Staying with in the realm of stylized

Creating the style

Due to the scope of the game and having less than 10 weeks to create Snapback, it was important that the game was stylized. In the world of stylization it’s easy to blend in with others, to give ourselves a uniqueness our team chose to go with a limited color palette. Keeping within the correct color spectrum would be time consuming and difficult if everyone had to rely on hex codes only. In order to keep things consistent I create a library of smart materials for the team to use. This also helps our team keep a similar look through shading and color pairing. Everyone will apply their own style to things natural, no matter how hard someone tries not to. Giving the team set tools and rules helps eliminate this as much as possible.

Staying stylized in Designer 

There is a fine line between looking stylized and looking like low quality realism. Grunge and metallics can’t be too much, models have to be simpler but we don’t want them to look like toys or block outs. One way I am trying to walk the line of stylization with creating tileable materials in Substance Designer. This is my first time using Substance Designer and it’s been an interesting journey. There aren’t many free resources on the tool, my learning has been through watching people create materials through speed recordings. It’s very easy to go realistic with the materials. I have to go back and forth with the nodes, even deleting 30 minutes or more of work to get the right look. To help my understanding I followed one of the speed recordings to create a sci fi wall. When making my own I had to retrain my brain on how to think. I have to break down textures, figuring out what shapes it is made from and then how to stylize it. I have really enjoyed the process and I’m excited to see my skills enhance as my understanding increases.