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Call of Duty Prototype Project
In between James Bond and Black Ops, I had the opportunity to art direct a test case for a new potential Call of Duty game - "Project X". This one centered on natural disasters and the resulting societal unrest, with our mission to create a huge spectacle worthy of a major Hollywood film. After helping determine the scope of the project including riots, rain, an earthquake, a tornado(!) and the locale (modern day Hong Kong), I built direction sheets for the core team and OS partners to work from. Although we had to abandon the project when Black Ops began, this was a great time to hone the process of my visualization pipeline.
 Initial Direction SheetsFirst step was to visualize Hong Kong as a riot torn, environmental disaster area! Since I would be working with contract concept artists, I first built proto geo so internal stakeholders could sign off on how the key beat locales would be composed. With the right reference and geo direction, concept art was able to be done at an accelerated pace. |  Key Beat Concept ArtThe concept art we were able to develop would serve as the mood, color, and tone directors for the remainder of the project. |  Lighting and Prop GuidesFrom the concept art I was able to generate detailed lighting and color guides for the creation of assets and what kind of surface qualities we'd be looking for. The lighting guide served double duty as the overall time of day and mood generator, but it also revealed how material properties should react. Maintaining a strong color story throughout the shifting disasters would be key to influencing the player's sense of danger and immersion. |  Level Map and Color StoryLaying out the basic location of each key beat helped develop the color story and how it could be structured. I wanted to open with a a sense of anxiety (yellow), to desperation during the flood (blue), then being overwhelmed (brilliant light), to sheer desperation (hot orange). |  Level Direction NotesAs we began to build out the sequences, I would redline geo changes and reinforce what the player would be experiencing with little side bar storyboards. As Black Ops needed our skills we got pulled off, but as an art direction pipeline I felt this was yielded the kind of results necessary for a Call of Duty project, and remains a good practice I still use. |
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