Pirates of the Burning Sea devlog: on ArtCo art then, now and tomorrow

Sometimes, it pays to take a step back and take stock of things. Bruce Sharp has recently done that with Pirates of the Burning Sea. In fact, the art director has taken a good look at what the art of the game was before, what it is now, and where it’s heading.

For more on the state of the PotBS “ArtCo” art, (and why it’s called that way) turn to the full article after the jump.

  
 

Now and again, Flying Lab Software staff members take the time to tell us about their experiences with the development of Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS). This time, the spotlight falls on art director Bruce Sharp. Sharp told a little bit about the work that he and his “ArtCo” (or Art Coral, his term for the PotBS art team) have done for the game.

See those two images above? Sharp mentioned that the above was what the art in the game was like before the ArtCo team went to work on PotBS. On the other hand, the remaining pictures below reflect the current state of art in the game. How did Sharp and company do it? Mainly by focusing on textures and lighting. Being a painter by trade, Sharp actually helped paint the texture maps.

The interesting to know is that Sharp’s team of artists is a very diverse group as far as specialty is concerned. He has animators, character artists, environment artists, UI artists, ship artists and an effects artist.

So what do Sharp and co. have in mind for the future of Pirates of the Burning Sea art? For starters, they’re making new tools to assist with production. They new have a new dev for it, too. Sharp and his fellow artists are considering the use of cool tricks in the future, such as having specular maps in shaders.

In closing, Sharp had some parting advice for all potential artists out there: specialize. Sharp emphasized the importance of developing one’s artistic vision and be great at one thing, not mediocre at many things.