Next up in IGN's first article about Eternal Strands, we'll dive into the unique and colorful art of the Enclave lands. We sat down with art director Sebastien Primeau and lead character artist Stephanie Chafe to ask them all about it.
IGN: Let's talk about Eternal Strands' distinctive art style. What are some of the guiding principles behind the art direction?
Prime minister: I think the art direction thing at the beginning of the project was figuring out the scale of the game, because we knew we were getting those giant 25 meter tall creatures and monsters. So we really wanted to have the architectural elements of the game – the vegetation, the trees – reflect that dimension.
So one of my inspirations came from an architect named Hugh Ferriss, and I was very impressed with his work, and it also inspired me a lot. So just the scale of his work. So he's really influenced Metropolis, Gotham, so I'm really inspired by his work.
Chafe: I think one of the things that, as artists and creatives, we're also interested in is a color palette that can be very bright. And something that can really challenge us as artists, and get into the craft of painting a little bit more, and really get our hands on it, touch the clay, maybe say so, and try to find something bright and colorful.
IGN: That's not the first time I've heard your team describe the art style as “painterly.” What does it mean?
Prime minister: Painter is just a word that can provide a lot of room for different types of interpretation. I think where we started was with the Impressionist painters. So I really enjoy looking at many artists, and they have many different styles. But we wanted something fresh, colorful and unique.
Also, I remember when we started the project that has been around ever since. “It will be stylized,” but stylized is just a word that gives a lot of space to different kinds of styles. And because we were a small team, we had to figure out how to create those rough strokes. If it's drawn very quickly by an artist, as Bob Ross would say, “Accidents are common.” So I think we want to embrace that. And because we're all artists, at some point it's hard to disconnect from what you're doing. It's like, “Oh, I can add some details there.” But I'm always- “Guys, oh, Steph, that's enough. Let's stop there. I think it looks cool.”
IGN: So when you were creating content for Eternal Strands, was someone actually drawing something?
Chafe: I can talk more about the character aspect. For us, we do a lot of hand painting, a lot of hand drawing. And we try to accept, not the mistakes, but the unreality of it, an extra stain here and there.
We have brushes that can help us, as artists, get the texture we are looking for. It's actually the texture that gives it. But in many cases, it's not just something created by a content artist, or taking these things will layer these things for you, making things quick and procedural. Sometimes we have those people help, but usually we just go in and draw.
IGN: Eternal Strands has more colors than many games today. Why is it important for the team to have a variety of bright colors?
Prime minister: Actually, you need to be careful with colors. Because with so many colors, you can create that colorful pizza.
We wanted to balance the colors for each level because we weren't making an open world game. I really wanted each level to have its own identifying color scheme. So we're playing a lot with lighting. Lighting for me is key. It is very important. You can have gorgeous textures, props, characters, but if your lighting isn't that good, it's like… So lighting is key. And especially with Unreal Five, we now have access to Lumen. It brings a lot of richness to the colors, how balanced the colors are with the whole level. It has definitely changed the way we look at the game.
We're using technology but in a way that creates something that feels like you're looking at a painting. I think we have achieved that goal.
Chafe: I am very satisfied with it.
IGN: What was your inspiration from other games or other media when developing the art style?
Prime minister: How much do I have? I'll start with graphic novels, European graphic novels. I really wanted to stay away from DC comics, Marvel comics, those classic genres.
Before starting Eternal Strand, I watched a video. It was one of the short films about League of Legends for a competition. That is “RISE”. I don't know if you remember that one, but it was made by Fortiche Studio, who made Arcane, and I'm a huge fan of Arcane. When I saw that short film, long before Arcane was announced, I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is so good. This is amazing. I wish I could work on a game with that style.”
Chafe: For me, when we started the project, one of the things I wanted to challenge myself a lot was to come up with ideas, draw and things like that and do more, learn more about color, which is which I find extremely fascinating and also irritate me all the time just because of color theory in general.
But with [character] especially portraits, I mean, growing up I played a lot of games, a lot of JRPGs. I play just looking at basic portraits in things like Golden Sun or eventually Persona and of course Hades which is a great game. I've played way too much of that, including early access. But I really like that part. Visual novels are the same, just sort of. You can also feel emotion from 2D visuals when it's done well, especially if you have voice acting on it.
IGN: Was there any really influential piece of concept art that served as a guide that the team would refer to later?
Chafe: I have a personal opinion: It's really Maxime Desmettre stuff because it's so saturated. The sky is blue, blue, blue. Maxim Desmettre is our concept artist who works in Korea. When I joined the project, I saw it as… and also saw it as a challenge, like 'how do we get there?'
What I'm thinking about and hoping we can find later on, in general with the piece that always speaks so much to me is this clear blue sky and the saturation of the grass. But when he got into architecture and things like that, there was warmth to everything. The stone's warmth makes it look both inviting and mysterious. And I think that really says a lot.
IGN: How did you design the main character of Eternal Strand: Brynn?
Prime minister: I think Mike too, when he introduced the character to me, he used Indiana Jones as an example. So brave, an adventurous guy, a great guy. Also, when you look at Indiana Jones, he's a great guy. And we wanted to create that excitement from our main character. And I remember it took time. We did many iterations.
Chafe: It's definitely a lot of repetition. Well, I think I did a lot of sketches because that would be the player's face, and also show her individuality within the story and her history. And the cape is huge too. What gives her one of her powers and stuff, figuring that out was actually one of the longest processes. It's just a cape, but at the same time, it also makes it relevant to the gameplay and all that. But yeah, all of Brynn's personality and vibe really comes from a lot of good work by the storytelling team. So it's mostly collaborative there.
IGN: What's up with Brynn's advisor: Oria? How do you tackle a giant bird?
Chafe: Residing in the world of this land is “it's free real estate”. You just throw everything on the wall and see what sticks. And, “Oh, that's great. Oh, that's great.” At some point, I did a big sketch of a big bird girl in clay, and Seb said, “That's cool.” And then remove it.
IGN: What was the most difficult part about the art style you chose for Eternal Strands?
Prime minister: The hardest part was…A lot of people on the team had experience making games, so we had to break out of that mold.
For me, when working on games that have a more realistic look, I think it's hard to think differently, to change our mindset, especially since we know we're going to be a small team, so We have to make art. alternatively, look for recipes, for example when we are talking about texture. So there's a good combination.
Chafe: One of the other things is that we're all a bunch of artists, and each artist has their own style that they're suddenly ingrained in, and that's what makes us all unique as well. way as artists. But when you join a project, you have to come together. You cannot have a different view from the other. When you do something more realistic, you have the North Star, which is a large amount of real references. And you might say “it should look like that, as close as possible.”
When you have a style in mind and are developing at the same time, you look at it and review it and you have a feeling more than anything else.
You are training each other in your styles when you finally merge together. And that's how the style happened, like you mentioned, like finding easy recipes, just actually creating content and seeing what the results were and, “Oh, that's great.” . Okay, now we can use it as our kind of tool.” North star.”
For more on Eternal Strands, check out Our preview of the Ark of the Forge boss fightor read Our interview with the founders of Golden Brick Games are going from AAA studios to their own independent outlets and everything in between let's stick with IGN.
