You should know NetEase’s “Shendu Night Journey”. This monster collecting game once ranked first on the free list and second on the best-selling list. Its art style and quality have also become the favorite of many people. focus.

But you may not know that "Night Journey to the City of Gods" once encountered a crisis that was almost canceled. When it was nearly a year into development, the leader was very dissatisfied with its art style. After discussing it with the team, he decided to check on the project progress after 7 days.

So Li Tianhui, senior game art manager and art design expert at NetEase, was entrusted by the art manager of "Shendu Night Journey" to lead three original character painters to redraw a version of the character. How will they help the team save this endangered project within 7 days?

Li Tianhui: Graduated from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in 2009 and joined NetEase. He works as an original character painter and has participated in the art development of products such as "Endless War Zone", "Chu Liuxiang", and "Shendu Night Journey"

The following is what Li Tianhui shared at the 2019N.Game NetEase Game Developer Summit held by NetEase Game Academy on January 20. For the convenience of reading, some parts have been adjusted:

Accepted in times of crisis

About two months ago, the leader of NetEase Game Academy came to me and said that he has a very important task to arrange for you, which is this speech. Just two requirements:

Firstly, I hope you can talk about "Night Journey to the City of Gods". You have painted this project before, and your painting is pretty good;

Secondly , I hope you can speak professionally and represent the image of NetEase game art.

So I had insomnia for 2 months, until last night, because these two things were too difficult.

First, let’s talk about "Night Journey to the City of Gods". This project has been developed for more than 2 years, but I actually participated in this project for only 7 days. Is it inappropriate for me? Their products have in-depth thinking on products, markets, and users. Am I qualified?

Second, the requirements for speaking professionally are very high, and it is even more demanding to represent the image of NetEase game art.

Then what angle should I choose? After thinking about it, I will talk about what happened in the seven days that I know best, and talk about the real experiences and details at work.

First of all, please take a look at this batch of pictures in "Night Journey to the City of Gods".

This project has been online for a while. Everyone thinks that its art style is innovative and the paintings are very good. Does it look really good? But none of these pictures were drawn by me.

The project was not always smooth sailing. During the development process for more than half a year, it encountered very important art problems. Our characters were not like this at first.

I remember one Monday, Feng Long, the art manager of the project, came to me.

He said that the bosses were very dissatisfied with the art style of the project. After discussing with the team, they decided to check on the project progress after 7 days. Therefore, during these 7 days, he wanted to ask me to help iterate on the original painting.

After discussion, Feng Long decided to give me the original paintings of the three characters of his project. Four people moved the machines into a small dark room and concentrated on production for 7 days, drawing 10 NPCs, specifically to solve the problem of art iteration. matter.

I first put all the characters together and compared them.

These are the looks of the project almost a year ago. Everyone’s face has a different style, some are Korean, some are aesthetic, and the design elements are also messy. Maybe this character is placed in This is also true in another game, where there are a lot of inconsistencies. Then the first thing I have to do is to unify them.

When we are iterating the character, I want to split it into 3 steps and then combine them together. These three points are very simple.

The first step is to draw only large ones.

Only draw large-scale paintings

Anyone who has done art knows that large-scale painting is the most basic thing for painting original paintings or anything.

If it is not purely realistic, there will be a summary and summary of the shape, organized into a large-scale expression and impact, which looks very comfortable.

What kind of large one do we want? The art direction we want is larger, more distinct, more visually impactful, and has a very relaxed feel. So I want to exaggerate the large scale to look like this: a character can be abstracted into a circle on top, a triangle in the middle, a square, rhombus, trapezoid, etc. below.

Actually, by the time I thought about this plan, it was already Tuesday, and one day had passed. I will let everyone do this on Tuesday. We are going to produce 9 NPCs and 1 protagonist. I will draw the protagonist. Normally, each person can draw 3 of the remaining 3 original paintings. But I ask everyone to draw the large-scale drawings of the more than 10 characters that had problems before.

Why do this? Because we often have a problem in painting, the authorities are obsessed with it, and it is difficult to jump out and see what problems we have. But I can always feel new things and other people's ideas when I draw other people's things. I also often copy the paintings of big guys. This thing is wonderful. It is similar to the spiritual communication between artists, and you can understand the person better.

The three of us all drew large-scale drawings of the same character, but our summary methods are different, so we can compare them horizontally to make it clearer which direction we want, and everyone can understand it more intuitively. This step. We spent 2 days on this step, and it’s already Wednesday. This was drawn by a few classmates just now:

This was drawn by a classmate. I didn’t see any of the expressions or visual primary colors he used. Look at large. His large size met my requirements.

This is a painting by two other students. It can be seen that the painting style is completely different. The person just now prefers Korean cartoons, and this person prefers Japanese cartoons. The details may be more trivial, but I will also pay attention to meeting my requirements on a large scale. OK then, the step of "only looking at large ones" is over.

It was already Wednesday. The project art manager, Feng Long, came to me with great expectations and wanted to see the pictures. After seeing this batch of pictures, I saw a trace of panic and despair in his eyes... It's already halfway through the week, and he has done so many things in so many days? And the things are still painted like this...

I said don't panic, you should eat and drink when you go back, leave this matter to me, don't worry. In fact, I was still a little panicked because I had never done this before.

Anyway, it’s Thursday and we start the second step: just draw lines.

Just draw lines

How useful are lines? I remember an art boss at NetEase said: "Style is lines, and lines are style."

The first time I heard this sentence, I thought it was too arbitrary. How could you say that? How can something as grand as style be defined so simply? But after I have been painting for so long, I feel more and more that this sentence makes sense.

I will show you these three pictures:

The leftmost one is realistic, the middle one is a very typical Japanese cartoon, and the right one is our Chinese painting. As long as it's not hyper-realistic, you'll always have to generalize when you're drawing. You can see how they summarize the edges. I removed other elements and left only the edges:

The level of realism on the far left is very high, and every detail and small shape is depicted; in the middle are the lines that everyone often encounters when doing projects, which will Excessive details are erased, and the transition in proportion is emphasized. The lines are often S, such as daggers and blades, which are anti-S and have artificial aesthetic lines. On the right is a picture of a lady, which we have accumulated over thousands of years of Chinese painting. The essence is that lines will be like noodles and rivers, flowing very smoothly without rigid turns and changes.

If we want to make something new, we need to find inspiration, elements, and references. Why don’t we use our unique advantages? You may think that Chinese paintings look rustic, but that’s because their faces are not good-looking. As long as you use the lines and put the faces of handsome guys and beautiful women on them, you will feel like you have never seen them before, and they are indeed rare in games.

So this is the second step, just draw the lines. We already had a few nice large ones before. What I'm going to do today is erase the lines and redraw them with smooth and soft lines.

Sound very simple? Can someone who can draw a little bit do it? Indeed.

The third step is to draw only color. You may think, I want to list many points to unify the style, such as the painting method of patterns, the design of equipment, face, hairstyle, many things need to be listed. But I don’t want to list so many complicated things that are uncontrollable, but I only listed 3 steps, hoping to dismantle very complicated things.

Only painting colors

Painting colors is so difficult and very annoying. When working on a project, the cost of an original painting of more than 50 RMB is spent on color refinement.

There are three pictures here. The one on the far right is a very simple intrinsic color with simple shadows. Some refinements were made in the middle. The far left is the ultimate version of the original painting. If you give a score, the rightmost picture might be 70 points, the middle picture might be 80 points, and the far left picture is very good, 100 points. But if converted into cost, the far right is half a day, the middle is 2 days, and the far left is a month.

In order to pass the review, do we have to draw each picture for a month? This involves a question of trade-offs. The choice is very simple, everyone wants more and better; but in order to control the style and cost of the project, I have to discard the 20 points. This is very difficult for myself, because I always feel that a little painting is better. Okay, I can't control myself; what's even more difficult is the request from the outside. The boss said that he hopes you can be more detailed, but I said "I won't"? More difficult.

It is also very uncontrollable to draw to the far left. Everyone has different refinement and control of color. This is the same group of still lifes painted by three different people. They are all realistic and tonal. They are all very real, but the handling and use of colors are still different.

Then how can I unify everyone? I did something very simple: you don’t want to draw any pure gray changes or hue changes, I just want light and dark changes. In photoshop you lock the L value and just drag that bar up and down. When you are drawing, you select a natural color, make the darkness a little darker, just like drawing a sketch, and make a smooth transition to the middle, and that's it. We want something with a score of 79 - the reason why we didn’t say 80 is because 80 sounds good, but 79 sounds problematic to everyone.

This step can greatly ensure that everyone’s details are the same, ensuring the unity of the 1 protagonist and 9 NPCs.

This is our process diagram from the beginning to the end. There is a problem on the far left. We first made large-scale and line modifications, then tiled the color and added transitions. On the last day, I put all the characters together and did the dragging of the body proportions. You may not be too shocked by this picture. The last picture is 79 points. Next is the moment to witness the miracle.

During these seven days, I never emphasized which patterns to change or how to draw your face. I just emphasized the large body shape, lines, and unified colors, and they naturally became like this. People are not machines. If you give them restrictions, and if they want to do things well under these restrictions, they will definitely take the initiative to cut something. For example, how to draw complex patterns with smooth lines?

So as a lead artist and interface person, you have to split a problem into several questions. This may be one of the most important tasks.

Finally, let’s take a look at the before and after comparison of these pictures:

After finishing this batch of pictures, show it to Feng Long, who was in a panic before. What was his reaction like? ?

Did "Night Journey to the City of Gods" be canceled in the end? Of course it hasn’t been cut, it’s been online for so long. Let’s look at the final original painting again. After conducting market research, they made the head-to-body ratio higher and the face looks better. It’s much better than the batch we painted at the beginning. Of course, this is also because we have the right path based on the previous ones, so we can go further and further - these pictures are the original paintings of those who drew the pictures in question.

The way of thinking and working method of "split into three points"

I like to break down complex things into 2-3 very simple things. As for what these three points are, each project is different.

For example, I divided the character design of "Endless War Zone" into three points: identity, characteristics and story.

For example, this character's identity is a clown, characterized by a spring arm. The story is that underneath the laughing mask is a very sad face. His sister passed away, and he took his sister's favorite rabbit toy with him.

Why should I split the design into 3 points? This is the result of years of torture. I often draw a painting for the artist, who immediately says it’s weird, not beautiful, not handsome, and doesn’t look good. The first time and the second time I asked you what do you think is weird? He even talked to me calmly. But the third time I asked him, he got a little annoyed and wanted to replace me. So I especially hope to rationally divide complex and emotional things into three points.

So later I told the lead artist that I designed the character based on these three points: identity, characteristics, and story. Do you think it’s OK or not? He thinks it makes sense. Then next time I give him a picture and he says it's weird, I can ask: "Is it because the identity is not obvious, the features are not outstanding, or the story is not expressed well?" This way he will enter into my logic. , I took the initiative.

Style: Being down-to-earth and coping with aesthetic fatigue

Finally, let’s talk about style.

Making games is different from pure art. I have never seen any artist do market research. But games are made for everyone to buy. Before establishing a project, we will do competitive product analysis, and then do market research and draw a batch of pictures to show players to see which ones are good-looking. This is very important.

My boss Lala often emphasizes a very important point: we must make something down-to-earth. You will go further and further in the original character painting, but your audience is not professionally trained and may not be able to keep up with your ideas. They may not be able to accept what you think is good and great.

Can we get things done just by being grounded? Not at all. I showed you the pictures in question before, and they also did market research, but in the final picture, maybe the face and the equipment that you like are all combined, so why doesn't it still work? This shows that not only product managers and planners need to be grounded, but everyone who makes original paintings must also be grounded.

What is the most popular game on the market now? What is a movie? I want to play, I want to see, I want to always keep my interests consistent with everyone’s, and not break away from the masses, so that when I draw something that excites me, it will definitely excite everyone.

I have been doing original painting for so long, and I have accomplished the steps I just mentioned. Will I be able to become a giant in the industry and prosper for a long time?

Not so. I feel very stressed every day. The person on the right is me. Every day when I work, I feel like there is a huge monster staring at me behind me. Some people say it must be the planner, but I have a good relationship with the planner. This monster is called aesthetic fatigue, and it is the lifelong enemy of every original painting.

We can take a look at the development of industry styles. From the traditional MMO at the beginning to European and American style, Korean style, and then to the recent "Chu Liuxiang" and "Onmyoji", there are changes every time. Maybe I’ve reached the pinnacle of drawing the stuff in World of Warcraft, and I’m so familiar with it that I’m the boss, but maybe no one will remember me in a few years.

But aesthetic fatigue also has benefits, it will point you to the future direction. For example, after I completed the iteration of the art of "Night Walk in the City of Gods", a boss said that you did a good job, but I have a new project here and there is a problem, so I will come back to you. I also spent a week making a set of plans, which were very familiar to me. But my boss saw me very happy before, and this time he came up and said to me: "I think it looks too much like Shendu, and this won't work." I suddenly felt that I The things I summarized are no longer valuable in an instant. I want to create a new style that can stimulate your senses.

Of course, we can discuss this matter. Some people think that it is enough for me to be proficient in one style, but this is not the case in my actual work.

What will be the popular style in the future? This question is difficult and has no answer.

For example, after I made MMO fashion, school uniforms, and a sense of hierarchy, I was already tired. Can I have an overall setting? So we went from the era of disassembling equipment to making clothes and trousers without disassembling them, making it a complete set of clothes. When I became tired of this aesthetic, I wanted to see a more prominent character style. For example, I made "Endless War Zone"; Later, the player's interest became collecting, and then we had "Onmyoji" and "Shendu Night Journey". So what is the next thing I am interested in?

I read the news about gene editing two days ago, and some scientists said that this is nothing, and that humans will be immortal in the next 20 years. Seeing this news suddenly aroused my inspiration and unlimited desire to create. What will life look like after 400 years of immortality? What will the person look like? What are relationships like? What is the social structure, social contradictions, and economic structure? This thing really stimulates my nerves.

So I am doing something recently, which is to bring together the character original artists of the department for training, to open up their imagination, and ask you to create a set of concepts that can stimulate your nerves. So back to the question, what will be the popular style of games in the future? I still don't have an answer. But if I make another product, I will make it in a style that will last 400 years after human eternity.

QA session

You have given methods and key guidance on the integration of styles of different team members, but will there be any difficulties in unifying the styles? How to solve it?

Li Tianhui: There will be difficulties. Maybe no matter how you draw the original painting, the lines and body shape will not meet your requirements. But after I break it down into very simple steps, I will also review it in stages. Each stage needs to be reviewed by the main artist or main original painter. It is definitely not enough for each of them to do their own thing.

I have broken down each step very simply, and each step has clear review standards. The main artist and main original painting still need to be modified manually. It takes a long time to type a lot of words, it is better to go up and draw. One stroke.

How to exercise the correct way of simplifying and refining thinking? What kind of thinking is needed?

Li Tianhui: This may have something to do with people’s thinking. I didn't have this kind of thinking when I was making original paintings before. I just wanted to make a single painting particularly good and outstanding. But in the next 2-3 years, I switched to management and became a manager. I was exposed to production, animation, and marketing, and listened to the sharing of other big shots. This gave me a framework of thinking. Is it possible to put perceptual things into perspective? Things are organized? This also has something to do with the nature of the work and the people around you. No one is born like this, so it actually has nothing to do with talent.