铁匠smith

For our second blog post in this series, the team reveals some sources of inspiration behind The Blacksmith, share key concept work, and offer fascinating insights into the art production process.

在本系列的第二篇博客文章中，团队揭示了铁匠铺背后的一些灵感来源，分享了关键的概念作品，并对艺术创作过程提供了有趣的见解。

铁匠角色 (The Blacksmith character)

As described in our previous blog post, at the Unity Demo Team we align our content production to certain development goals.

如我们先前的博客文章所述 ，在Unity演示团队中，我们将内容制作与某些开发目标保持一致。

With our technical goals in mind, we approached the character creation of the Blacksmith with a list of objective requirements, which we believed this character should adhere to.

考虑到我们的技术目标，我们以一系列客观要求来对待铁匠的角色创建，我们认为该角色应该遵守。

For example, in this project we did not intend to work on skin shading, but instead wanted to focus on using the built-in PBS in Unity which was under development. Therefore we did not want the character to have realistic human skin. We also preferred to avoid dealing with hair, because writing a hair shader wasn’t a goal for this project.

例如，在该项目中，我们不打算进行皮肤着色，而是希望专注于使用正在开发中的Unity中的内置PBS。 因此，我们不希望角色具有逼真的人类皮肤。 我们还希望避免处理头发，因为编写头发着色器并不是该项目的目标。

We also had to consider what kind of environment we would need to create for our character.  We already had the environment from our earlier Viking Village demo, so, for the sake of saving production time, we wanted to re-use some resources. We therefore decided to keep the character within the same theme. This brought us to the idea to explore Nordic mythology for interesting characters and stories.

我们还必须考虑需要为角色创建什么样的环境。 我们已经拥有了较早的Viking Village演示中的环境，因此，为了节省生产时间，我们想重新使用一些资源。 因此，我们决定将角色保持在同一主题内。 这使我们想到了探索北欧神话中有趣人物和故事的想法。

Concept art: Early sketches

概念图：早期草图

By now you may have figured out which literary source gave the initial spark for the idea of a blacksmith: the poem Völundarkviða in the collection of Old Norse poetry called The Poetic Edda. There are also interesting treatments of a blacksmith in the Finnish epic poetry of Kalevala, which includes some overlapping themes. Thinking more about the importance and mystical power of the blacksmith in Indo-European myth and folklore, we really liked how different elements mix to create a controversial figure with both appeal and a distinct dark side. We thought this was truly interesting, much like many of the existing villains in film and literature who inspire us.

到现在为止，您可能已经发现，哪个文学来源为铁匠铺路的想法提供了最初的火花：北欧古诗集The Poetic Edda中的诗Völundarkviða 。 芬兰史诗《 卡列瓦拉》中对铁匠的处理也很有趣，其中包括一些重叠的主题。 考虑更多关于铁匠在印欧神话和民间传说中的重要性和神秘力量，我们真的很喜欢不同的元素如何组合在一起，以创造一个既具有吸引力又具有独特的阴暗面的争议人物。 我们认为这确实很有趣，就像许多启发我们的电影和文学中的反派人物一样。

Concept art: Explorations

概念图：探索

We worked very closely with the concept artist, Georgi Simeonov, on the visual development of the character. He supplied many interesting ideas and explored different ways to suggest hair as part of the silhouette of a human figure, by using details like leather straps and a hood.

我们与概念艺术家Georgi Simeonov紧密合作，致力于角色的视觉发展。 他提供了许多有趣的想法，并探索了不同的方式，通过使用皮带和头巾等细节，将头发作为人体轮廓的一部分来建议。

Concept art: Explorations

概念图：探索

Developing the character, we explored and re-interpreted the rich treasure trove of themes that the mythological material presented. It informed many decisions about character design, art direction, and story. An additional source of inspiration were other deep and intriguing literary characters, such as Morpheus from The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and Judge Holden from Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.

通过发展角色，我们探索并重新诠释了神话材料所呈现的丰富主题主题。 它为角色设计，艺术指导和故事提供了许多决策。 其他灵感来源还包括其他深刻而有趣的文学人物，例如尼尔·盖曼(Neil Gaiman)的《桑德曼》系列中的莫非斯(Morpheus)和科尔马克·麦卡锡(Cormac McCarthy)的《 血脉》中的霍顿法官。

Here is the final approved concept sheet for The Blacksmith’s lead character:

这是铁匠的主角最终获得批准的概念表：

Concept art: Final concept sheet

概念图：最终概念表

We contracted Jonas Thornquist for the modelling and texturing of the Blacksmith character. He did an amazing job of interpreting the character in 3D and supplied us with this reference render from VRay:

我们与Jonas Thornquist签约 ，以对铁匠角色进行建模和纹理处理。 他在解释3D角色方面做得非常出色，并向我们提供了VRay的参考渲染：

The Blacksmith – Reference render from VRay of the high poly model

铁匠–高多边形模型的VRay参考渲染

挑战者 (The Challenger)

We saw the potential of making a nice short film, and therefore decided to scope up the project a little. So we dropped some of the initial technical limitations which affected the main character, and decided to add a second one.

我们看到了制作精美短片的潜力，因此决定扩大项目范围。 因此，我们放弃了一些影响主要角色的初始技术限制，并决定添加第二个。

The antagonist in our story is a seasoned, veteran warrior. His design combines some Viking  themes with decidedly anachronistic elements. We worked with Sergey Samuilov on the concept and character art.

我们故事中的对立者是经验丰富的资深战士。 他的设计结合了一些维京主题和过时的元素。 我们与谢尔盖·苏梅洛夫 ( Sergey Samuilov)合作研究概念和角色艺术。

The Challenger – Reference render from Marmoset Toolbag 2

挑战者– Marmoset Toolbag 2的参考渲染

环境环境 (Environments)

We had the Viking Village environment still in production and, of course, wanted to use assets from it, but it was clear from the onset that they will be re-arranged in a different way. In The Blacksmith, we were going for a more dramatic feeling. The environment had to sustain the story of our movie and tie well with our characters’ personalities and backstories.

我们的维京村环境仍在生产中，当然想使用其中的资产，但是从一开始就很明显，它们将以不同的方式重新安排。 在《铁匠》中 ，我们想要一种更具戏剧性的感觉。 环境必须维持我们电影的故事，并与角色的个性和背景故事紧密结合。

Mood boards情绪板

We did very little work on concepting the environment. We got some quick thumbs and sketches to explore some ideas, and then quickly moved into Unity where we iterated until we reached a version that was OK.

我们在概念化环境方面所做的工作很少。 我们很快获得了一些经验和技巧，以探索一些想法，然后Swift进入Unity，在其中进行迭代，直到获得一个确定的版本。

When it came to the creation of the natural assets in the environment, we worked with Terragen master Martin Huisman to generate procedurally the highly detailed relief on the rocks surfaces.

关于在环境中创建自然资产的过程，我们与Terragen大师Martin Huisman合作，以程序方式在岩石表面上生成了高度详细的浮雕。

All the rocks in this image are instances of one asset, rotated and scaled.

此图像中的所有岩石都是一个资产的实例，已旋转并缩放。

生产过程 (Production process)

The initial creative process was completed with a storyboard. For us, it was both a way to develop ideas and to communicate them to the production team. One of the benefits of working in Unity is that we did not need to lock the storyboard early in the process, because a realtime engine allows changes of cameras and editing until very late in the project. With very little effort, we were able to try out multiple modifications and adaptations of our initial ideas, make editing re-arrangements and even slight storyline adjustments almost until the final delivery date.

最初的创作过程已通过情节提要完成。 对我们来说，这既是发展想法并将其传达给生产团队的一种方式。 在Unity中工作的好处之一是，我们不需要在过程的早期就锁定情节提要，因为实时引擎允许在项目进行到很晚之前就可以更改摄像机和进行编辑。 几乎不费吹灰之力，我们就可以尝试对最初的想法进行多种修改和改编，对编排进行重新安排，甚至对故事情节进行细微调整，直到最终交付为止。

Storyboard: early version

故事板：早期版本

The stages of production following on from the storyboarding looked roughly like this:

情节提要之后的制作阶段大致如下：

First, we did a shot prototype of some crucial moments. We had an animated (2D) storyboard to help us get a first feeling of length and rhythm, as well as identify what additional tools and shaders we’d need to develop so work on them could start.

首先，我们制作了一些关键时刻的镜头原型。 我们制作了一个动画(2D)故事板，以帮助我们初步了解长度和节奏，并确定我们需要开发哪些其他工具和着色器，以便可以开始研究它们。

From there, we moved into Unity, prototyping the environment with placeholder assets, including early versions of the character models. We used this both for look development and for a 3D previs, which guided the actors during the motion capture session.

从那里开始，我们进入了Unity，使用占位符资产(包括角色模型的早期版本)对环境进行原型制作。 我们将其用于外观开发和3D预览，在动作捕捉期间指导演员。

After the shooting the animation was post processed, implemented into Unity, and aligned on a timeline, along with some iteration on the cameras. In parallel, the artist started replacing the placeholder assets in the engine with the ones which were being created in the meantime. He did this while simultaneously working on the lighting setup and the post effects.

拍摄后，对动画进行后期处理，将其实现到Unity中，并在时间轴上对齐，并在相机上进行一些迭代。 同时，艺术家开始用在此同时创建的占位符资产替换引擎中的占位符资产。 他在进行照明设置和后期效果的同时做到了这一点。

Anatomy of 1 shot: storyboard; 2D animatic; motion capture with realtime preview; 3D previs; final in Unity (Scene view); final in Unity (Game view)

1张照片的解剖：情节提要； 二维动画 具有实时预览的运动捕捉； 3D预览 Final in Unity(Scene view); 决赛在Unity中(游戏视图)

This was a period of intensive stress, put both on Unity’s graphics systems and our own additional shaders. While Unity 5.0 advanced through its beta cycle, we fed back to Unity’s development teams about the integration issues, bugs, inconsistencies, and stability issues we hit, and requested some workflow- and performance-related improvements.

这是一个压力很大的时期，它既适用于Unity的图形系统，也适用于我们自己的其他着色器。 在Unity 5.0进入Beta测试周期的过程中，我们将遇到的集成问题，错误，不一致和稳定性问题反馈给Unity开发团队，并要求对工作流程和性能进行一些改进。

The final stage was dedicated to iterations and gradually polishing the animation and art, as well as fixing the remaining bugs on the custom tools and shaders, to get the project into its shipping state.

最后阶段致力于迭代，并逐步完善动画和艺术作品，以及修复自定义工具和着色器上的其余错误，以使项目进入其交付状态。

In the next blog post in this series, we’ll move on to looking at creating The Blacksmith from a more technical perspective, starting with scene set-up, shading and lighting. So be sure to check back at our short film’s special page soon.

在本系列的下一篇博客文章中，我们将继续从技术角度出发，从场景设置，阴影和照明开始，创建《铁匠》 。 因此，请务必尽快查看我们短片的特别页面 。

翻译自: https://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/06/15/making-of-the-blacksmith-concept-and-art-production/

铁匠smith