Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
inside the environment and decide which view is best for the scene being worked
on for the game.
In addition, if a 3D package is used, the camera's focal length can be short-
ened to make the background look warped, curvy, and somewhat comical; or
lengthened to appear more photorealistic. The camera can look down into the
environment, showing establishing shots or areas of the room where clues in
the game may be hidden; or dropped low to look up, giving a spookier appear-
ance. Figure 4.11 shows the rough 3D render for a background from a haunted-
hospital game created by Star Mountain Studios along with the finished version.
Once the camera angle was decided on and the image was captured, the final
paint was done using matte painting techniques in Photoshop.
FiGuRe 4.11
For the background in this haunted-hospital game, the rooms were
roughed out using Maya, the camera was rotated to provide the desired angle, and then one
frame was rendered out. That frame was used as the layout for the 2D paint.
