:55so that in the end it looks just right.
03:02And after many hours of work,
03:04here's the final sculpt.
03:05After you get the sculpt done,
03:10we 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,
03:17and that you can see now.
03:18Thank you for watching,
03:23and I can't wait for you guys to see this in-game.
03:30Hey everybody, my name is Colin Knipple,
03:32I'm the principal animator on Subnautica 2,
03:34I've been with the studio since Natural Selection 2,
03:36and I was lead animator on the past two Subnautica projects.
03:39We animators that own worlds like to wear a lot of hats in our department,
03:42so I'll be showing you some of the rigging work I did on the Collector Leviathan.
03:45Something different we did for Subnautica 2 is that we're using Blender.
03:49Blender is an open source project,
03:50meaning 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 the start of Subnautica,
03:57but it really hit its strides around the time of below zero,
03:59and it felt production ready when we began this project.
04:02I've enjoyed using the rapidly developing software,
04:05and 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.
04:18With 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,
04:25so this has been a lot of fun for me.
04:28What Control Rigs have allowed us to do is build our cinematics within our game world.
04:32With 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.
04:42The Collector Leviathan has been a labor of love for a while now.
04:46I think we have a great team on it,
04:48and I hope you all enjoy this new terror when Subnautica 2 comes to Early Access.
04:52Thanks for watching!
04:53Hello, 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
05:24with 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.
05:48So, additional animation technologies were leveraged, such as physical animation and control rig.
05:55This allowed that to take place.
05:57Finally, a custom-built synchronization system for animation
06:02for the complex interactions when the tentacle grabs the player or vehicle.
06:09When all the systems are working together,
06:12this provides a fairly cool visual experience for the Collector Leviathan when it grabs the player.
06:20Hi everyone, I'm Luis, 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.
06:36The first step is a design document where ideas are outlined for achieving the desired challenge level and emotional tone.
06:43Here, I detail the sequence for when the Collector has grabbed the player
06:47and is about to swallow them whole, using storyboards and references to complement the detailed brief.
06:53Because of my past experience as an animator,
06:55I 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,
07:09I can start refining my animation curves, which track the position, rotation, and scale of every part of the rig.
07:16After days of fine-tuning, incorporating feedback, and the occasional raging of my screen,
07:22I handed off the finished file to be incorporated into the game.
07:26Of course, animation is only part of it.
07:29Visual effects, sound effects, simulations,
07:31these 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,
07:45providing extensive control over every element of the behavior.
07:49From general conditions under which the creature appears,
07:53to its speed and weight,
07:54to its moment-to-moment decision-making,
07:57based on the environment as well as the player's actions,
08:00every aspect is accounted for.
08:02As you can see here, it's spotted the player from afar,
08:06and now that it's close enough,
08:08well, dinner time.
08:10It's always so satisfying to see all the elements come together
08:14after a month of hard work alongside talented colleagues.
08:17And the Viathans make this extra special.
08:19I really can't wait for everyone to experience the end result.
08:25Hi, I'm Lauren Lador.
08:27I'm a VFX artist on Sumnotica Tube.
08:29Here, you can see me prototyping the Leviathan's mood feature,
08:33using shaders in Unreal Engine 5.
08:35The FX has to translate the gameplay into visual cues for the player,
08:39but also, it needs to sell the idea that this is an alien creature,
08:43not just a gameplay element.
08:44Let's take a look at its exhaust vents.
08:47Different layers of a particle system create this effect.
08:50We ask questions like,
08:52is this emitting energy?
08:53Does it need more bubbles?
08:54We start from a simple base,
08:56and then we continue to iterate
08:58until the final product you will get to see in the game.
09:01Hi, I am Antonio, AI gameplay lead in Sumnotica 2.
09:11Today, I want to show you how we create creature behaviors.
09:15We use what we call classic AI.
09:19Here, you can see Unreal Engine behavior trees.
09:22In this demo, I want to distract the Leviathan with flares.
09:27To achieve that, I will be using our stimulus system.
09:30As you can see, it's pretty easy to add nodes, conditions,
09:35and connect them like a flowchart.
09:37Once the game is running,
09:39the creature will follow this blueprint to decide what to do.
09:42And there it goes.
09:46The Leviathan is now chasing the flares instead of me.
09:49Pretty cool.
09:50Our main goal with creatures was to make them feel reactive.
09:54We have improved the hero trees to use dual utility reasoning,
09:58so the creature is constantly re-evaluating the situation in real time.
10:04Of course, it is difficult to process all this information.
10:08We have developed powerful debugging tools
10:11so designers can actually see what's happening.
10:14Can't wait for you to discover all the cool behaviors we have created.
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