Dev diary – WipEout HD Fury environment design

WipEout HD art director Marcus Tanner has been doing a stand up job working on the expansion, WipEout HD Fury, so it’d be a shame if we didn’t know about what he’s done for the game. That little problem is remedied by yet another developer diary, as Tanner takes us through the work that he and his crew put together for WipEout HD Fury.

WipEout HD art director Marcus Tanner has been doing a stand up job working on the expansion, WipEout HD Fury, so it’d be a shame if we didn’t know about what he’s done for the game. That little problem is remedied by yet another developer diary, as Tanner takes us through the work that he and his crew put together for WipEout HD Fury.

Set in stunning Utopian environments, each WipEout track is inspired by “abstract sculpture, structure in art and science, futuristic architecture, mecha detailing and contemporary product design.” Using a fluid design process that involves creating abstract shapes in 3D, members of the team passed the work around, with each handler evolving and clarifying the designs.

The result – “bold, abstract 3D structures, which are rendered and painted over with architectural detailing and placed into the context of a WipEout environment,” as Tanner wrote.

From the art director himself:

The positioning of objects in a WipEout environment is created by a design process called Dynamic Composition. The results can be likened to a piece of music providing the track with a visual melody, rhythm and harmony. This process involves sectioning the environment along the track to provide the fundamental flow of shapes that creates an interesting rhythm for the player. It includes strategically adding set pieces which provide focus for the player and then populates the track to create an enhanced game experience. The result is a dynamic environment that emphasizes the feeling of speed and movement as a result of the rhythmic pattern of structures around the track, and also focuses the playersÂ’ attention on set pieces.

Technique and technology always make a good team. Lucky for WipEout, they’ve got a good measure of both. What they don’t have a good measure of just yet is the release date of when this one hits the Sony PS3, but they’ll be dropping the PR once they get that sorted out.

• WipEout HD getting updated to v1.30 tomorrow; patch includes game invites, online rankings
• WipEout HD update 1.26 now live, but no one knows what it does
  

Via PlayStation Blog