People LOVE our art style and that's very much thanks to both our Art Director Fred Mangan and our 3D Artist and Animator, Mario Sena.
Want to see what goes on behind the scenes on making our monster models? Here's a look at just some of the excellent work Mario has done on Eyes of Hellfire.
Mario crafted the full 3D model, textures, rig and animations for the characters and monsters all while carefully ensuring that he kept to the key vision and concept art by Fred. You find Mario's portfolio on his Art Station!
Here's a breakdown from Mario of how the Masterpiece and Living Paintings came to be:
The Connection
Here's a Render of the Masterpiece and the Living Painting monsters! This image highlights their crucial link, as the Living Painting spawns directly from the Masterpiece.
Meet the Boss
The Masterpiece is the terrifying final boss of Scenario One: New Subjects. It's a creature made entirely of a black mass. This Render gives you a better understanding of its unique "anatomy" in the respective Orthographic views.
Front and side views, scaled up
Back and side views, scaled up again!
Topology Showcase
I modeled two distinct levels of topology for the final asset. The medium version is perfect for my portfolio, allowing for incredible detail in close-up renders. The low poly version is the one used in the game to ensure smooth, optimal performance.
Textures
This slide shows the map textures I created and used in the game to achieve the final look for both the medium and low poly models.
Animation Showcase
The Masterpiece's idle animation, exactly as it appears in the game
The full walk cycle
Attack 1 — the Ram
Attack 2 — the Gulf Attack
The vulnerable/weak point state
The Death sequence
Concept art by Fred Mangan for the Masterpiece
And back when it was called the Paint Golem!
Refined Ram Attack
This is the Attack 1 Ram animation again, but with a brand-new set of textures and lighting created specifically for rendering purposes. (Pictures in frames are not present in this one)
The same refinement applied to the Walk Cycle animation.
An Illustrative Render of the Living Paintings
Concept piece of the Living Painting, also by Fred Mangan
The Minions
The Living Paintings are minions spawned by the Masterpiece and are composed of the same black mass. This illustration provides orthographic views to clearly show their "anatomy."
This slide features the medium version topology, which I use for portfolio close-up renders.
Animation Showcase
The Living Painting's idle animation, in-game preview.
The Walk cycle
The Death sequence
The Attack
Minion Variant
This is the second version of the Living Painting found in the game, shown without the merged Painting Frame. Here are once again the Orthographic views for an anatomical breakdown.
This slide shows the low poly topology for the Living Painting model used in the game.
The same attack, but with a slight hold-up moment, as implemented in the final game.
Development Thrills!
A short video recorded during one of our boss fight tests, where we were balancing the number of Living Paintings spawned. It was such a thrilling sight, I couldn't resist sharing it with you!
