Monarch Games Gallery

Task Tracker Pro Gallery

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

The following are sample projects, demos, and behind the scenes during our indie period working for Monarch Games, starting in 2011, then resuming after our time at Naughty Dog in 2019 and beyond. Much of the work invovled continues to the the present.

Visit monarchgames.net >

Task Tracker Pro Gallery

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Task Tracker Pro Experience

Task Tracker Pro, developed during the tenure at Monarch Games from 2021 to the present, surpassed the capabilities of DevTrack in supporting indie game and app development. The role involved extensive programming expertise in PHP, Javascript, HTML, CSS, and MySQL to create a robust front-end and back-end system, encompassing database programming, login mechanisms, and cybersecurity measures, all built from scratch. The tool played a pivotal role in the successful completion of prototypes, games, and websites, proving its effectiveness in revitalizing production workflows. In addition to programming, a significant focus was placed on color schemes, palettes, layouts, and designs, ensuring a visually appealing and user-friendly experience. The commitment to both technical functionality and aesthetic considerations is exemplified in projects like Bastille, Rise of the Star Kingdom, and Can You Dig It?, where Unity tools were programmed, design documents were auto-generated, and asset management was automated, showcasing versatility and impactful contributions to Monarch Games' diverse projects.

Details, Demos, & More

Behind the scenes

• The Making of Task Tracker Pro (coming soon)

See it in action

• Task Tracker List
• Can You Dig It? List
• Star Kingdom List

Demo

• Visit Task Tracker Pro.app

More apps

• Visit tools gallery >

Can You Dig It Gallery

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Can You Dig It Experience

"Can You Dig It?" emerged as a prominent project at Monarch Games from 2019 to the present, culminating in a Unity WebGL simulation demo in 2022. This immersive video game invited players on a treasure hunt to discover 100 hidden items within a park. The development integrated 65 randomized treasure types, dynamic foliage placement, and an advanced metal detection system, emphasizing gameplay intricacies. Beyond gameplay, meticulous attention was devoted to refining color schemes, color palettes, layouts, and designs to elevate the visual and user experience. The project encompassed the implementation of a store purchase system for upgrades and sales, an inventory system, and intricate vehicle mechanics for a golf kart. The final product was made accessible on Itch.io, exemplifying a harmonious integration of programming and design elements within a captivating and dynamic simulation.

Details, Demos, Videos, & More

Behind the scenes

• Design Doc
• Task Tracker List
• YouTube channel (dev videos)
• Dev Log (on itch.io)

Demo

• Play Demo on itch.io >

Rise Of The Star Kingdom GT Gallery

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Rise Of The Star Kingdom GT Experience

"Rise Of The Star Kingdom GT" experienced a notable evolution in response to App Store feedback, incorporating resource management, space battles, and 16 AI opponent variations. Aerial space battles featuring StarCraft-style ship management for in-game upgrades and level-ups played a central role, emphasizing the objective of conquering all planets in the galaxy.

Details, Demos, Videos, & More

Behind the scenes

• Design Doc
• Task Tracker List
• YouTube channel (dev videos)

Demo

• Play Demo >

Rise Of The Star Kingdom Gallery

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Rise Of The Star Kingdom Experience

Developed in 2019 for MacOS, "Rise Of The Star Kingdom" introduced a space strategy game inspired by "Galactic Empire." This project involved the creation of AI enemies, a procedurally generated star map, and HUD controls, enabling players to strategically attack territories for galactic conquest. The release marked a milestone for Mac OS, showcasing a blend of programming and design elements, including color schemes, color palettes, and layouts, which collectively enhanced the visual and interactive aspects of the game.

Details, Demos, Videos, & More

Behind the scenes

• YouTube channel (dev videos)
• Visit the original Star Kingdom (v1.6) Page

Full Game (Release 2020)

• Visit the app store!
  Play on MacOS >

Red Vs Blue Gallery [WebGL | Demo]

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Red Vs Blue Experience

The strategic prototype known as "Red Versus Blue" emerged also in 2019, introducing a unique iteration on Reversi termed "50 state Reversi." This innovative game utilized a map of the United States, attributing points to players based on the presidential electoral college system. The gameplay, akin to Red and Blue Reversi, determined victory by awarding allegiance to the player with the majority of chips on the board. Notably, the AI difficulty dynamically adjusted according to state points, ranging from California at 100% difficulty to Maine at 1%. Beyond programming intricacies, considerable attention was dedicated to color schemes, palettes, layouts, and designs to enhance the visual and interactive aspects of the game, ensuring a captivating and strategic gaming experience.

Demo

• Play Red Versus Blue >

Proton Rush Gallery [WebGL | Demo]

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Proton Rush Experience

"Proton Rush," aptly nicknamed "Protoss Rush," emerged as an action strategy prototype inspired by StarCraft's Protoss gameplay. The game presented players with the strategic challenge of determining the placement of defense turrets while navigating waves of formidable giant spider attacks. Drawing further inspiration from the gameplay mechanics of Plants Versus Zombies, the AI patterns and wave-based structure added a layer of complexity and excitement to the gaming experience. Beyond the programming intricacies, a significant emphasis was placed on color schemes, palettes, layouts, and designs to enhance the visual and interactive elements of the game, ensuring a captivating and immersive strategy gaming encounter.

Videos

• Playthrough Demo 1 (10mins) >
• Playthrough Demo 2 (5 mins) >

Black Bastille Gallery

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Black Bastille Experience

In 2019, "Bastille," a role-playing prototype, emerged from scratch with the ambitious goal of crafting a Diablo clone. Using Hero Quest as a foundational framework, the development involved the creation of intricate systems, including spell casting, click-and-point mechanics, AI waypoints, level-ups, and inventory systems. Drawing inspiration from World of Warcraft, the prototype implemented mission objective mechanics, adding depth to the gameplay experience. A significant aspect of the project was the focus on color schemes, color palettes, and layouts, complementing the programming efforts. Notably, the creation of character art for cutscene moments further enriched the immersive narrative of the game. The attention to detail in both programming and design elements resulted in a cohesive and visually engaging prototype that showcased the versatility and proficiency in game development at Monarch Games.

Video

• Playthrough Demo (8mins) >

Marble Maze Gallery [WebGL | Demo]

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Marble Maze Experience

In 2019, the Marble Maze LX prototype emerged as a fresh take on the 2011 version, infusing authentic AI mechanics from PacMan into the game, adorned with a Tron-inspired aesthetic. Within the Monarch Games realm from 2011 to 2012, tasks included lighting and rendering responsibilities utilizing Maya, Photoshop, and Mental Ray. This involved scripting dynamic light changes, special effects, and gameplay events through C# and Javascript. The revitalized rendition years later featured enhanced audio mechanics synchronized with player speed, alongside the addition of collisions and trigger points for game initiation and completion. The hybrid nature of "Marble Maze LX" blended the essence of PacMan and Marble Madness, challenging players to collect pellets in a maze while strategically avoiding enemies. The progression to subsequent levels depended on the complete collection of all pellets, showcasing a harmonious integration of programming prowess with color schemes, palettes, layouts, and designs to elevate the overall gaming experience.

Demo

• Play Demo >

Spacetriss Gallery

gallery screenshots or revolving splash

Spacetriss Experience

"Spacetriss" and its 2019 counterpart, "Spacetriss Remix," stand out as key projects within the 2011-2012 period at Monarch Games. During this time, the focus shifted from solo game development to a robust toolchain development for seamless asset conversion from PC to Android using Unity. The creation of an innovative exporter, influenced by Infinity Ward's Launcher, streamlined the Android export process. Active participation in lighting and rendering tasks, employing tools such as Maya, Photoshop, and Mental Ray, contributed to the aesthetic refinement of "Spacetriss" through carefully crafted sketched paintovers. The subsequent development of "Spacetriss Remix" showcased a distinctive fusion of Tetris and Space Invaders, featuring dynamic camera perspective shifts per level. This hybrid prototype, tailored for iPad and Apple Arcade, seamlessly integrated shooting mechanics, matching, and collision functionalities, drawing inspiration for in-game rewards from "Bejeweled." These projects underscore the harmonious integration of programming expertise with color schemes, palettes, layouts, and designs, resulting in a captivating and visually engaging gaming experience.

Details, Demos, Videos, & More

Behind the scenes

• Design Doc
• Task Tracker List
• Playthrough Demo (5mins)

Demo

• Play Demo >

The Compass of Imagination

Compass of Imagination Teaser

In the 2016 indie project "Compass of Imagination," the role of Director of Photography was undertaken to oversee color grading, lighting, and set design for a co-written TV series pitch aimed at Netflix. The project, co-created and directed by Louis 'Yosh' Bolivar, immersed itself in the realms of a Spielberg-class 80s magic-style fantasy thriller short, as portrayed in the gallery. The overall production time was about 3 months of planning, a week to shoot, and about 18 months on post and visual effects.

Compass of Imagination Production Screenshots

gallery screenshots

This comprehensive depiction of the project includes exploration of the color palette, behind-the-scenes production photos, work-in-progress CG, and a link to the screenplay. The gallery encompasses props, HDRI reflection probes utilized for the compass and composition, before-and-after images demonstrating raw versus final stages (if applicable), an explanation of the production process, a map of the Compass world, and photographs showcasing the integration of compasses into the overall work. In terms of written material, besides the graphic novel and inital screenplay, there's actually three seasons worth of story. But due to time and budget constraints, the web comic served as a prequel and preview of what's to come.

Compass of Imagination Pre-Production Screenshots

gallery screenshots

While currently on pause, the collective experience of working on this project proved enjoyable and insightful. Due to an overwhelming passion for games, it was put on hold in the short term with the aspiration to potentially assume the role of showrunner in the future, should the opportunity arise. It was originally concieved when Louis 'Yosh' Bolivar attempted a storyboard animatic for Dreamworks. While it wasn't accepted, it inspired us to push it further into a full blown epic.

Compass of Imagination Pre-Production Concepts

gallery screenshots

We also wrote a 300 page novel for the project, unpublished. Due to scheduling conflicts, and the soul searching desire to focus on games, we had to hit pause on this. While we plan to publish it someday, most efforts in this direction went toward the comic, since it would allow us to share the full vision of the story without worrying about budget. Here you'll see some of the covers for the novel and some promotional material created for the project. Most of our work was in the graphic design layout while the illustrations were done by various artists we hired for marketing and promotion.

Details, Demos, Videos, & More

Behind the scenes

• Read Episode One Screenplay
• Preview Three-Season Series Outline

More

• The Compass of Imagination Graphic Novel >

The Last of Us: Part 2 Gallery (Limited)

The Last of Us: Part 2 Production Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Beyond the initial lighting pass for The Last of Us: Part 2 in areas like The Coast, Downtown Seattle, The Gate, and The Island, efforts transitioned toward technical support and software updates. The development of a runtime lighting preset tool proved instrumental, saving 80% of development time by incorporating post-processing, weather, and dynamic time of day functionalities. Although proprietary tools can't be directly showcased, a detailed explanation and diagrams can provide insight into the thought process and creation of these tools, adhering to discretion and avoiding violations of NDA terms.

The Last of Us: Part 2 Tool Example screenshots

Note: We can't reveal all of the tools developed for the project but might be
able to design examples of what they did and how they worked.

In the capacity of a Technical Artist for Naughty Dog from 2017 to 2019, substantial contributions were made, particularly in the development of innovative lighting tools for the game. Spearheading this endeavor, a suite of preset functionalities and streamlined shortcuts was introduced, resulting in an impressive 400% increase in workflow speed. Notably, a preset lighting system for post-processing was created, automating the generation of dynamic time of day, snow, rain, and fog within seconds. This system, accessible through a dropdown menu, enabled the automatic adjustment of hundreds of post controls, providing a quick yet shippable look of a level.

More

• The Last of Us Gallery >
• Tools Gallery >
• Uncharted:Lost Legacy Gallery >

Check it out

• Play The Last of Us 2 >

Uncharted: Lost Legacy Gallery

Homecoming Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Homecoming

* Implemented spherical harmonics, post effects, and meticulous color adjustments to refine the lighting for the "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" Homecoming scene featuring Chloe and Nadine in the Jeep. The scripting involved seamless blends between interactive elements and the background, requiring precision to maintain consistent color values for the Jeep, characters, and their interaction with light and shadow. This process aimed to eliminate visible discrepancies or seams. The chosen color palette focused on warm earth tones juxtaposed with cool greens and blues, contributing to a tranquil and wondrous atmosphere.

Western Ghants Exterior Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Western Ghants

* In Western Ghats, the lighting and post processing extends the established color palette from Homecoming. Focusing on maintaining visual continuity, conveying the ongoing story, adventure, and player progression became a primary goal. The color palette, defined by warm earth tones complemented by cool greens and blues, takes a pivotal role in evoking a sense of ease and wonder. A large runtime light in the vista with a shadow shaped gobo faked the illusion of sunlight, giving the vistas more depth and variation than a default directional light. It was a pain to optimize and quite the hack but it worked and resulted in a better look and feel.

In order to blend all the foliage with the envrinoment, another script was written to auto-detect their placement in the enviroment, importing their locations to generate a blending node for each since they were also dynamic and had to appear as one with the background geometry. This way, even if the environment changed, bounce color and shadow for the foliage would update accordingly. Given tight dealines and the scope of the work, it was honestly a miracle but it worked out!

One of the levels in the game was titled "hub-plot-waterfalls" and one night during a long dev session, the title just got to our head. For some reason there was something catchy and rhythmic about those words. Given it was the holidays, it reminded of that Christmas song "here comes Santa Clause". We sang it to our supervisor Mark Shoaf, who then contributed to the lyrics. Below is the song we came up with:

Hub-Plot-Waterfalls (to the tune of Here Comes Santa Clause)

Written by Gabe Betancourt and co-written Mark Shoaf

• [Verse 1]
• Hub plot waterfalls
• Hub plot waterfalls
• Hub plot wah-terrr fallss
• Hub to the plot to the hub to the plot to hub plot water falls
• Hub to the plot to the plot to the hub to plots water fall
• Plot water falls hub plot to the water, plot hub falls to the hub
• So hang your stockings and say your prayers
• 'Cause Hub plot waterfalls

Note: This is what a couple of late nighters do to developers.

Western Ghants Temple Screenshots

gallery screenshots

In the Axe Statue temple there was a lot of back and fourth about the lighting direction but we came to a compromise so that it would come from one side yet from the outside exposure still be omnidirectional so the room would have a top-down /bright-dark effect. Each statue had metticulous reflection placement to make the most of this directional look which is what really makes their spec highlights pop out. It was important to also do the same for each platform given how most of the runtime objects were huge and in the beginning blended poorly with the environment. By strategic placement of runtime lights and reflection probes, we were able to create a seamless blend between dynamic objects and the environment. Kudos to material artist Matthew Treyvons and the environment team for their polish work with shaders, textures, and enviroment details which helped a lot in making these seamless blends happen.

Western Ghants Towers Screenshots

gallery screenshots

The towers within Wester Ghats hub level were a challenge since it was one of the largest levels, if not the most massive in the game. Tools had to be written on the fly to help with the automation of reflection, harmonics, and post processing to unify multiple assets in various locations in one. Some of the door towers had to be scripted as they opened and closed to blend brightness with exposure so it would fit with the environment as much as possible. The biggest feat of all was the creation of a system that read the sun and sky info as far as color and direction and have them batch update on the fly across more than dozens of files to make a massive level with major changes and interdependences appear as though they were one.

Western Ghants Underwater Screenshots

gallery screenshots

There was a joke in the studio if two people in were struck by lighting and died, there the entire water system would be in jeopardy. We were lucky to be half of that team as well as to not get harmed by bad weather. The look of underwater was a challenge but was built on similar approach from Uncharted 4. Starting with the color palette, it had to match reference found from actual rivers in India near that region. It's tyically colored by moss, foliage, and soil, therefore we borrowed a lot from the envinroment and decided on a muted cool blue with a hint of green.

The base later was cool blue but with second and third layers were turquise and green. When the player would dive deep or rise to the surface, each layer would activite accodingly giving the illustion of explosing a large body of water. Rain particles were reused to recreate plankton and bubbles. The biggest challenge was the lighting. We had to fake the look of light rays from the surface by using a combination of volumetric fog and a directional light with a gobo. When combined with some post-fx vinetting, as well as suble glow and depth of field, it gave the illusion of being underwater. Dynamic lights were scripted on and off as the player approached the surface or dove in.

The secret to aa good underwater look at runtime is to think in layers and build color based on depth. Objects change color and visibilty based on distance, therefore it's important to think of the water as a volume and build the look from there.

Western Ghants Example screenshots

Note: We can't reveal all of the tools developed for the project but might be
able to design examples of what they did and how they worked.

We can't reveal all of the tools developed for the project due to propriety reasons but can share the thought process behind the tools written to make the massive undertaking of Western Ghats possible. Most of it was predicated on the idea if it takes 100 steps to accomplish something, we should be able to reduce it as much as possible. In many cases we were able to iterate on lighting with just a few steps meaning we could hit a few buttons and update 20 to 30 times a day what would normally take hours and multiple steps to get one to three iterations at a time. It's what made the creation, update, and maintence as the team rushed large collections of geometry into the game possible to keep up with in a timely manner.

More

• Uncharted 4: Among Thieves Gallery >
• The Last of Us Gallery >

Check it out

• Play Uncharted: Lost Legacy >

Uncharted 4: Among Thieves

Madagascar Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Madagascar

Most of Magascar was lit by Ai-Fen Lo. She formed the base palette of deep warm bounce tones and light blue ambient hues with tinges of saturated reds to compliment the clay dirt and clear blue skies of Madagascar's environment. We joined to help out with Avery's Tower, one of the twelve in what would prove to be one of the largest levels in the game. Some of the biggest challenges was ensuring all of the sections worked on and its color palette of browns, deep warms, muted greens, and light blues would blend with the rest of the level, especially when connected exterior with interior assets.

Courtyard gallery

Modeled by Jose Vega and textured by John Schmidt, the courtyard features large sections of envinroment that would collapsed during a desctible event, a pinhole roof, and a cutscene invovling Drake, Sam, and Sully. The challenge of this scene was to ensure the lighting would blend well on large objects as well as work with the cinematics as a strong foundation. It was also important to ensure the runtime lights would script in and out of gameplay without noticeable changes.

Another challenge was manging multiple exposure levels for the camera as Drake would move under and over the stairs and deeper recesses of the courtyard. Balancing shadows and highlights in a way that's believable, deep, consistent, fast to keep with player twitch movement withouth the risk of too much over or under exposure as well as ensuring players don't feel dizzy doing so was a large part of making this level work.

The toughest part of all happened at the last minute when then president Nate Wells pointed out the crevice Drake sneaks in to get to this room didn't have enough light. We had to script a special runtime light to make that moment of "aha" before the player enters the room work. As a bonus, it gave Nathan Drake an added rim light which made his entrance and that moment more epic, a happy accident!

Hallway gallery

A classic example of "shoebox" lighting, we were lucky this section was small and had a slight opening for us to make the most of bounce and give it a greater sense of depth. Oftentimes a pinhole time environment can be a lighter's dream for the sense of direction and drama it can bring. While it takes more polish to pull off when blending runtime objects with environment in this scenario, the visual reward is almost always worht it.

Secret Room gallery

The fun part of this room was scripting the runtime light to come up when Drake would uncover the wall. It felt like a Zelda classic moment. The downside was not being able to much much bounce but instead use just enough direction ambience to keep the room from feeling too flat. It's in the darks and shadows where too much work can be invovled in getting the level to look decent because we're often fighting different montiors and calibrations. Everyone loves their own TV settings but for Lighting on levels like these, it's the ultimate game of whack-a-mole.

Luckily by this time, Waylon Brinck had implememnted a color grading system using a runtime generated waveform by mapping rgb values vertically and horizontally within the 0-1 range inside the Playstation 4's GPU in-game HUD . This allowed us to make adjustments to the color and brightness within most display limits. Using this new approach, we could color grade using LUT's like pros, saving us a ton of iteration time on bakes.

By comparison, a professional color grading tool like from Blackmagic for TV and film, the company could end up spending close to $10,000 per unit alongside complex desk and cable setups. The fact that we could do this in realtime and on the fly with a few lines of code was a huge win.

Tower gallery

Blending the tower exterior with it's interior was the toughest part of this level, along with ensuring foliage from our section blended with Ai-Fen's. Also, there was a major post processing pop between our areas that required a new solution: create a base setting for the level, then add overrides per section. While it was a major pain because it required re-doing all the work that had been approved, it made blending different parts of this massive level, including the tower, a dream. Once Drak entered and exited the level, exposure pops and strange color shifts were gone.

Passage Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Passage

Designed by Elisabetta Silli and scripted by Mark Borroughs, Modeled by Ruben Shah and materials by Brian Beppu. Originally this level was meant to be short. But after a prototype experiment with the torch and thanks to the support and ownership of the level by Elisabetta Silli and Mark Burroughs, it turned into a full-fledge adventure. It's one of the few times we got to help co-author lighting-driven gameplay. It almost didn't make it but glad it did. Passage had three types of lighting: torch, flare, and flashlight. Each had their own color palette and mood.

Flare gallery

"Stargate blue" was the codename used by John Sweeney who art directed this level. It was a fight to the bitter deep of color palettes. The signature key runtime light for this was either too blue, green, or turqoise. Somehow, we managed to find that right hue, but it took what felt like forever and there was a lot of debate to get to this point. But in the end, we were happy with it, and best of all, the values held up well across multiple monitors on different settings.

Flashlight gallery

The flashlight was a massive rework from the original game. The hard part was creating a gobo that felt like it came from a real light. We actually bought several flash lights of various types and brightness, took screenshots, and then reworked the mipped texutre at the heart of it to get it right.

Even though this level uses an exclusive use of the flash light, it was implemented through the entire game. All the labor in creating the initial settings for this led to a hardcoded system that worked well enough for the rest of the team to make adjustments as needed whenever changes were called for it. But the trickiest part was making sure when Drake walked in close or away from a surface, that the light itself would look as close to the real thing as possible. We got about 80% close to what one would expect when compared to live reference but some tweaks were made for the sake of art and gameplay, which worked out for the better.

Torch gallery

The torch level was where the idea for gameplay started. Usually there's a source of light you bounce around in a level so players can see around no matter what. But this time we wanted to push the envelope. So in the inital cave test, all bounce was removed and we were left with a pitch black environment where we purposely made it impossible to see.

Then we measured the distance in meters from the torch to certain distance to find out how near can we pull the light before players would grow frustrated at darkness and what's the minimum distance we can introduce enemies before they would be seen while giving players enough time to react without feeling cheated. This boundary is what we would call the radius of suspense. Once we found this distance (somewhere around 24 meters before pitch black and 14 meters before enemies would be seen), we then had to figure out how to make the torch look good.

Thanks to the help of Lead Game Designer Kurt Margenau and Programmer Sandeep Chopcra (check the spelling), the torch was able to sway with Drake's movements and still work well when he would roll on the floor. It was a lot of work to keep it along with all of Nate's dynamic movements. Special thanks to the particle team for making a very convincing and realistic flame. It all came together in the end. Before shipping, a lot of post tweaks had to be made for the fire's distance to the torch and from Drake's hand. In the end it paid off.

Bonus: some shots from the film starring ... look eerlier similar to the torch level, coincidence?!?

End gallery

Blending the final section with the next level was a challenge. We had to work out a special rig with lighting artist Scott Greeway who was in charge of the cutscene area after the level's completion. It took a lot of tweaks and back and fourth but we managed to get it to work. Few folks know how hard it can be to blend sun and sky as well as color palette settings between levels from two artists. That's why it's so important to establish colors early on and set up a base setting across levels to reduce any dependency bottlenecks. But sometimes it can't be helped and in this case, it worked to our favor.

As an added bonus, there were some last minute requests to light the part with Drake trapped in a cage. While it was tough, it worked out. But there's a wonder if this was the inspiration for the start menu? We'll never know, but it's nice to think so.

Sunken Ruins Screenshots

gallery screenshots

SUNKEN RUINS - AKA CHAPTER 18 NEW DEVON

The Sunken Ruins were a challenge to light. It was a massive level with a lot of collaboration invovled to make it work. The biggest obstacles were getting foliage to blend in shadows without looking too flat in large areas and the underwater post processing. Both took a large chunk of the work due to the scope of it's usage in the level.

On a personal note, it was because of the enormous scope of this level we almost didn't make it. We started shifting our focus on tool development while lighting to pull it off. But the magnitude of programming and art work required to make it happen was a lot to handle. Because we took a risk in learning how to balance the two in equal measure, we made a lot of mistakes and certain team members paid a heavy price (sorry Khanhn). While it was regrettable, it's also doubtful this level would've worked out the way it did without the collaboration of our incredible team alongside the ability to levelage pipeline upgrades alongside art polish.

Subsqeuent levels became easier to work on due to the growing paings of this experience and has become a staple in our workflow. The key is to take advantage of the 20 to 60 minute window one has to wait for bakes to complete. That's the opportune time to work on tools and scripts. It's also a great time to take a break and get some fresh air. Oftetimes, you need both.

Avery's Dining gallery

Modeled by Santiago Guiterrez and textured by Malcolm Hee, was meant as a shoebox pinehole type scenario but materials were always changing and the shifting color palette for this scene turned it into an ever constant wrestling match of values. Ai-Fen Lo contributed to Avery's Dining area especially for extra polish due to cutscenes. It It was a challenge to keep up with but in the end, it worked out.

The biggest drawback was having to balance what looked good in-game versus cutscene. Scripting changes in runtime lights and post processing wasn't going to make it work. We had to make sure all angles, values, and colors held up well enough in any angle or distance the camera was able to go. This was especially the case with all the objects, props, and cutlery in the scene. It was a lot of work but it paid off.

Avery's Mansion gallery

Modeled by Brian Recktenwald and Joshua Piszezeck with Rogelio Olguin assisting in the opening entrance kitchen area, Avery's Mansion came together almost literally at the last minute. Materials and textures by Alice Gionchetta and Rogelio saved the day. It was a superheroic effort by the team and a daring feat of acrobatics.

Fun fact, this level was the last one to be touched. One photon trapped under a floor of this mansion that had to be hand painted away in Photoshop at 16bits with HDR range info and manually tweaked on instinct was all that stood in the way of shipping this project. Hours before the director had to fly out of town to hand over the gold disc we sat in front of the screen praying the one or two chances we had left to make sure the game was error and bug free would work. It was fixed, the game delivered, and the rest is history.

This level came together almost overnight.

Cave gallery

Most of the work in this level came from massive exposure tweaks and underwater post. It was tough to blend interior with exterior values without dizzying the player. A lot of the material and modeling work came together at the last minute, especially with the foliate but it came togthe in the end thanks to the team.

Death gate gallery

Modeled by Artem Britiztkiy and textured by Max Golosiy, the Sunken gate area nicknamed "death gate" featured skeletons, a massive wall, and lot of foliage. Oringally it was supposed to be more vibrant and alive but then a dispute about direction erupted with Artem suggesting less color and more contrast. Bruce Straley was our tie breaker in Artem's favor. It felt terrible to lose the argument. But while it wasn't agreeable, in hindsight, it was the right decision. Most of the level had a lot of color and this was a moment that deserved to be lifeless, especially before the big reveal and given all the remains in the area.

Lesson learned: we're not always right. Other team memebers have great ideas too.

Inner Ruins gallery

Modeled by Khanh Nguyen and Artem Brizitskiy, textured by Khanh, the inner ruins was combat designed by none other than Zeid Rieke, the original designer for Call of Duty. One can actually say there's a piece of COD in this part of the map. Not knowing who he was, I had massive flashback to the Black Ops days when he asked to fix very specific areas of lighting where the scope Drake's gun would be able to pick out enemies from afar yet contrast them well in different lighting/shading conditions. The feeling was so eerie, as we were collaborating on this section of the game, it somehow felt like we were working togeter on COD.

Given the limited time avaiable, there was little chance to talk to Zeid. It was assumed he was a new hire becuase we hadn't known or seen him around before during The Last of Us. Also, because he was mostly quiet and deeply focused, there was an assumption he was new to games, where one would expect combat designers to be more ... combatative?

There was a moment while sitting down in front of the PC during a break, where it was considered to go talk to him, open up and say "hey man, that stuff you asked me to do got done but, you know, it's crazy, as we were testing it, the gameplay, rhythm, and timing along with the way it connected with the lighting and how we had to script carefully the brightness of NPC's is so much like Call of Duty, it just seems like you're a natural for that genre, have you thought about applying to Infinity Ward or Treyarch? It seems like you'd be a perfect fit!"

Deep down it seemed like a silly idea since we didn't know Zeid well enough to speak like that and we didn't have much time to chat due to our tight schedule. But a few years later during our Sabbaitcal, we thought about that remark and figured maybe we should reach out and see what he's up to and perhaps finally say it if he's at some other company. Then his name showed up on Wikipedia ... and then we found out he got promoted to lead ... at Inifity Ward ... and there was nothing left to say except one thing:

"Dang."
True story.

Jeep Entrance gallery

Modeled by Johnny Chen and textured by Max Gologsiy, the jeep entrance was fun but difficult due to the blend between our section and the one lit by Steve Cummings. Once you come up in the elevator, the post processing and runtime lights shift as it rises. It turned out Steve had very different ways of setting values and we didn't really think to coordinate until the last minute. We only had a day yet the shift was so drastic, it would have to take at least a week. But Sony was waiting and we had to ship.

By some crazy feat of scripting acrobatics and some late night insanity, somehow we managed. The solution was to break the transition into stages: a main base setting shared by both levels, a transition setting for the sun, and then a final for the fog and post.

We took advantage of a few trick moments such as cutting between our settings using the cinematic camera to hide the transition. Another was to fade the fog for a whole 120 seconds so the player wouldn't notice. Lastly, some of the settings like glows would lerp as the player would rise up. The rest was taking Steve's settings as a base and re-working a few of ours to match. It was a lot of labor but it paid off.

River Approach gallery

Modeled by Artem Brizitskiy and textured by Max Gologsiy, the river approach (which was not it's real name but what we're nicknaming) was fun. Part of the challenge was getting plants to bounce color properly. We had a lot of back and forth between the bounce brightness of materials versus lights. Also, getting subsurface scattering with bounce lights under the canopy of trees and water proved challenging as well as the constant tweaks to exposure while rock climbing. But it all worked out.

Tews Interior gallery

Modeled by Khanh Nguyen and Santiago Guiterrez, texture by Khanh and Malcolm Hee, Tews interior can be broken down into three sections. The first was the main entrance, the second was the dining area, and the third was a secondary hideout. The team did a pheonomal job on modeling and texturing where lighting worked out well almost on the first try and a lot of iteration was about adjusting to Details as they were added. But the underwater transition was tough because there were three types, a murkey, clear, and deep blue.

The variation of water in this level led to the invention of a a base underwater setting along with variations for each section that changed color, fog, and post to make it appear different with the fewest attributes possible (there was still a lot). As time cut short, this approach ended up being used throughout the game. Special thanks to Eben Cook and Elaine Kubrick from the FX team in taking it to the next level, it wouldn't have worked out as well without them.

More

• Level 80 Interview >
• Uncharted:Lost Legacy Gallery >
• The Last of Us Gallery >
• Tools Gallery >

Check it out

• Play Uncharted 4: A Thief's End >

The Last of Us

Bill's Town Screenshots

gallery screenshots

BILL's TOWN

Modeled by Johnny Chen and textured by Adam Marquis (in loving memory), Bill's Town was originally lit by Vivan Ding. We joined the team half-way through production and she had to give it up and let us work on it to focus on supervisory responsibilities. Most of what had been laid down in terms of color palettes and values were preserved but a majority of the challenge came from the absurd amount of last minute polish given the ever-constant changes to the level up to the final hour of shipping.

Our proudest piece would be Bill's Forest. At the time, Game Director Bruce Straley was often limited with time to focus attention on individual direction. After a few days of really pushing the forest's color palette, values, and mood, he one day walked by, stopped, tweaked some settings, and all of sudden, these gorgeous rays shot through the trees. He dropped the controller without saying a word and walked off. That setting remained in the game since. Later someone said he never does that unless he approved. It was a cool moment.

The hardest part was getting the shadow shapes from the trees to work at runtime while keeping the look of the forest intact and framerate down. It was beyond tough but it worked out.

With Bill's church, the first level we worked on when joining Naughty Dog in 2012, the biggest feat was getting the runtime lighting in the sancrutary to project stain glass colors across the wall. We had to do a lot of gobo and camera angle work to pull it off. It was tough but worked out really well. Sadly this was only available on the PS3, for performance reasons, it was left out in subsequent versions.

Miltary City Screenshots

gallery screenshots

MILITARY CITY

Modeled by Santiago Guiterrez and Textured by Ed Lee and Maloclm Hee, Military City was tricky for the amount of cutscenes it had from start to finish. The color pallete took a while to get right and required a lot of last-minute scripting to fix. Besides blending the rats they sell at the market with the environment, in one of the sections where Joel and Ellie end up in a market, there's bus in the middle of the road that was very difficult to light. Joel's rig in tight squeeze of that vehicle where the camera barely fit and with a cutscene blend to gameplay made it an iteration nightmare. But once it worked it was gold!

Suburban Screenshots

gallery screenshots

SUBURBS

Modeled by Todd Foster, Suburban was a level that came together late in the project. A lot of the work was in the interiors as well figuring out how to keep it visually interesting with such a wide open neighborhood in broad daylight with little cover to vary shading across the homes, roads, and driveways. On top of that it was overcast which makes it more flat.

To make it work, we baked and rendered a fake cloud shadow to make it appear as though the sky was shading the level. Reflections were increased where possible to make materials stand out more and give a greater sense of depth and range to the environment textures. It was fun but the render times were off the charts!

Left Behind: Liberty Gardens Mall Screenshots

gallery screenshots

LEFT BEHIND: LIBERTY GARDENS MALL

QZ Mall was part of DLC after the release of The Last of Us. The tricky part here was swapping levels when the power comes on so we could keep a lightmapped look for bounce when it was on, and another set of the same geo when it was off.

Left Behind: Liberty Gardens Mall Arcade Screenshots

gallery screenshots

LEFT BEHIND: LIBERTY GARDENS MALL ARCADE

The arcade was our favorite part. We cranked up the textures to obscene color values in order to fake, in the bake, the illusion of it being lit by neon signs. Once it was established as a base, then we add helpers to fill the dark spaces and then used the arcade screens as an excuse to place runtime lights as sources. In general one should have a key light and for whatever reason the big, vibrant, blue of the store sign was enough to make it work.

More

• The Last of Us Part 2 (limited) >
• Uncharted:Lost Legacy Gallery >
• Uncharted 4: Among Thieves Gallery >
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Gallery >

Check it out

• Play The Last of Us Gallery >

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Single Player

The following are a series of details, techniques, approaches, and anecdotes from our time at Treyarch working on Call of Duty: Black Ops single player campaign.

Khe Sahn gallery

Khe Sahn had three major parts: the opening scene with desert colors out in the sun, the interior of the bunker, and the final scene on the side of a mountain, each making use of the same color palettes with the key color for each being a differnt swatch hue in order to make it feel cohesive overall while giving each section their own distinction.

The tent flap was a major pain. We had to work out a way to script dynamic lights, post processing, and foreground ambient values in order to fake the illusion of a dark interior with a bright exterior and then switching the expsoure to make it happen. Few people know it was a technical feat to pull off. Even now there's not a single pop in what took three different systems timed manually to make it work.

Quagmire gallery

For most of the production, it was slated to be a day map, then it was switched to night. While all the window lighting and materials had to be replaced, we were lucky most of this level took place during a long labyrinth of interiors. The look of each room was optimized based on the angle where the Player would enter and was art directed and polished almost moment to moment. We had to fake most of the rays in here due to a lot of gampeplay changes necessary to its fun factor.

The opening cutscene with the helicopter was the craziest, it came in at the last minute and required a lot of scripting magic to make it work. But it paid off!

Lesson learned: gampelay is king. That's why no matter how tidy and final a level may appear, be ready for anything to change even to the last minute.

Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer splash

gallery screenshots

Multiplayer

The following screenshots are for multiplayer maps we worked on for Call of Duty: Black Ops. We also share anecdotes and lessons learned from our time working on them.

Ingredients of a classic COD MP map:

• Small to medium sized
• Fast
• Swiss cheese cover
• Five pillar landmarks in the four corners and center
• Resonating from real life, raw and risky locations
• Personal opinion: one randomized element that throw off pro players to keep it interesting.

Berlin Wall gallery

While limited in certain aspects to keep it within 60fps, one important goal was to match values from photorefernce to make it almost indestinguishable from an in-game screenshot. We use this technqiue a lot to get the inital color palette for a level before propegating it throughout the rest of it. With Berlin Wall it was a challenge to keep color and expsoure consistent between interior and exterior.

Lesson learned: with overcast and night levels, it pays to max out reflective surfaces wherever possibe, especially in large bodies of shadows and flat areas. It gives more depth and range to the scene and makes it feel more alive. It's also a great chance to pick one element with a strong saturated color to make it pop.

Cosmo gallery

It took over a hundred of screenshots to get the bounce and fill to work well for all the interiors in Cosmo, well enough for players to feel they can see well in any corner without feeling too flat. It was an honor to see this map live on as a zombie map in Ascension.

The "Amber lights" were a major staple in this level, also used in Jungle and Summit. It's a very particular golden yellow-orange that took a good deal of iteration to get right so it would look good, feel geniune, while being useful for player visibility for the environment. It's a color we're proud of to this day, best showcased in Summit but first introduced in Cosmo.

Crisis gallery

It was cool to see Cuba featured in Black Ops and to go as far as to have it's own MP map. During the modules, an early dev process where we would brainstorm ideas for Black Ops to figure out how to make a great game without the use of modern weapons. It was mission impossible for the team.

A few days after our initial meeting, My dad called to share a history lesson about the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missle Crisis. He recalled how the Cuban exhiles in Miami trained hard in hopes to take back the country with the backing of the U.S. government. In the middle of the invasion after months of grueling preperation, President Kennedy gave the order to withdraw. The exhiles felt betrayed. It's the reason why most Cubans are pro-republican, they never forget the betrayal they felt from the Democrats on the night the were abandoned.

It was a powerful story that felt worthy of putting in a game so we submitted it on a 3 x 5 card and our idea got chosen. It was a great moment. We also got to pick out the soundrack for the Single Player Havan mission, "Quimbara" by Celia Cruz. It was an honor to have it in the game.

Sadly we didn't get credit for our idea and had a limited participationon the single player campaign. But we put all our heart into this map and it was a lot of fun to work on.

Duga gallery

A great deal of work went into two major things with Duga. First was the color palette and second was the interior areas near stairs. In particular there was a brick texture in one of the building exteriors that wouldn't work with any of the lighting and sapped all the bounce. It would look to crushed and flat. The solution was to use a fake bounce light along with some negotating for complimentry textures in the material palette to balance it out.

Also, given the large interior areas, some fills had to be expanded up to 200 meters in order to give the illustion of direction from the windows without making the level feel too flat. It was a lot of work but it paid off.

Lesson learned: A texture palette is really critical to quality art and great lighting. It's true in real life with architecture, interior design, fashion, and graphic arts. Going further, the initial creation of a level shouldn't have more than 9 textures. If a level needs more than that, it's time to get creative either with layout, reflection, geo, or lighting. Limits are our friend. When the palette is set for textures and lighting a level comes together like magic.

Firing Range gallery

The light wood material in Firing Range made lighting a dream. Since it was a daytime level with massive planks of this material, it was easy to get bounce and fill to work well. The challenge was in getting a palette to stand out compared to other levels. It was tempting to keep it generic and perhaps at the end it somewhat was.

Hanoi gallery

Night maps are a nightmare for multiplayer lighting. But with Hanoi we were lucky to have plenty of runtime light fixutres outside the camp and within some of the interors. While we're content with the end result, in retrospect we would've pushed for more puddles in key areas, shiny objects like metal trash cans, and more reflective surfaces to make it more interesting and give it more depth.

It would've been cool if we had a broken fire hydrant that would spray water and create spill, (maybe even slow the player down by a fraction of a second for gameplay) to reflect the lights from the camp. It would've been a great way to add more color and depth to the level.

Havoc gallery

Havoc shares similar enough values with MP Banzai from World At War in certain areas one might confuse the two from screenshots when placed together. It's possible they shared similar assets and textures. They also have the same time of day. If it wasn't for the actual gampelay and map layout, they might as well be.

Lesson learned: make sure your texture and color palettes stand out. But given they're from different projects, if it works, don't be afraid to renew, reuse, and recycle!

Jungle gallery

It was neat to match photo reference in the intial pass for Jungle, especially the sky and fog values. It's a shame the tech doesn't allow us to push photorealism without insane amounts of iteration but in the early part of this level it came close.

As production grew to a close, a lot of changes had to be made and with multiplayer one needs to make sure players can see well from any angle and corner, therefore some compromises had to be made.

Strong warms contrast cool hues from the overcast weather for depth.

Mountain gallery

Mountain was a favorite. It shared a similar color palette with Jungle but with cooler blues thanks to the deep sky and snow. It's also nice to get whites that bounce nicely. Lighter value tones and hues in the material palette is a lighter's dream because of the amount of bounce and fill one can get.

We also make full use of the amber lights in this level. They do sometimes fight the sheet metal sriated walls but as long as players can see around corners and entrances from a distance while making sure the level doesn't feel flat, it's a win.

Nuketown gallery

By far the funnest level to work on in our career. It was justified this ended up being one of the most popular maps of all time. The tst dummies and artifical set piece motif made lighting fun and easy. From the first pass it held up really well.

We experiemented with a darker, muted, muddy version of this map. It didn't have the same impact and can't remember if it made it in game or not but may have inspired a zombie level.

Radiation gallery

This was a very tough map to light due to the varying elements of the envinroment as well as high contrast material palette fighting muddy values against the daytime and sky. While it worked out and the funnest part was iterating on the red lights that scripted on and off with the factory trap door, it was a challenge to get the bounce and fill to work.

If we had a chance to go back and do this all over again, it would've been ideal to work more with the material artist in order to improve the harmony of color and texture contrast. While there was not much we could do about it, reflections might have helped a little. We learned our lesson and carried it forward in Bill's Town on The Last of Us and later Madagascar in Uncharted 4.

Misc

Misc gallery

We have no ideas what these are. But part of making a game pretty is to deal with the ugly. That's why we've included some of the work in progress shots for the levels we worked on. It's a reminder that it's okay to have a messy process. It's part of the job.

More

• Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies Gallery >
• Call of Duty: World At War Gallery >
• Tools Gallery >
• The Last of Us Gallery >

Check it out

• Call of Duty: Black Ops >

Nazi Zombies Gallery

Call of Duty:Nazi Zombie Screenshots

gallery screenshots

It's hard to explain just how amazing, incredible it was to work on Nazi Zombies. It lives on till this day as the flagship title born from Treyarch. Jesse Snyder cooked up a miracle in the kitchen of madness and deadlines. It was a dream to be part of. The following are a series of screenshots and anecdotes from our time working on it.

Theatre gallery

Theatre

Theatre was actually finished on the Wii first and then ported over to the Xbox 360. In an ironic twist of fate, the reason why the Wii had more content was because of this. At one point it was in development hiaitus and was close to being canceled given the lack of vision for its direction on the 360. But our small team knew what we wanted and weren't going to wait. We took initiative and pushed it to the limit.

One breakthrough making it possible was to map the values and colors between the 360 and wii so that they would have approximate parity. Through a tool we wrote for worldspawn, we invented a 32 to 16 bit color palette converter, taking gamma into account, and was able to succeed in approximating values well enough to match the two if they were to account for screen reslution. In other words, the Wii would end up looking like a blurred version of the 360.

Once we figured out the right settings to make this possible, we then proceeded to light, design, and push this all the way with the risk it would be cut. But it paid off. When the 360 team saw it was finished, they were willing to take it on and finish it on their end using our work as their direction.

On a peronsal note, while it was more insane to pull off than it sounds, given how for a whole generate of players this was their first zombie map, it was worth it.

Factory gallery

Factory

Nightire is back! By this point it was discovered the best way to make a good zombie map was to port a multiplayer level due to all the angles and possibilies for cover. Who knew our world at war baby would end up becoming a Zombie classic?

The challenge was to balance the moonlight sky with bounce and strategially placed fires while making sure every corner was visible from a distance. More so, we wanted to make sure we could aim key lights from angles where creepy shadows of zombies about to burst through windows would be visible. Doing so without killing framerate was indeed tough.

There were also quite a few scriptable lights due to gameplay events. It's around this level we started getting more invovled with design than ever since Asylum. The more spawned enemeies there were, the less runtime lights we could have on. It was worth the trouble but a pain. A lot of fake rays were also added.

One lesson learned too late was how night maps should make good use of high reflections. Whenever possible it's great to have puddles of water where one can as well as shiny surfaces. If we could go back and do it over, we might also see if we can add broken shards of mirror and use them in the bedrooms as both a way to give scenes more depth and a good excuse for more motivated bounce. We would've also asked to break some fire hydrants and have water spill near fires. Though it might have tanked the framerate, we could compensate either by faking the reflection with a low-res image as well as being more agressive with runtime light cutoff distances.

Lighting the teleporter was fun.

Asylum gallery

Asylum

This was the first game where we had a chance to be a designer and not just lighting artist. The pivotal moment came when orignally the level's objective was to turn on the flickering light at the end of a doughnut shaped level taken from multiplayer. Players would be seperated by a steel door, the switch would turn on, and then zombies would come flooding.

But from a lighting perspective, we thought it could be more. What if it were TWO games in one? What if the start of the game was Night of the Living Dead, minimalist, high contrast, blood colors and Earth tones, forcing players to remain close to windows, and minimizing the weapons or perks they can use in a survivalist horror mode. Then, once the power came on, it was Evil Dead, massive runtime lights, saturated colors, and a chance to use all the weapons and perks they could afford. The flood of zombie attacks were matched by the massive bonus given to players once the power came on.

It was a crazy idea but it worked. The dev team really pushed gameplay around this dual framework and it paid off in a big way. We were lucky to have designers who were seasoned veterans and knew how to make it work but it was a first taste in being more invovled with game dev and lighting-based gameplay.

The dual map, power on/power off, minimalist to maximalist lighting mechanic that became a staple in the zombie series was born here.

Prototype gallery

Prototype

We were lucky to work on this map and take it to polish. The first iteration was actally done by Brian Anderson but then we were given the chance to light it and make it our own. In hindsight we should've used Brian's rig, while it was a bit on the bright side and had cool shadowing in corners from zombies, we got rid of most of them in favor of a minimalist horror approach, something more cinematic. This led to a conflict where the priority of gampeplay versus cinematography were at odds and we were trying to push the envelope in both directions.

In hindsight, Brian's rig was the right call and it was just a matter of polishing it. But we got carried away because the map itself was so cool and fun, it was tempting to make it our own. We did get in trouble for this, learned our lesson the hard way, and it was from this map we improved on balancing gameplay and cinematography along with being more cooperative when our desire to push something is at odds with the overall.

Anectdote: We got to witness Zombies born the day after it was made, known as "prototype". We asked Jesse the night we first saw it how it came about. He said he was solicited to make a bunker defense bonus game where soliers would defend against waves of enemies and they they would have to survive as long as possible. This was a response to what Infinity Ward had included in Modern Warfare 2 with the bonus airplane mission.

According to Jesse, he was putting together a test map and set everything up correctly, or so he thought. Since animations exist in a file with index numbers, he intended to use the value for solider running but was off by one number. That animation was "wounded solier". When he ran the map, he freaked. To see a rush of wounded soliders at top speed spawning toward to player looked like a zombie attack. For some reason, Jesse decided to joke with it and add glowing red eyes, turn the map into night, and make a fun spoof out of it.

Then the team saw it. At first it started off as a fun gag. People kept adding to it. Then they kept adding, and adding, and adding. Max Porter at the time had been messing around with a sci-fi gun he liked working on to combat boredom from all the weapons we was working on and somehow Jesse decided to use it in the game. It became a perk. Then one of the FX team members added visuals for the sci-fi gun, another started to improve the reload animations, and before everyone knew it, a fraction of the studio was as much infected by the virus of creative passion and what started as a joke turned into a full blown game.

It was the most incredible experience of our career to witness. It was also a lesson in how to make a great game. Oddly enough, Treyarch had an idea for a zombie game called "Dead Rush" that was highly anticipated but never made it to production. In some ways, maybe this the 'ole spirit of Treyarch beckoning us to make this. It remains a hallmark of the studio since.

More

• Call of Duty: Black Ops Gallery >
• Call of Duty: Call of Duty: World At War Gallery >
• Tools Gallery >

Check it out

• Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies >

Call of Duty: World At War Gallery

Call of Duty: World At War Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Single Player

The following are a series of details during our time at Treyarch on Call of Duty: World At War. It was probably the most fun yet grueling schedule we had in making a game. We loved and hated every minute of it. A lot was done and in the end, the team accomplished what could be considered a AAA miracle at a time when the fans and the press wrote negative comments in our attempts to make this project happen.

While the circumstances were understable, at the time Infinity Ward wanted to continue keeping ownership of the franchise but the publisher at the time felt it would be better to share the work and release anually. This led to public backlash and while we had nothing to do with higher decisions, it was our job to make the best thing we could.

Against all odds, we did it. We made a game that was fun, had a lot of content, and it a blast to work on. We had nothing left to lose except our pride. And in the end we won it all. We look back on this moment with fondness and pride. But it's also a shame we can't go back and fix the issues we had with lighting. Many comments and notes are written in retrospect. Hope you enjoy :)

Peleliu gallery

We did our best to match colors and post processing from old world war two footage. By doing so we added some subtle haze, noise, and shifted hues toward the warm and sepia tone to match the 8mm film of the day. To contrast the warms we pushed muted blues and subtle cool greens in shadow. You'll see from one of the mood boards we put together how screenshots from in-game match the reference film almost verbatim. That was our starting point.

Seelow gallery

Seelow became a muted version of Pel (Peleliu) with a more overcast sky and less saturation. While at the time it seemed ok, (the tanks were fun) in retrospect the glows were pushed a bit too far. It wouldn't be until much later during Uncharted 4 we realized glows were something to be used sparingly and when necessary. Or if it must be done, to make sure all other values are balanced so it doesn't look too blown out. One should default to less rather than more to make it work.

On the plus side, glows soften hard edges and give more of a rendered look. When done well, it makes games look and feel more prerendered. It's a double edged sword.

We also could've varied the color palette more and create areas of cool to break up the warms but given the time and constraints we had, it's all in retrospect. Fun level!

Okinawa gallery

It was a dark and stormy evening. This was the first time we dealt with overcast clouds with minimal sunlight. Since there were already too many fires in the game and an excess of warms in other levels, this one kept a cool palette. Most of the directional lighting came from a very subtle sunlight, sky fills, and bounce from strategically placed lanterns.

To keep the mood feeling dark, cold, and stormy, we reduced the lighting range and worked mostly with fills where we could. The textures were a bit too high contrast and dark for certain areas, requiring double the work to make them smooth out. While the result worked well for the mood of the mission, in retrospect we could've been smarter about placing mud puddles in the right places and push for more reflective surfaces to really make the most of it and give it more depth.

Call of Duty: World At War Multiplayer Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Multiplayer

The following are a series of details, techniques, approaches, and anecdotes from our time at Treyarch working on Call of Duty: World At War multiplayer campaign.

MP Airfield gallery

It was a blessing to work on this level since it would later be used as the basis for the first zombie map, Nacht Der Untoten. While time was of the essence and one can say the color palette and direction for Peleliu paid off in terms of reuse, in retrospect ot's perhaps a bit too muddy.

One of the issues tackled later on in retrospect was how yellows have a limited range so when they mix with blacks, shadows and midranges get muddy. If we had more time on this map, we would've gone for a warm bounce from the sky and stronger, directional cools for the interiors. Going further, we could've done a half-gradient sky of sepia on one side with subtle cools on the other so the front side could blend well with the warm sun while the shadow side would have cooler fills.

This would've made the color range more pleasing the eye and give us a chance to add more bounce and fills for player or enemy visiblity wherever needed. . Maybe we could've added more fires, that would've been cool too, but the game had so many. Still, it was a fun map to work on

MP Asylum gallery

This was a favorite map both for multiplayer and later zombies. We were lucky enough to light for both. In this case we went for a yellow/azure color palette with a strong bounce from the sky. We were also fortunate this had a great sun angle to hit as many areas for the interiors as possible, which allowed us to capitalize on godrays. The swiss cheese environment details made this an enjoyable map to light and we didn't have to push fog more than needed.

MP Brandengate gallery

Also known as Breach, we intended a cooler palette but due to contraints we had to go with a warmer palette. It would've also been ideal to thicken the fog artwise but it didn't go well with the long range attacks from the map's layout. It's a shame but also a good example how sometimes gameplay takes precedence over cinematography.

MP Castle gallery

One of the funnest maps to work on, Castle was a straightforward, daylight sunny 16 map. The blue skies and warm sun complimented a balanced color palette thanks to the dark woods, white walls, and midtone cobble stones. Some of the brightness had to be toned down to give it the sense you're playing old WW2 footage, which meant some of the bright colors would be lost, but overall most of their relative hues and consrast held up against the tonemapping.

MP Factory gallery

This was a challenge due to the half-overcast sky with dark textured interiors and little chance to add bounce. We had to emebellish using bounce from metal pipes to brighten dark walls and add depth. When it wouldn't work, then we would add fires.

While it's tempting to add human made sources, if at all possible it's ideal to build from natural sources and use bounce as much as possible. When that's not possible, then it's time to get creative. In our case, when it comes to fixtures and fires we take a minimalist approach. If not, you lose focus, direction, and instantaneous read which works well visually but also helps players orient themselves quickly on a map.

MP Hangar gallery

We probably went too far with rays in this one. It might have been the first map we worked on when we started at Treyarch and had a steep learning curve about lighting for multiplayer and first person type shooters.

One of the biggest challenges on this map and an early lesson was about when, where, and how to suit an envinroment for better lighting. Since the Hanger was a giant structure that wasn't open to the sky, most of its interiors were too dark to see. We experiemented with removing panels from the roof and sides to figure out the best way to handle it.

Eventually we found a sweet spot but sunsquently whenever someone would suggest to "break open the roof for better lighting" we would pause and look for the most natural ways to get creative with illumination without messing with the environment. Often it because a quick-fix solution at the expense of that structre and layout for the level being as natural as it could be. There are so many ways to light a level, it shouldn't be plan B to break things, it could be C, D, or E. But this was the map where we first learned that lesson.

MP Makin gallery

We were lucky this was mostly outdoors and had a great moon angle along with settings taken from the single player mission thanks to Rich Farrelly. Because of this, most of the work was really in adding fires wherever needed, though we had to be careful since runtime shadows kill framerate in multiplayer. We were also able to add more bounce and tweak fog to have a nice dynamic low contrast background with high impact forground for more depth.

MP Nightfire gallery

"We're sorry we have to do this to you," said Corky Lehmkuhl, creative director for World At War at the time. It was a night level and without knowing it they mentioned how those were the hardest to light, especially multiplayer. They were right. It took a long time to get it right.

Luckily, because of the warning, we put together the most elaborate mood board we could to explore every possible form of night lighting from noir films and anything from the 1920s to 1940 including Citizen Kane, to see if we could draw a parallel and give the game as much of an authenic feel to that time frame in a modern engine.

It resulted in a great map and later all the labor paid off since it would be used to create the fourth zombie map, Der Riese.

On a side note, it was fun to work with Corky. When he didn't say anything, it meant you had work to do. But whenever he erupted with his infamous "Ohhh ... ohhh man .... ohhh ohhh my gooondesss, ohh hoohahaaa ohh!!! ", that's when you knew you were on the right track. That approval process was missed.

MP Outskirts gallery

Similar to Upheaval and Asylum, this one had that same kind of swiss cheese cover for everything from roof to walls. But with the half-overcast sky, it was a challenge to get a sense of direction with it while keeping the palette more distinct.

With limited time, it was kind of pulled off. But in restrospect, it would've have been better to darken one half more and then use fires, lanterns, and more reflections to keep the level interesting. This is one that could've benefettied from the old wet floor, muddy ground trick.

MP Suburban gallery

Also known as Upheaval this one was meant to be a cooler hue compared to Outskirts. In retrospect they look a bit too similar in their warm palettes and may have had something to do with last minute tweaks to the LUTs. We were lucky there was a but more color range in the sky and textures on this one compared to Outskirts

Our original captures show a closer representation of what was intended over the final look.

Misc

Vehicles/Weapons gallery

These were part of promotional material for magazines. We took models from the game and rendered them in Maya using Mental Ray's global illumination. No modeling was done on any of these, lighting only.

Misc gallery

There's no way to know or remember what these were or why, but it's fun to share some of the crazier excerps from our dev process.

More

• Call of Duty: Black Ops Gallery >
• Call of Duty:Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies Gallery >
• Tools Gallery >
• Tomb Raider Gallery >

Check it out

• Call of Duty: World At War >

Tomb Raider Underworld Gallery

Tomb Raider Underworld Screenshots

gallery screenshots

It was our first true job in the industry. Tomb Raider Underworld was the moment we felt excited about work for the first time. On day one, we made some geo in Maya, exported it to the XBox360, and there she was, Lara Croft, running, jumping, and shooting, inside a level we made.

During our early school years someone bragged about the first game and what an adventure it was. But we couldn't afford a PC to play it, so we lamented and moved on. The first time we had a chance after the frezy of graduation and the process of moving to California, it was at Crystal, holding the controller, playing our own level. It was a dream come true.

Ironcally we were competing aginst another game that was unveiling that year made by some of the folks that used to work at our company. It was joked as "Dude Raider".

Uncharted, our greatest competition was released weeks before our launch date and went on to break sales records and rapture our audience. It was a humbling experience, we were caught with a huge gap to make up for. It was crazy timing.

Our Process

Before we begin a scene we look for reference. Along the way there's usually a conversation or meetings with the art director and game designer to both get a sense of the mood and feel as well as learning about what's in the mind of the level's creator to get a sense of what they want to stand out, what they're trying to accomplish, ways they'd like to lead the Player, and then formulate a plan that allows for a cinematic experience while also using brightness, hues, and post to make certain things more obvious than others and truly make a level stand out.

The best lighting is all about one thing. Once you choose what that is, then comes the key light. Everything else becomes secondary. It's very hard to do. It's easy to get lost in the weeds and try to make everything look good. But if you can choose one thing, then everything else becomes easier.

Too often, levels lose their focus. Even with open worlds, points of interest need to occur in order to guide players for a better experience and for everyone to focus their attention on what's most important. It's true in real life also. Humans build cities around landmarks and central hubs in order to create a sense of orientation and direction in a boundless world. It's the same with lighting.

Once we focus on our subject or key element, the next is our main color. This is the color that will be most prominent in the scene. It's the color that will be most obvious and stand out. Once this has been decided, all other decisions fall into place. It's not easy, since one can be torn betweeen different styles, but ultimately sacrfices have to be made for the overall look and direction to work. It requires massive discipline but those commited to this mentalilty always have a strong and compelling result in the end, resulting in a great gaming experience.

Our journey of disocvery in this started with Tomb Raider. For Details, see Our Process

Kraken gallery

Kraken

The Kraken was as much a mythical threat as it was a monster level. There were many interiors in the maze and we had a hard time understanding how to approach it. While detailing it was most our work, the key lighting was ... too symmetrical.

Pat Sirk, art director and probably one of the most gifted and well-rounded people I've ever met in games, taught how symmatry is a killer. When the Player first enters the couryard where the beast is discovered, there are two entrances. It would make sense to light straight down on it and allow players to choose left or right. But Pat pointed out it was not engaging enough and while Players can choose, it's an ideal opporuntity to suggest a path forward. If they go in the opposite direction, they subconscoiusly know they're in for a challenge. The Players wanting an easier path would go the other way. Once we realized that we started understanding the unique relationship lighting had with gameplay and how in many ways we use value, brightness, and colors to connect with Players and engage with them, communicating on a subconscious wavelength. Pat moved the key light toward one of two opposing paths, the rest fell into place. We polished it to death and learned our lesson.

That's when we started understanding the major difference between lighting for a shot versus a game. A gaming artist dealing with lights and materials has to be congnizant of gameplay and cinematography. It's a delicate balance.

Mansion gallery

Mansion

Lara's Mansion was on fire and so was our schedule. We had little time to get it done as the level was also being worked out and figured out at the same time. For the most part we worked from concept part but decided to split the level between warm and cools with the key light coming from the blaze's origins and fills from the azure sky.

Given how saturated a lot of the major light sources were, we counterbalanced with midrange to dark greys. It helps to give a sense of relief and balance once Players are able to get away from the danger. We added hints of green to the high-tech lights by her office and computer gear in order to give it both an artificial feeling as well as a bit of nausea to compliment the distress of the situation.

Mexico gallery

Mexico

Mexico was a first in terms of dealing with large outdoor areas and dense foliage. While it was meant to be overcast, it wasn't interesting enough visually to make an impact for the E3 demo. It was decided to break open a hole through the clouds and have a strong directional light coming from one side while the rest of it would remain dismal.

Here we learned how you can increase color saturation in overcast but when the direction of art doesn't fit the level requirement nor help sell the feel, at times a rule needs to be broken. Subsequently, we'd later find out breaking holes in things, roof, sky, or any canopy is often the defacto solution to flat lighting. But it's not ideal.

If we could go back and do this over, we wouldn't change it, because the sun ray worked well. But we could have gone with a directional overcast, high reflections, and a strong shadow as well as silouetting to one side to compensate and give it more depth. We could've also messed with scripted sun intensity varation to fake a passing cloud to keep it interesting.

Ship Room gallery

Ship Room

Most of our work on this level was actually in the materials. While it was popular to do all the work in a shader's color channel, we opted for a different method. In this case, we felt the best way to work with metal was to start with full reflectivity and work our way backward. We also discovered a great way to fake smeared metal was to take the reflection maps and lower their resoltion. It gave it a nice smeared look without worrying about framerate.

The funnest part about this level was the day it was unveiled in the theatre room. There was a collective gasp. It was awesome. We never got that repsonse in anything we ever did after. But we're always hoping someday to accomplish that again.

Sadly, it was cut from the game since it didn't fit with the original design document. Here we also learned a major fundamental difference between studio philosophies. On Uncharted, years later, under a similar situation, the team ignored plans and went with what felt right. It was a great lesson in decisions versus outcomes when comparing the two.

Temple Thailand gallery

Thailand Temple

The Thailand temple was a prototype to guage the look and feel of the level. It was kept simple by sticking with the Sunny 16 look, a term used in photography for outdoor lighting. It was difficult to get any sky bounce to work in these levels and it's unsure if the answer was found. If we could go back and do this all over, we would probably boost the sky levels and get some warm bounce off of the textures.

We could also try to use one of the screenshots, create a concept, and Demo how we would approach it now.

Underwater gallery

Underwater

This was our first attempt at creating an underwater level. Many of the techniques and attributes used to make this work would go on to serve it's purpose in Uncharted 4. This was the basis and foundation to how we understand better ways to make an underwater look happen.

We start by creating heavy fog and then add a strong directional light. We then add rays from the sun if any, glows to simlate a bit of the haze that occurrs when deep in the ocean, we tint the fog, glows, and rays to cool colors to match the water. Then we push depth of field as hard as we can.

We cheat using rain to create the sense of bubbles and plankton found in the ocean, at times even adjusting it's sprite texture and value, which helps a lot in creating a sense of depth and parallax moving through wet space. If there's wind, we use it at the slowest setting to simulate a sense of current on plants.

The hard part is getting all of the attrbutes to work together in concert. With so many of them, each with different colors, we try not to rely on one but a combination of them so that values modulate as the Player moves around the space and as the camera reveals details.

We ALMOST NEVER tint the screen. While it's tempting and at times necessary, it's a last resort. We prefer to use the environment to do the work for us. We don't want to lose the color and values that are natural to the scene and it's nice when you can get full saturation when looking at objects up close. We do, however, crank up saturation in post by a minor bit in order to get a bit more color range.

Valaskjf gallery

Valaskjf

This was a fun nightmare. In the end it worked out well as a favorite in the early days. But it was a moving target and art direction hell for some time. Valaskjalf could have gone in so many different directions.

One of the biggest challenges was keeping within the constraint of believable reality. There were certain areas where Lara's flashlight wasn't going to work and we needed some ambiance. But without some kind of magic or supernatural element it seemed impossible.

We also have color palettes shifting across levels overall so whether this would end up a warm and dry cave or cool and wet kept changing. Whatever the case, it took some time to figure out the identity of the level until it worked.

Rose Temple gallery

Rose Temple

The first level we ever lit for a game was this one. We had always wanted to push the boundaries as hard as we could in terms of color and value to make a level look as convincing and photorealistic as possible. While not perfect, for a first try in games with an engine, it was encouraging.

More

• Call of Duty: Black Ops Gallery >
• Call of Duty:Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies Gallery >
• Call of Duty: Call of Duty: World At War Gallery >
• Tools Gallery >
• Legacy Gallery >

Check it out

• Tomb Raider: Underworld >

Tools Gallery

Tools Screenshots

gallery screenshots

We showcase all of our work in tool development from our whole creative work starting from Tomb Raider on.

Task Tracker Pro gallery

Task Tracker Pro

Task Tracker Pro was a tool we built to help us manage our work. It was a simple database that allowed us to track our work, hours, and progress. It was a great way to keep track of our work and also to help us understand how long it took to do certain tasks.

To learn more about Task Tracker Pro

Monarch PTO (optional) gallery

Monarch PTO

We wrote this Calendar app to help us keep track of our time. It has a search feature for all notes during day, keeps track of deadlines, and allows us to measure how long project phases are taking so we can better get a sense if we're on track or need to adjust our schedule. It also includes a login system, weekly hour tracking, and even provides a summary of productivity every weekend.

While it's a lifesaver and can't stress enough how we can't live without this tool, it's not avaialble for public use. But we can demo it and show how it works. We had to let go of further development due to limited support bandwidth that would later be used for Task Tracker Pro. They work well together and often share info with one another to stay on track.

Maybe someday we can release it as an app but for now it's a private tool.

Web Widget (optional) gallery

Note: Don't remember what this is but we're assuming it's a web based version of what we wrote either for the color tool (palette box) or our Kelvin system or our demo for the lighting present tool. Once we get to this point, we'll have a better sense.

Monarch Unity Tools gallery

These were the tools we used for exporting, importing, and managing our assets for games we created in Unity. The biggest help was our backup tool, it copies art assets into a Dropbox folder while it publishes code into GitHub. By doing so we avoid massive issues with sources files taking up too much storage without losing the ability for incremental backups.

We also wrote a screenshot tool and asset manifest so if there were any descrepencies and by chance something had been missing, we would know from the start. By comparing the before and after using revision control, we could easily identify any error and fix it. In some cases, we lost assets that couldn't be recovered, sometimes it's unavoidable but we did our best to minimize the risk. We also wrote a publish tool that allows us to do backups and revision submissions at the same time. These tools were a lifesaver.

NDI Tools (representative) gallery

NDI Tools

The following are a list of tools we wrote for Naughty Dog from the time we started learning how to script in Python during Uncharted 4 all the way to pipeline maintenance in The Last of Us 2.

Render Setting Preset System (LUI)

It connected the game's runtime post effects attributes to Maya via an interface that allowed for editing inside of Maya to update within the console. As a result, we could then create preset systems that made development go 1000 times faster (not an exaggeration). This includes snow, rain, fog, time of day, and more with just a selection of a preset, saving hours of work in seconds.

Nova Render Tool

Given the proprietary nature of this tool, we may limit access to this section as either its own page accessible through our resume or as a password protected page. We'll have to see how it goes. We may also omit it altogether.

This connected Naughty Dog's propretiary rendering system to the Maya interface and the console. This resulted in the ability to move the camera as well as sunlight in game through the dev menu, yet allow the ability to see it update using a pathtrace preview of the render live within Maya as well as doing the same for lights bouncing off of objects. This resulted in unprecendented speed debugging lighting issues and bounce light polish.

We did not write the renderer nor the camera connection tools, but instead connected these seperate pieces of ingenity from Naughty Dog and Sony's engineering team together into a seamless integration. Admittedly it was a bit buggy when it comes to starts, stops, and crashes, but over time we were able to reduce these issues by 60%. While it was well enough to use in production, some artists were reluctant to adopt it unless they had to and there were cases where it proved useful enough to be an absolute necessity.

xLit 2.0 (optional)

Given the proprietary nature of this tool, we may limit access to this section as either its own page accessible through our resume or as a password protected page. We'll have to see how it goes. We may also omit it altogether.

The original xLit was written by lighting aritst Omar Gatica. It was invaluable to our workflow and became a defacto in our pipeline. It took basic functions such as custom objects and lights that worked exclusively for Naughty Dog's rendering pipeline. But it was written in MEL and not up to date with the latest changes since Omar's departure.

We reworked the whole tool from scratch and added upgrades such as a light linking system, a color palette swatch, and the ability to select lights by color, type, name, or intensity to make quick updates on large groups at a time. We also added a light lister that allowed for quick selection of lights and objects.

We also embedded a help menu using PyQTGui so anyone hovering over a tool could get a description of what it does, saving time having to look up documentation. It also came with suggestions and best practices.

Geo Import Tool

This tool pre-processed mesh imported from cached geometry into Maya, processed it, named, and grouped so any lighting artist could use the game's assets as a reference to specific situations where needed whether to place fires or dynamics lights in a scene. One example of how it helped was in placing police lights on a car. Another was in importing the location of all torches, candles, and fires in a scene. With upgrades to xLit in combination with the import tool, a lighting artist can get every light source and in one click, convert each one into a physical light, generating an accurate representation of the scene and completing the look of the game.

Launcher

Inpsired by Infinity Ward, we wrote a launcher that allowed for quick access to all of our tools. It was a simple interface that allowed for quick access to all of our tools in one place.

Lightmapper

Automated the process of tagging geo and laying out UV's for lightmaps including auto-detection of the layer exists, adding if it doesn't, and auto arragning UV shells optimal for the type of geo used, whether architecture or organic. Note, it was a simple tool that worked for quick production needs but not a full solution.

Bake Notifications

When a bake completed, it would send a notification to the artist's desktop. It would also forward a copy to memebers of the team so they could see the progress of the bake and know when it was done. Later Andrew Maximov and Marshall Robin updated it to include a snapshot of the lightmap UV shells so the team would know if there were any issues to address. Sometimes by looking at a snapshot from an email of a completed back one could tell if there were major revisions needed to be made on the geometry or texturing.

It also notified when bakes failed, so everyone on the team who was signed up would know when to check the console for errors and address them in a timely manner. It was one of our most highly utilized tools and a great way to keep everyone on the same page.

The issue of spam did come up and while we did our best to reduce it, there was some disagreement about keeping it. Some felt it was important to keep track of all bakes while others felt it only mattered when something succeeded. We did our best to provide options to allow for both.

Worldspawn Tool (keep it Quake) gallery

ATVI Tools

Quake's Worldspawn settings are simple text prompts and in no way allows for an artist to know what color is being used or foresee if certain value combination would cause out of range errors.

We wrote a worldspawn tool that allowed for a color picker, a color palette, and a color swatch. It also allowed for a Kelvin color picker and a Kelvin swatch. It saved files, loaded them, and using math from the rendering engine for the company we worked for, we could predict with high accuracty what the values would output in the game and whether or not that would be within the proper range.

This tool was later used to improve porting for the Wii, allowing for colors and values to come close enough that at lower resoultions, one would barely tell the difference. It was pivotal in the completion of a particular level we felt passionate to help complete.

PaletteBox gallery

We wrote this color palette tool in 2008 thanks to something Rich Farrely had showed us during Call of Duty: World at War. He used an app that color sampled the screen and gave values to plug into the Worldspawn. We then took that idea and expanded it to include a color picker, a color wheel, and a color palette, along with preset palettes based on a key hue.

More

• Call of Duty: Black Ops Gallery >
• Call of Duty:Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies Gallery >
• Call of Duty: Call of Duty: World At War Gallery >
• Tomb Raider Gallery >
• Legacy Gallery >

Drawing Gallery

Traditional Pen & Ink Screenshots

gallery screenshots

Traditional & Digital Art

We also practice ink art daily to stay in shape. Everyone should draw daily, even if it's not for a project or skill. It's a great way to keep the creative mind sharp and the ability to think outside the box.

Pen & Ink art gallery (link preview )

Pen & Ink Sketch Artist Society

We're also founder of the Pen & Ink Sketch Artist Society

Pen & Ink art gallery (link preview )

Various Works

Some works don't fit in any category but worth sharing anyways

Details, Social Meida, & More

Social Media

• Pen & Ink Sketch Artist Society on Facebook
• Art on Instram >

More

• Graphic Novel Gallery >
• Legacy Gallery >

Legacy Gallery

Legacy Screenshots

gallery screenshots

The following are projects, anecdotes, and examples of projects we worked out for in the early years of our career leading up to the AAA era. Everyone starts from somewhere. while many of these examples seem archaic compared to modern times, the lessons learned and visuals made served as a foundation for the work we do today.

Sony: Lair gallery

Sony: Lair

In 2008 we were hired by Sony San Deigo, our first major breakthrough in the industry. We were hired as a lighting artist for the game Lair, to help with cutscenes and polish on key shots. At that time, we didn't fully understand the major difference between cutscene and gameplay lighting. We had no idea the next opportunity would change everything.

Oddly, Lair didn't gross well at launch because of a fatal decision to use the Sixaxis controller for flight. It was a great idea but poorly executed. Later it was patched to use the analog sticks which made it an excellent game but by then it was too late. Overall we were proud to be a part of it.

Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning gallery

Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

Our first project since arriving in California, an opportunity that came thanks to a close friend, and we had only been in LA for a day before work started. We had to hit the ground running and production was already behind. We lit scenes, set up rendered frames for compositing, and witnessed the final being exported to the final game.

The files we got came from India, which weren't bad but due to miscommunication, we ended up having to convert them before lighting into the pipeline's format, polishing, and sending off as we went along. It was a great experience and we learned a lot about the process of lighting for games.

Oddly, we had a chance to play Spyro while it was in Alpha and it was the first time we had ever witnessed an unfinished game. There was something magical about it. A part of us longed to want to know more, be a part of that, and do more. We had no idea the chance would come later on, but it was our first encounter with world behind making games, a fitting title for us and our dragon friend.

On our last day at home before moving to California, nncertain about the future, we opened a fortune cookie with a message we still keep in our wallet to this day "you will show them what you're capable of".

Thursday Counting 5-4-3-2-1 gallery

Thursday Counting 5-4-3-2-1 Gallery

It's the last music video we got a chance to work on before moving to California. We created a train model from scratch based on concept art. We also modeled an entire city from scratch. Many elements in the video for both lighting and modeling ended up in the final cut.

Incidentally, we were at a cross-roads with two demo reels in hand, one for lighting and one for modeling. We had no idea which one to use. While later we were hired at Sony San Diego for lighting, our supervisor at the time felt we had a stronger potential for modeling. But fate had other plans.

Clubhouse Chronicles gallery

Clubhouse Chronicles Gallery

After gradutation we co-founded a company called Mindjuice which later became Finale Studios with friends from college. We worked on a series of projects, for television, web, architectural visualization, and more.

Among the unsuccessful there were failures and losers. Failures fell short of their goals but losers never bothered trying, criticized those who do, and got angry about it. After graduation we had to quickly discern the difference.

About two years into the business, we wanted to do something different. Telling stories was in our heart and soul over everything else. We wanted to be like Pixar. So we directed an animated short where we co-wrote, edited, and lit the project. We were also responsible for running the business, managing animators, side-hustling freelance jobs, to keep the production going. We also had to help manage the voice acting and sound aspect as well. Two and a half years later we ended up with a 12-minute fully rendered pilot short and submitted it to executives.

By that point, we burned out and along the way lost the company on a gamble our TV pitch would pick up and pay off, but it didn't. We lost everything and had to start from scratch. At the very least, by this point, we had nothing but a lighting reel and the need to start over. And so our adventure began...