Preproduction
Turning Point takes place in an alternate history in which the British Prime minister Winston Churchill
dies in 1931, eight years before the start of World War II,
presenting the possibility of what could have happened to Europe, the
United States, and the rest of the world without his leadership. The
United Kingdom is subdued by Nazi Germany in 1940, and the rest of
Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union
fall soon afterwards. The United States, infected with anti-war
sentiment, does not get involved overseas. The game takes place in the
midst of the Greater German Reich's invasion and occupation of the east
coast of the United States of America in 1953. Because
the US is not involved in WW2 conflict its economic boom of 1950s is
not taking place. In the game, the country still feels the sever
effects of 1930s Great Depression. The general mood is somber.
Turning Point was Spark's
original idea. In order to get Codemasters on board we created series of images
that could convey the story and the mood and help to sell the game. We asked
Matt Hall to help us with the task. Matt worked with most of us at DreamWorks Interactive;
he is an amazing artist and a good friend.
Matt Hall
Matt Hall
Matt Hall
Given the
atmosphere and the story line we started the preproduction by researching the
art period of 1930-1940. We looked at architecture, props, and vehicles. We got
lots of books and watched many period movies. A small team (including me) went
to Washington DC
and New York
to collect information on locations. We shoot thousands of photos.
We found the paintings of Edward Hopper and George Bellows to accurately
represent the mood we were trying to create.
Jonathan Bach
Ko Simon
We also
looked at the classic film noir period (1950-1960) with its low-key
lighting and deep shadows. We loved the drama created by high contrast
lighting, dark story lines, and cinematic innovations.
The next
step was to establish specific color palette for each individual mission. I
used key colors to represent season, weather conditions, mood, and type of game
play. For example, first mission takes place in New York in the fall. It is early morning and
the sun is rising on the horizon. The color palette is warm and light is
defused. The protagonist, who works top of the high-rise construction site, is
unaware and unprepared for what will come next. This way the slightly positive
atmosphere created surprising contrast to the brutal and dark Nazi invasion.
We also
looked at the classic film noir period (1950-1960) with its low-key
lighting and deep shadows. We loved the drama created by high contrast
lighting, dark story lines, and cinematic innovations.
As the
preproduction process continued our concept artists started with making quick
thumbnail sketches to visualize various locations. This helped the
designers to visualize space and game play.
Based on the loose drawings the design team was able to start block out some of
the environments in Unreal Editor 3 (using simple brush blocks).
While designers were blocking out the layouts the art team was creating more detailed sketches.
Sketches often included game play path. This helped the 3D artists
to put more details and props in areas traveled by the player.While designers were blocking out the layouts the art team was creating more detailed sketches.
At this point concept artists started working with the designers a bit
closer. We began to include basic props, value, and lighting
information.
Based on the color palette, sketches were colorized to test color harmony and visual continuity.
All images are owned by Codemasters
