ZBrushCentral Interview: Epic Games - Gears of War 2

[aurick]

Banner (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/1/)


Epic Games (http://www.epicgames.com/), based out of Cary, North Carolina first released Unreal ten years ago. Since then, it has been a wild ride for the game company, which has not only released several sequel games but has also licensed the Unreal engine and so became the driving force behind many of the most popular and successful games ever released.

More recently, Epic Games published the wildly popular Gears of War title. It was so successful that IGN awarded them "Best Developer for Xbox 360", while the Official Xbox Magazine named them "Best Developer of the Year" and "Best Studio of the Year". Spike TV also named them "Best Studio".

It should come as no surprise, then, that Epic Games followed up with a sequel. Gears of War 2 (http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/AgeGate.htm) launched on November 7. IGN has given this game a 9.5 rating of "Incredible" – higher even than the first game’s 9.4 "Outstanding" rating.

Now anyone who knows anything about Epic Games also knows that they are notoriously hard to squeeze information from. They rarely grant interviews, and WIP screenshots are only slightly more common than sasquatch sightings. It is therefore with great pleasure that we bring you this interview with Art Director Chris Perna and his team. Not only have they shared some outstanding insights regarding how they’ve used ZBrush for this project, but they also backed it all up with over 100 images! So brew up a fresh pot of coffee and settle in for a great read.

Click Here for the Interview (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/1/)

Here are a few of the MANY screenshots that are found in the interview. Click each for the high resolution version.

Perna (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?2/img_lrg/Perna_Leviathan6.jpg)
Lanning (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?3/img_lrg/Lambent_4_Boil_Morph.jpg)
Johnstone (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?4/img_lrg/SecurityDoor02.jpg)
Ellis (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?4/img_lrg/Locust_Steps1.jpg)
Caudle (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?5/img_lrg/ScreenShot00118.jpg)
Wells (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?6/img_lrg/Brumak_Harness_02.jpg)
Morgan (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?6/img_lrg/flamethrower_tanks.jpg)
Hayes (http://www.pixologic.com/interview/epic/popup_img.html?6/img_lrg/locust_seederwip1.jpg)


Many thanks to Chris Perna and his team for taking the time to share so much with us about their work on Gears of War 2! And a big thank you also to Epic Games for granting permission!

Use this thread to discuss Epic's Gears of War 2 artwork!


Be sure to also check out our many past interviews, which can be found in the ZBrush Artist Interviews (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/forumdisplay.php?f=88) forum.



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[aiman]

Hats off to you! Hope 2009 is another step forward, good luck.

[nebular]

So cool. Thanks for the interview and images. It was really good to read.

[alphagsv]

Very Nice...:tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[Blade_Rain]

I know I may be a bit obsessed, but I thoroughly enjoy the 'pride' I get out of being the only one of my friends who can correctly identify what software a game or film was using. :D

[skullbeast]

What's up Chris nice to see ya up here! Killer work as always!! :tu: :tu: :tu: :cool:

[grassetti]

amazing interview, really hard style to follow!
congrats to all involved!


:tu:

[GregStrangis]

Phenomenal work you guys do! Loved the readings and the screens. Game is a blast =) Good Luck to you guys and congrats!

[KrakenCMT]

I'm a great fan of both the first and second GoW games. It's just awesome to see the models up close like that. That's such a great inspiration.... :tu: :tu:

[Kyrin]

Purely phenominal work--the art in the game is absolutely stunning!

[Point]

Amazing what a totally inspirational interview, thanks Epic and ZBrushCentral and all the artists who made such an Awsome game.

Chris Wells talked about using subtools for getting round the polycount, what is the polycount for a character (ball park) for the Unreal Engine.

Its interesting reading everyones fav tools in ZBrush, and how they achieve their desired result.

[rubent100]

This is so amazing! what a treat!

[samar vijay]

That was a bomb... :tu:

[SolidSnakexxx]

Excellent interview :tu: :tu: Thank you so much...

[skulll_monster]

thanks alot for the interview ! just great !

[Eonsuu]

Very interesting interview and truly inspirational! Hats off!

[willbrown1]

Thanks Pixologic and Epic, for the look at Gears. The artist's on that team are truly an inspiration. Outstanding work! :D :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[cresshead]

excellent interview! :tu:
i'm off to get gears of war 2 for my 360 just to look at the artwork in the game! :D

[cannedmushrooms]

epic is amazing
But still can't stand the idea that they will not give Gears 2 to the PC community.
And left the modding community to rot as well.
Amazing artwork though

Great job (pat on the back to the artists)
To the owner well I wont say.

[3David]

a thousand thanks for the interview :tu: :tu: :tu: all the artists are truly inspiring

great job guys the game is absolutely awsome :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:
you are my heroes :D

Thanks epic and pixologic for the interview and thanks to all of the artists

David

[undoz]

mind blowing stuff guys. thanks for sharing!

[industripop]

Best interview you guys have done IMHO. I am a bit biased though, as I love all things GOW. Amazing work being done there! The WIP models are just incredible.

[Maxmate]

WOW! That is some EPIC s**t man!!! :D

[IcemanJ]

great interview, thank you for that a lot guys. Epic team keep working on awesome stuff like Gears are. :tu:

[MoP]

Cool interview and nice pictures. :tu:

What's up with the "StraightPerm.com : : Hairpieces" text at the top of all the image pop-ups? Did someone lift a Javascript image viewer application from another website and fail to notice that it had that text incorporated? :o

[SixxPixels]

That was great! Thanks Epic and Pixologic... Those Creatures are just Insane!
As far as I'm concerned you guys set the bar for gaming creatures!
I am now inspired to add a HELL of a lot more detail to my creatures... and I thank you for that...

[Kosher]

So frigg'n sick! I am addicted to the game and it's just insane you guys are willing to share the process and models with us. Rawk!

Now back to kicking some more Horde ass...

Thanks again and it would be great to get some insider tips from the artists as well.

[Intervain]

good stuff - really like the look of your characters :tu:

[3dmaya]

Very nice Interview.

[mkk316]

Kevin Lanning is one of my favorite digital artists, so I was in heaven, and being exposed to all the other amazing talent was fantastic. Nice way to start a new year. :D

[Maxmate]

It's a shame that this game is Xbox exclusive. I have spent many hunderds of euros on my computer just to be able to play games like this. It hurts my heart to see something so amazing and to know I will never get to play it :cry:

[nebular]

Spend another 100's for XBox :cool:

It's shame I don't play games. I would try this one out, looks trully amazing.

[3dzeiro]

very super extreme excellent interview!!! :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[overd21]

Very nice Interview.:tu:
Thanks Pixologic and Epic:lol:

[fx81]

nice interview, thanks.

[ReplicA]

Gotta say it's about time someone got some decent res images on this game of the high res models. I got excited by the interview on another site, that there would be high res images, and of course was disappointed with super tiny images. Thanks a lot guys for the larger images, as well as the interview. Great stuff

[The Master Elite]

Awesome work guys. The detail on that Corpser helmet is mind-boggling...:eek:

Keep up the good work and make sure your artists get a good break between modeling sessions! You want to make the most of them, after all...:p

[rsmith3d]

I love the fact that the heads in Gears bare a strong resemblance to the Art Director's head. He's all, "No! I said make it realistic! The neck needs to be thicker than the head!"

Just kidding. Awesome work!

[Presdigi]

this is so great was playing the game with a buddy when i saw this, still can't believe how amazing it looks!

[spitt123]

WOW !!! Those are amazing

[johneyrussia]

Very good work.

[freakmean]

What an amazing interview, thanks to all the Epic Games squad for all the advices and the inspiration......
Thanks a looooooot!!!!!!

Gracias Miles gentes....

[tortilla1]

"I love the fact that the heads in Gears bare a strong resemblance to the Art Director's head"....:lol:

I was thinking the exact same thing...

Amazing stuff though...I especially liked to see the amount of effort and polish that is going into the environments, cause usually it's the character work that get's all he credit....

and yes...I will be very dissapointed too if this doesn't get released on the PC.

[Mr.Storm]

Lets play some gears of war 2!

look for SEC9 STORM

we can kill stuff and bitch about zbrush all day :-)

[masc]

Congrats! Groundbreaking work as usual! I'm a bit sad that the game is just for XBOX too.

:eek: breathtaking. keep it up!

masc

PS: Hey Kevin, Pete nice environment stuff ... I love it, just amazing!
I could get some help at the utforums.epicgames.com. ;)

[goktugg]

great interview,thanks a lot!

[Avan-AMS]

just what i was looking for and i love this game playing in insane now, i need my 2.0 thing :p

[Moni-Poroni]

Really amazing stuff :tu: :tu: :tu: and great interview!

[Bulgarov Vitaly]

Thanks Pixologic for the interview!
Thanks Epic for the inspiration!

[Kupo]

hardcore and passionate
great attitude for this job
awesome inspiration
Thanks a lot for sharing with us :D
Jason

[Nattawat_OBBI]

really like the look of your characters. Very super extreme excellent interview :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu: :tu:

[skulll_monster]

why they used Zbrush 2 !?

[skulll_monster]

why they used Zbrush 2 !?

[Jenga_FeatBeat]

I am doing gcse art, soon to go on to A levels i think :lol:. i'm a big fan of games and am interested in concept art and character design. i would like some advice on how to train to do something similar.

[robinmitra1]

wow awesome interview guys!

[tot tot]

Anyone know why on the 2nd page, the 2nd to last image (of the leviathan) doesn't load the right image?? :cry:

[OlirO]

For sure ! best game ever ! i play it so much :lol:
thks for this interview.
cheers.