Back 4 Blood DLC 3: River of Blood (2022)
The third DLC for Back 4 Blood continues the variety we started branching into in the second DLC, Children of the Worm seen here:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/G8KVbd
For River of Blood, we take a trip down the river to visit some unique locations along the way. We had a ton of artistic flexibility on this DLC to really play with the different environment styles and have more lighting fun with bolder color and contrast compared to the other DLCs.
For my part this was the most fun I've had on a B4B release since I was able to live in these environments long before any of the art was ready. Spent a good chunk of time doing tests with world artists and art director to try a lot of things out before we committed to any one idea. On the other side of that, we had longer than usual to spend polishing and making everything super cohesive which is always nice.
Enjoy the scroll!
Art Direction:
https://www.artstation.com/mikebrainard
Environment, level art, & design:
https://www.artstation.com/ianrunnels
https://www.artstation.com/tivoli
https://www.artstation.com/pipesfranco
https://www.artstation.com/brentgriffith
https://www.artstation.com/jafo
https://www.artstation.com/richardrude
https://www.artstation.com/brookeolson
https://www.artstation.com/jakevirginia
https://www.artstation.com/dallanpickard
https://www.artstation.com/theburger
https://www.artstation.com/alternateground
https://www.artstation.com/phillgonzales
https://www.artstation.com/lamotterudy
Character art:
https://www.artstation.com/alexboatman
https://www.artstation.com/jchavez21
https://www.artstation.com/elliotb
https://www.artstation.com/jhill
Weapon art:
https://www.artstation.com/bradboyles
Animation:
https://www.artstation.com/chazamation
Concept art:
"No Sanctuary"
The movie "A Quiet Place" was a color and tone reference for the cottage island's look and feel. Went for a warmer mid-morning Kodak look.
"Emergency Broadcast"
Brent Griffith has a great technique for creating views outside of "windows", which aren't windows at all but HDR cube maps assigned to planes in the window frames. They also help light interiors by acting as emissive sources!
I worked with Brent Griffith and Austin Adams to create a physically-based RGB sub-pixel array for the TV materials. With each pixel containing RGB stripes, the TV resolution is exactly 1280x720. (First gen HD.)
Aside from the spotlight highlighting the sun art on the rear wall, the overhead emissive material panel lights are the only source of light over the set.
"Grim Discovery"
"The Waterfront"
"Behold the Harbinger"
