How to build worlds
Creative Assembly and Spin VFX discuss their approach to CG world building in Total War: Warhammer and The Expanse
Creative Assembly and Spin VFX discuss CG world building
artists are highly 3D skilled digital builders, combining creativity with their software of choice to build anything, from robots to entire cityscapes. World building, however, is an entirely different discipline – one that exists at the intersection of artistry, storytelling and technicality. 3D World has gathered experts in production design across film, television and video games to lift the lid on the art of building worlds.
“THE AUDIENCE NEEDS TO IDENTIFY WITH THE CONCEPT, AND BELIEVE IN THE PHOTOREALISM OF THE WORLD” Paul Deoliveira, VFX supervisor, Spin VFX
BELIEVABLE IMMERSION
“World building in VFX means that we are creating an environment that looks and feels naturalistic to our viewers,” explains Paul Deoliveira, a VFX supervisor at Spin VFX. Deoliveira and the team at Spin have been behind VFX for The Expanse since its first season in 2015. He adds: “The audience needs to identify with the concept, and believe in the photorealism of the world.”
Part of Deoliveira and his team’s role on The Expanse is to help create a lived-in world. “The devil is in the details to completely immerse the viewer in the story,” he continues. “From the way we create new and old sections that establish a gritty look and feel, to the subtle details of a city block or an entire planetary landscape, we engage the audience as they move seamlessly between practical sets and CG environments without being distracted.”
The cinematics team at Creative Assembly are responsible for much of the world building in the studio’s Total War: Warhammer series, which takes place in a fictional universe steeped in lore and mythology. Lead cinematic artist Carl Allen tells 3D World: “It’s important to understand the characters we’re depicting: Where did they come from? What are they trying to achieve? Do they share a common theme?”
Once characters are fleshed out Allen can turn his attention to the environments and external forces of the Warhammer world. At this stage he will ask questions such as: “What scenario really gets the most out of their personalities? Does it make sense for them to be there? Does it fairly represent the game?” From this, Allen and the team can derive clear and simple visual themes. He adds, “When you have a string of these powerful moments, you can create a setting and story that connects them together, staying true to what led you to them in the first place.”
EXPANSIVE ENVIRONMENTS
Spin VFX has had four seasons and 43 episodes in which to build the high-concept world of The Expanse. “Our creative direction on The Expanse is grounded in the realism of science whilst creating dramatically beautiful imagery,” says Deoliveira. “This has been a beautiful challenge and it has led to many brainstorming sessions. The Expanse is the first show in 20 years that I’ve had to use my math skills on.”
Deoliveira and his team were given the unique challenge of helping to design the look of the protomolecule-infected humans seen throughout the series. “This was unique in that we went from applying effects to human actors,
to a complete CG character,” he adds. “In other series, we often have one or the other. For instance, we created Eris in the Netflix/syfy series, Nightflyers, which was fully CG, compared to Stranger Things 3, which required us to create the CG Mindflayer veins that took over the character of Billy.”
It is when enjoying this creative freedom that Deoliveira and his team do their greatest work on The Expanse. By far their biggest contribution to its world is helping to develop the look of the protomolecule itself. “We took the designs from production and furthered the concept to create the look and motion of the mysterious entity,” Deoliveira recalls. “We also defined a special look for the human-protomolecule hybrid, who is played by Jordan
Dacol, the son of our creature art director, Cesar Dacol Jr.” The studio continued to work on all aspects of the protomolecule as it spread throughout the solar system, conceptualising its look as it overtakes Eros Station in the dramatic climax of season one.
“We were also heavily involved in the world creation by building on concepts from the production,” continues Deoliveira. “We created seamless set extensions to help establish the scope and aesthetic of this fictional version of humanity’s future.” An example of such work can be seen in the season one reveal of Ceres Station, located in the asteroid belt. The audience follows a drone through a series of ducts, from the Ceres midtown through to other large, crowded spaces. “Creating the scale and depth of the station was unique as we get to see both the outer and
“WE USED COLD WARERA, BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE AS A REFERENCE” Paul Deoliveira, Spin VFX
inner workings of the station,” adds Deoliveira.
The team at Spin VFX cite several influences on the world of The Expanse, not least the rich and expansive world of the books on which the series is based. There is also the passion of writers and executive producers like Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, and showrunner Naren Shankar, who remain heavily involved in all aspects of production.
Inspiration also comes from the real world, as Deoliveira explains: “In season four, we went to the planet Ilus, which is very similar to Earth – both in size and atmospherics. This meant that rather than having to create a fully CG environment, the production shot it on-location. We then had to augment the environment by creating ancient structures that were relevant to the story. The similarities between Earth and Ilus allowed us to reference real tsunami footage in order to achieve the look and power of our CG tsunami, since it behaved similarly to how it would on Earth.”
The Expanse introduces viewers to three galactic factions: Earth, Mars and The Belt. Each has a vastly different culture based on their environment. “Earth, being the oldest and the mother planet to all humans, will have evolved naturally over the past 200 years,” explains Deoliveira. “The icecaps are mostly gone and ocean levels have risen, forcing them to build walls to keep cities from flooding.”
Mars is a technologically advanced society, with a clean and militant design style.“when
we reveal Mars in season 4, we had to design their infrastructure in a way that reflected these traits. The terraformers had to be towering at 200 metres, and aligned carefully to create a sense of power and order. We used Cold War-era, brutalist architecture as a reference motif for their design.” Spin VFX also created the planet’s Mariner Valley district, using real topology of the Martian canyon and sculpting a 15km long area to accommodate the inhabitants.
As the poorest of the three factions, The Belters are hardworking and passionate people, living in low-gravity space for generation after generation. “The designs created for their gear look old, very used and retrofit,” says Deoliveira. “They are known to engineer their own tools, recycling and repurposing where possible. Because of this, they are more concerned with function than appearance.”
THE ART OF WAR
For their work on the Total War: Warhammer series, Creative Assembly’s cinematic team faced the unique challenge of turning a tabletop miniature game into CG short films. “Naturally the world is brimming with conflict,” says Carl Allen. “There are many different races in these wars, typically tropes of recognisable fantasies and cultures. The setting is loosely themed on the early renaissance period, so you can expect a lot of armour, swords and early gunpowder weaponry. However, it also delves into magical elements with orcs, elves, dwarfs, dragons and daemons.”
The cinematic team works closely with the brand team to create a brief for each of their game trailers. Allen begins by researching all of the Warhammer material at his disposal, rule books, novels, and more. “It’s also important to understand how the material has been adapted to fit Total War,” he adds, “so communication with the game designers is essential. We have fun immersing ourselves in the lore. A lot of the fans have been following these stories for decades and understanding their passion for Warhammer is key to exceeding their expectations.”
Adapting the game is not quite as straightforward as just creating a 3D model of a tabletop miniature and animating it. Many Warhammer models are designed to exaggerate particular characteristics, for example, the flowing cape of mysterious assassin, Snikch. “Snikch is a large humanoid rat and arguably Warhammer’s most deadly assassin,” says Allen. “The tabletop model is posed dynamically with a long cape blowing in the wind. This presents us with animation challenges, and we don’t want it clipping through other characters in the game.” The team is careful to stay true to how the character moves and fights, capturing the essence of the miniature.
“WE HAVE FUN IMMERSING OURSELVES IN THE LORE” Carl Allen, lead cinematic artist, Creative Assembly
Many other Warhammer characters sport bulky armour that, while aesthetically pleasing in miniature form, was not originally designed with practicality in mind. Allen and his team have to keep this in mind during the motion capture process: “if a character has a huge spiky helmet, they’re not going to be able to swing a sword over their head. Equally, they’re not going to be able to raise their arms too high if they’ve got massive shoulder pads.”
Total War: Warhammer is a turn-based strategy game, and as such its in-game models are designed to be readable from a distance. “Generally, we’ll use the in-game models as-is, but there are occasions when we’ve had to tweak the models for cinematic use,” Allen explains. “For example, the character of Mannfred von Carstein had a particularly spiky breastplate which, if represented as is, would impale him whenever he leant his head forward, so that had to be adjusted.”
Small details are crucial to the world building in Creative Assembly’s cinematics, as well as selling the overall theme. “If you ever need to explain to the audience how someone is feeling through dialogue, then go back and try again,” Allen advises. “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then prove it. Look at how you frame, light and dress a shot. How does the character behave in this scene? How does the camera move and how long is the shot? Altogether, how do these things make you feel?”
When it comes to world building in your own work, Allen has some simple advice: “Watch a lot of films, the good and the bad ones. Pay close attention to those small details and how they make you feel. How would you improve it? Remember to show, don’t tell. Everything and everyone has a history, we see it everywhere without being told what it is. Your audience is smarter than even they think, picking up on details around them all the time unconsciously. When creating your own world, you need to fill it with those same details.”