PlatinumGames' Environmental Artist Shohei Kameoka stars in this week’sAstral Chaindeveloper blog entry. He delves into what makes the holographic animations work: a technique called UV Animation.
The three-dimensional objects that you see in games are made up of two major parts: The 3D model itself; and textures, 2D images that determine what their surfaces look like. A UV map determines which part of the texture falls on which part of the model when they’re put together. For instance:
To the left is an image of an “unfolded” UV map on a texture. And on the right, that same texture is applied to a 3D model. you’re able to see how the intersections on the UV map fall on the corners of the cube.
UV animation, then, is the process of moving these UVs around, which in turn changes the texture’s position on the 3D model. So when you move the textures around the left, it changes the positions of the textures applied to the cube to the right.
From there Kameoka lists step by step the process behind taking that same principle and, with a few other effects added, creating a realistic holographic image. Finally he ends the post with a few examples of UV animation at work such as the task force Neuron logo, IRIS hologram frames, plenty of neon signs scattered throughout the game, and even a mysterious figure who appears in the Astral Plane.
For those interested, there are several previous developer blogs that delve deeper into the title: changes tomission structure,visual effects,sound design,art direction,the music, andthe environmentsthemselves.
The title received some lovelypost-launch artworkfrom both theNieR:AutomataandBayonetta’s character designers. The officialPlatinumGames Twitteraccount also released new art from thestudio’s main artistHajime Kimura, celebrating the title’s success.
Astral Chainlaunched exclusively for Nintendo Switch and you can order it right now onAmazon. If you need some more convincing before you do, check out our review of the gamehere.
