Environment Art

Gracie Hurst

The environment in Sphera starts with level design, this is where we figure out how to teach the player how to use the mechanics and try to make it fun! Once this is done, we test the level to see if it feels right and functions correctly. Now its time to block out some basic shapes and additional assets to get the feel of what the level might look like.

This is then put into the game engine to see if the platforms are the correct height, and to see if the Sphera ball can be thrown where it is intended to. Once this has been tested, décor assets and anything else needed for the level is then modelled.

Now its time for the fun part… texturing! This is what brings a level to life by adding materials to the assets. Once the materials have been applied, dirt, grime and dust is added to make the environment look used. Now all that’s left is lighting, because Sphera is a sci-fi game we use a lot of blue lights and emissives. Point and spot lights are used and the environment is genrally quite dark to give an uneasy feeling.

Now that the environment and lighting is done, we add some post effects such as fog and glow and now we can do some final testing and voila, were done!