This bit of art direction is where I helped create a bridge between the art and design departments, guiding them to a high quality visual built from story needs, historical inspiration, and video game spectacle. I was responsible for the art direction on the Vietnamese, Hong Kong, and Cuban levels, as well as the Call of the Dead Zombie DLC. The method we worked in was to create strong visual guides at the outset, then continually communicate with the team via paint-overs and direction sheets throughout production. This was an incredibly intense work cycle, all leading up to the creation of the (then) biggest selling game of all time! A project filled with powerful lessons of research, communication, and focused iteration.
Call of Duty Black Ops
Call of Duty Black Ops
South Vietnam 1968 (Vietcong Assault) Call of Duty Black Ops - Part 9 - 4K
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Helicopter Scene - Mission Payback - HD Gameplay
Level Run Throughs
The results speak volumes on Black Ops, where learned much about iterative development, the push for quality, and delivering an 'experience' vs. a 'game'.
I was able to contribute a large amount of direction, but I also learned what it takes to build a 1st class experience from the team around me.
Final Level Art
I art directed the Cuban, Vietnamese, and Hong Kong levels of the game, and brought a high degree of authenticity and theatrical history to the play spaces. As a student of history and traveler of Vietnam and Hong Kong, I was able to drive the architecture, layout, and overall feel to a place that was both historically accurate, yet also entertaining.
For Cuba, I followed suit with the interior of Fidel Castro's villa, imbuing it with a Spanish influence. This not only gave it unique character, but reflected back on the historical reference of the level.
Getting Started
Kicking off levels began with creating top down guides, detailing the major gameplay beats and their associated intensities. I built these from discussions with designers and high level stake holders, and use it to give shape to abstract ideas...the first step in the level building process. These would be used by all departments to get an early idea of the scope and nature of the experience.
I created color guides from reference photos that gave form to how textures would be built. This included local color and value as well as the overall value structure. This allowed us to stack all levels against each other and build a game wide color story.
Color and Ref Guides
More specific level planning was done on the guidebook level. I built color scrips and ref guides for vehicles and levels in ways that reinforced the level's experience.
In the case of Kowloon, we wanted a descending level progression so I not only laid out the sheet vertically, I created a color story that wove through the many little experiences players would encounter along the way, building to a neon soaked alleyway at the climax.
Level Re-Design
Often times levels required a greater degree of rework after false starts. I would build sheets that helped layout and inform how the geo could be built with greater narrative and compositional structure.
Sometimes it's a soft hand with texture direction, sometimes it's wholesale change to the landscape, but as long as each supports the narrative experience the effort is worth it.
Iteration and Polish
Another example of how far the art could be pushed. It is very difficult to create concept art for every inch of the map, so filling in that gap with clear paintovers and daily feedback was a strong tool to reach our end goal.
Every room, visual direction, nook, cranny...all needed attention and that's the gap I filled.