The latest Underworld Ascendant update, posted to the game’s website, walks us through Art Lead Dave Flamburis’ process of creating concept art for the game. Amusingly enough, the 2D art pieces he creates begin life as 3D models:

When starting a new concept piece I like to build up the “skeleton” of the composition. To do this I jump into a modeling program like 3DS Max where it’s easy to knock out basic shapes.

Here, we can see a top-down view of the space I’ll be concepting. I’m going to set the camera across the diagonal so the lines of force converge on the Catherdral-like form’s opening. The cylinders represent rock formations. The yellow components are the base terrain and an overhead bridge. The buildings have strong vertical lines and will be used to develop a signature look to much of the surrounding rock walls.

I’ll create a camera with a wide field of view so it mimics an in-game POV and frame the scene out.

But after adjusting camera angles and pulling things into Photoshop, the final pieces comes to life:

The rock formations along the back are derived from the cathedral-like forms. There’s a dynamic and fantasy aspect to the rocks. However, I left the center entrance more defined for contrast. I want a nice cluster of worked stone around the opening. I’m also playing with the idea of using stalagmites as small columns. Not quite sure if this is going to survive the concepting phase.

At this stage, I want to try out a few color ideas, so the palette is less unified and more experimental. I also destroyed the bridge and started merging the cylinder shapes into terrain. At this point, I also call in the team to give feedback. No need to wait for a finished piece for useful critique.

The team’s consensus is that the most interesting part of the piece is the area around the cathedral entrance, so I’m going to expand that more and use those elements through the rest of the piece. Folks also found the lower left of the painting, as well as the deformed bridge, to be confusing and not in line with the more solidly built structures surrounding them. It was also decided to add a clearer “pathway” through the piece so that viewers could imagine walking and exploring through the area.

You can see a before and after above; it’s pretty impressive to see what he’s able to create from what began as some coloured block formations in the 3D software that I’m sure many of us first dabbled in some fifteen years ago.