Stellaris开发日志#230 | 10/28 水生生物舰船和巨龙
牧游社 牧有汉化翻译
Stellaris Dev Diary #230 - The Art of Aquatics Ships & the Drake
Published by MrFreake_PDX, Colonel
Written by Pavel Golovii and David Strömblad Lindh
Hello! My name is Pavel Golovii, I am a concept artist from the art team that has worked on the Stellaris Aquatics Species Pack. I am going to highlight the process of developing ship designs from a concept artist perspective. I will talk about the initial ideation process, inspiration, visual language and defining the look of individual ship classes.
大家吼啊！我是Pavel Golovii, 是负责开发Stellaris水生生物物种包的美工团队中的一名概念美工。下面我将从概念美工的角度来带大家领略设计舰船的过程。我会谈及有关初期构思过程、灵感、视觉语言和最终决定各级舰船的外观这几方面。
Brief
简述
The work of a concept artist is to suggest a clear visual interpretation of game aspects often based on initially vague ideas and definitions. At this very first stage our goal was to probe for the style for the aquatic ships, invent a sort of a visual language that we then could use to create the entire aquatic ship set that would also fit the existing Stellaris universe. Our art director, Simon Gunnarson, articulated main pivot points for the concept art team. The ships' style had to convey the aquatic and sentient origin of the species that built them and yet artists should avoid too literal interpretations (e.g. converting sea animals into a spaceship). While striving toward non-traditional organic forms we also had to clearly show they are artificially created. These statements served us as navigation beacons leaving a very broad fairway for our art experiments.
概念美工的职责是，基于初期很可能模糊的想法和定义，将它在游戏内清晰地表达出来。在最开始的阶段，我们的目标是探索水生生物舰船的风格，创造一种之后要套用在整个水生生物舰船系列中的视觉语言，而且要与既有的Stellaris视觉风格相匹配。我们的美术总监Simon Gunnarson明确了概念美工团队的主要基准点：舰船风格应当突出建造它们的种族是一种水生的智慧生命，而且应当避免过于刻板的阐释（比如把海洋生物改成太空船），在努力地展现非传统的有机形式的同时，还要让人一眼就看出这些东西是人造的。这些要求成为了我们的指路明灯，为我们的艺术探索留下了十分广阔的航路。
Inspiration
灵感
Starting a new concept work can be both exciting and intimidating. As a first step I try to get more information on the topic as it helps to feel myself on solid ground and start off. I had some starting advantage because long before participating in the project the underwater world theme was already part of my interests and passion. Being a seasoned diver and amateur underwater photographer gave me a lot of personal emotional experience and fueled my work. A lot of inspiration I gained from modern architects like Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava. Their works are a great example of organic form interpreted as constructive elements. And of course nature itself is an inexhaustible source of ideas.
展开一门全新的概念设计工作是令人兴奋同时又令人畏惧的。作为第一步，我努力搜集有关这个主题的信息，这能帮助我打下坚实的基础并开始设计工作。我具有一些起步优势，因为我很早就参与到水下世界主题的项目中来，这已经成为了我的兴趣和所热衷的一部分。作为一个老练的潜水员和业余水下摄影师，这种经历又赋予我许多个人情感体验，并让我将其运用到了工作上。同时我也从诸如扎哈·哈迪德Zaha Hadid和圣地亚哥·卡拉特拉瓦Santiago Calatrava这样的现代主义建筑师身上汲取了许多灵感。他们的作品给出了将有机形式阐释为建筑元素的绝佳例子。当然，大自然本身也是想法的不竭源泉。
Radiolaria drawings by Ernst Haeckel(left) became an inspiration for many ships’ elements, including the titan's bow gun. Modern architecture and design gives great examples of organic form interpretation(right).
Ernst Haeckel绘制的放射虫（左）成为了很多舰船元素的灵感，包括泰坦的轴基主炮。现代主义建筑和设计给出了很好的有机形式表现的例子（右）。
Finding style
寻找风格
Starting from big design entities I try to find what proportions, shapes and patterns would distinguish the ships of aquatic species. Will they be thin and streamlined or bulky and rounded? What associations does that particular form bring up to the viewer? We already have Molluscoid species in the game and they are somewhat related to the aquatic theme. So it was critical that new designs are read as different and do not utilize the same shape language.
从大的设计形体开始，我需要明白水生族舰船的比例、形状和样式会有什么与众不同的特点。它们会是纤细而流线型的？抑或是笨重而圆滚滚的？这个特定的形式能给观者带来怎样的联想？游戏里已经有类软体种族，而他们与水生生物主题也稍微有点联系。那么新设计要看起来与之不同而且不使用同一套设计语言就变得至关重要。
Early ship style exploration sketches by Pavel Golovii.
Pavel Golovii绘制的早期舰船风格探索草稿。
Style exploration sketches by Mattias Larsson.
Mattias Larsson绘制的风格探索草稿。
Once there is an understanding that large shapes and proportions are settled and work well for the theme, smaller elements need to be explored next. This is like enriching the visual vocabulary that will later be used to 'write the whole story' - designs of all the ship classes. Many details like windows, engines, and greebles are going to be shared across ship classes. This helps to propagate style and contributes to better scale perception. A detail that is perceived as a viewport should be approximately of the same size both on a battleship and a corvette. Thus another important step is to test how these elements work for different ship sizes.
一旦大的形状和比例敲定而且被认为与主题贴切之后，下一步就是探索更细小的元素了。这就像是要充实视觉“词汇”，并用这些元素来 “书写整个故事”——设计各级舰船。诸如观察窗、引擎和突出管线之类的许多细节也会由各级舰船共享。这有助于风格的展现，也能帮助更好地把握尺寸。观察窗在护卫舰和战列舰上的尺寸应该差不多大，这就是一处细节。因此，另一个重要的步骤就是测试这些元素在不同大小的舰船上要如何设计。
This sketch sheet by Pavel Golovii shows exploration of various elements like viewports and also an attempt to get the feeling of scale for small, medium and large ships.
Pavel Golovii的这张草稿展示了诸如观察窗之类的多种元素的探索，并且试着把握小型、中型和大型舰船尺寸的感觉。
Material and color exploration sketches by Pavel Golovii.
Pavel Golovii绘制的材质和颜色的探索草稿。
And last but not least comes color and material explorations. At this stage I try to figure out the set of materials that is going to be used for the ships. What the primary and secondary plating may look like? How large is the area a specific material is going to cover? What texture is going to be used for that plating and how it looks when adjacent to another material? These kinds of questions I need to give an answer to in my sketches. Here concept artists work in close collaboration with 3D artists. As the look of the materials is quite dependent on the game engine it is good to test the possibilities and limitations both from artistic and technical points.
最后来康康关于颜色和材质的探索。在这一环节，我要设法找出舰船要用的一系列材质。主要和次要镀层看起来会是什么样子？每种材质要覆盖多大的面积？镀层要用什么纹理？两种材质交界的过渡要怎么做？我需要在我的绘图草稿中给出这一系列问题的答案。此时概念美工将与3D美工紧密合作。由于材质的观感非常仰赖游戏引擎的发挥，所以最好从美术与技术两个角度测试一下可能性和局限性。
Material explorations done by 3D artists Anton Hultdin(left) and Tim Wiberg(right).
3D美工Anton Hultdin（左）和Tim Wiberg（右）关于材质的探索。
All the artistic findings during the style development stage are finally wrapped up by the art director into a style guide that becomes primary but not the only reference for the next step.
在风格开发阶段的所有艺术类调查结果，都被美术总监汇总进了一篇风格指南，它成为了下一步首要的但不是唯一的参考。
Designs of ships classes
各级舰船设计
Once the visual language is defined it is time to 'write the story' using that language - build design for each ship class. This is where each class should get its unique look within a given style and where more rules and restrictions apply. Ships consist of several interchangeable modules and each module has its own set of gun mounts. Modules should have seamless joints to each other and gun mounts have their specific fixed size - all that needs to be taken into account now.
视觉语言一旦敲定，接下来就是用这门语言“写故事”的时间了——为每级舰船构建具体设计。正是从这一步开始，我们对每级舰船根据设定好的风格设计独特的外观，同时也加上了更多的规则和限制。舰船由数个可更换的船体模块构成，而每种船体模块都有各自的武器配置。船体模块之间无缝连接，并且各种武器都有特殊的固定尺寸——现在这些要素都要考虑在内。
Cruiser concept by Pavel Golovii. This is a work in progress showing all module designs. Orange lines represent seams between modules. The corvette drawings(left) are there to keep control over scale perception.
Pavel Golovii 设计的巡洋舰概念图。这张开发中的图展示了所有的船体模块设计。橙色的线代表船体模块之间的接缝。护卫舰（左侧）作为尺寸大小的参照物。
As each ship class has its unique characteristics, it is important to show that in their appearance. Agile corvette differs from heavy titan not only by size, but also proportions, silhouette and unique details. Proportions and silhouettes are something that a viewer reads first, especially when a ship is observed from a distance, which is a common case for Stellaris. So it is important to put distinction at this level. Some elements may help to further differentiate a ship from other classes and tell more about its purpose.
由于每一级舰船都有其独特的特征，在外观上表现这些特征就变得很重要。迅捷的护卫舰不仅在尺寸上与重型泰坦不同，还在比例、剪影和特有细节等各方面存在不同。从观察者的角度来说，比例与剪影是最先被注视到的东西，尤其是从远处观察舰船的时候，而远观的场景在游玩过程中是经常出现的。所以在这一层次上凸显出不同就十分重要。某些元素可能会进一步帮助区分这一级舰船，并且更好地展示出设计用途。
Rotating circular element initially designed by Mattias Larsson for the science ship(center) became a distinguishing feature of other science related structures like the research station(left, by Pavel Golovii) and starbase's science module(right, by Anna Windseth).
最初由Mattias Larsson为科研船（中间）设计的旋转圆形元素，成为其他科学相关的构筑物的一个显著特征，如研究站（左，由Pavel Golovii设计）和恒星基地的科学模块（右，由Anna Windseth设计）。
Given the theme, in the design of many elements marine life motifs were used. The hard part of the job is to do that in a subtle, balanced way that would bring a viewer a certain association but would not feel too on the nose. It is good to make a titan ship reminiscent of a big whale shark, but it should not look like a shark and it must keep the sense that ship was manufactured rather than has organic origin. Ideally a viewer should read that on some subconscious level, without explicitly naming the association.
考虑到这个扩展包的主题，我们在许多元素的设计中都使用了海洋生物的图案。工作的难点在于，如何以一种微妙的、平衡的方式加入这些海洋生物图案，给观众带来某种联想，但又不至于让人觉得太过扎眼。让人联想到大鲨鱼的泰坦是很好的，但它不应该看起来像鲨鱼，而且必须要有舰船是人造的感觉，而不是有机物来源的感觉。理想情况下，观者应该在某种潜意识层面上读到这一点，而不需要明确地说明这种联想。
Initial sketches of the titan ship class used whale shark and manta ray motifs. In the process the titan got a different look for the front gun but the 'manta' motif was used for the construction ship design(the leftmost image). Sketches by Pavel Golovii.
最初的泰坦绘图使用了鲸鲨和蝠鲼的图案。在设计过程中泰坦有了一个与众不同的主炮前置的外观，但“蝠鲼”的图案被用到了工程船设计的身上（最左侧）。由Pavel Golovii绘制。
Work of a concept artist is not only about how things may look, but quite often it is also to answer 'how it may work'. The aquatic colossus class design is quite ambitious with tentacles as its most prominent feature. A lot of effort has been put into figuring out the mechanics of the tentacles, how they bend and draw out. To prove the mechanics a 3D model was created and animated. Also colossus is supposed to have quite intricate special effects so sketches of them were included in the concept sheet to serve as a starting reference for our VFX artist.
概念美工的工作并不只限于解释设计对象看起来怎么样，同时也经常需要解释“它是怎么运转的”。水生生物的巨像设计野心勃勃，巨大的触手是它最显著的特征。圆盘上这些触手的运转机制可费了一番功夫，比如它们要怎么弯曲和伸长。为了展示这一套机制，我们制作了一个3D的模型并配上了动画。同时请注意，巨像应该配上非常复杂的特效，所以我们把它们的草稿图也放在概念页里，作为给视觉特效美工的初始指引。
The colossus class ship designed by Mattias Larsson. The concept sheet contains sketches of VFX and a detailed breakdown of the tentacle construction(lower right corner).
由Mattias Larsson设计的巨像级舰船。该概念设计表包含视觉特效的草图和触手结构的详细分解视图（右下角）。
Proof of tentacle mechanics in 3D software. Done by Mattias Larsson together with Hanna Johansson.三维软件中的触手机械结构。由Mattias Larsson和Hanna Johansson共同完成。
Not only ships
不只有舰船
Arguably, ships are key actors of the Stellaris game, sharing that title with characters. But the inhabited part of the game's universe is full of static man-made objects - space stations, that also play an important role. Design-wise they can be regarded as ship's direct descendants as they inherit a lot from their look and share the same style. Yet development of stations has its peculiarities. These are static objects orbiting a planet or a star and that must be reflected in their proportions and shape that tends to be more weighted toward its center and is not pointed to any direction. Also, some of the station types have a layout that changes and gets more complicated by the addition of modules with various functionality.
可以说，舰船是Stellaris游戏的关键成员，与人物系统齐名。但是，游戏宇宙中的可居住部分充满了静态的人造物体——空间站，它们也发挥着重要作用。从设计上来说，它们可以被视为舰船的直系后代，因为它们继承了很多舰船的外观，并具有相同的风格。然而，空间站的发展有其特殊性。这些是围绕行星或恒星运行的静态物体，这必须反映在它们的比例和形状上，即倾向于向中心倾斜，不指向任何方向。此外，一些类型的空间站的布局可能会发生变化，并随着具有各种功能的模块的增加而变得更加复杂。
Star base design made by Anna Windseth. These drawings show the station's structure and how it evolves from an outpost to a formidable citadel. Radial symmetry helps to underline the static nature of this object.
由Anna Windseth制作的恒星基地设计。这些图纸显示了该空间站的结构，以及它如何从一个前哨站演变为一个强大的堡垒。径向对称性有助于向观者强调这个物体的静态性质。
Mining station concept by Pavel Golovii. The silhouette of this station is supposed to bring association with a factory and hint on its industrial appliance.
Pavel Golovii设计的采矿站概念设计。这个采矿站的轮廓应该让人联想到一个工厂，并暗示其工业设备的属性。
Is there life after the concept is done?
概念设计好，它们就“活了”吗？
Once the concept is done and approved by the art director it is then passed on to 3D artists for modelling, texturing and material setup. This could be an artist in an outsourcing company. In that case a concept artist can not communicate directly with a 3D artist and the concept sheet should be as detailed as possible to minimize the chance of misinterpretation and extra feedback. It is a bit different when the ship is planned for production inside Paradox studio. That gives a concept artist a chance to collaborate with a 3D artist directly by providing instant feedback and additional information that he may be asked for. That also means a concept artist can be more loose in rendering and detailing his artwork.
一旦概念完成并得到艺术总监的批准，它就会被发给3D美工进行建模、贴图和材质设置。这可能是一个外包公司的美工。在这种情况下，概念美工不能直接与3D美工沟通，所以概念表应尽可能详细，以减少误解和需要额外反馈的机会。当舰船被安排在Paradox工作室内部完成时，情况就有点不同了。这使概念美工有机会与3D美工直接合作，提供即时反馈和可能被要求提供的额外信息。这也意味着概念美工可以在渲染和细化他的作品时更加宽松。
Additional top-down drawing and paintover of the stern area requested from a concept artist for the titan ship. The model is made by Abraham Gomez.
从泰坦级舰船的概念美工那里请求的船尾区域额外自上而下的绘图和上色。该模型由Abraham Gomez制作。
There is a lot more that can be covered about the ship design process but this goes beyond the format of the diary article. I hope the reading was of some interest and most importantly I hope you will enjoy the ship designs in the upcoming Aquatic species pack! Below are some more concepts for you to help pass the time until the pack is released.
关于舰船的设计过程，还有很多内容可以介绍，但这已经超出了日志文章的范畴。我希望这些阅读能引起你的兴趣，最重要的是我希望你能喜欢即将到来的水生生物物种包中的舰船设计！下面是一些直到该物种包被发布前帮助你打发时间更多的概念设计。
Battleship concept by Pavel Golovii.
Pavel Golovii设计的战列舰概念设计。
Juggernaut concept by Mattias Larsson.
Mattias Larsson设计的主宰级舰船概念设计。
Cruiser concept by Pavel Golovii.
Pavel Golovii设计的巡洋舰概念设计。
Modelling the Aquatic Dragon
水之巨龙的建模
My name is David Strömblad Lindh and recently joined the 3D art team for Stellaris after completing my internship at Paradox Development Studio.
我叫David Strömblad Lindh，在完成Paradox Development Studio的实习后，最近加入了Stellaris的3D美工团队。
My task was initially to re-skin the texture set for our already existing dragon. Instead our art producer came up with the brilliant idea to create a small team to work with the dragon, a kind of strike force, consisting of multiple disciplines within art and game design. Putting people with different skills together to work closely in an early stage, created closer communication and reduced the gap between the roles.
我的任务最初是为我们已经做好的龙重新制作纹理集。但结果却没有按本来的计划来，我们的美工制作人想出了一个绝妙的主意，我们创建了一个小团队来处理龙的工作，这像是一个特种小组，由艺术和游戏设计的多个部门的人组成。把具有不同技能的人放在一起，在早期阶段紧密合作，创造了更紧密的沟通，缩减了不同分工人员之间的鸿沟。
My work started parallel with the concept artist being a part of a mini pre production. Pushing what we think our engine can handle, testing out ideas in game to see what limitations we have with the shading and lightning. Then roughly block out ideas in 3D with the mindset that anything can be scraped to avoid spending any significant time on any part. What works on a flat 2D concept might not work in full 3D.
我的工作一开始是与概念美工平行的，是前期预制作的一部分。我们尝试我们的引擎可以处理得了的东西，在游戏中测试想法，看看我们在阴影和光效方面有什么限制。然后，以任何东西都可以被删掉重来的觉悟在3D方面粗略地将想法整合起来，去掉一些想法，以避免在某些部分花费太大量的时间。在平面2D概念上可行的东西全都放到3D中可能会不可行。
To come up with an idea of how the dragon should look like we started with what we already know from the Aquatic artstyle and combining it with the lore of the dragon. We wanted to create a godlike dragon that comes from another galaxy. It has to be a central part of the system it lives in.
为了想出一条龙的样子，我们从我们已经知道的水生生物艺术风格开始，并将其与龙的传说相结合。我们想创造一个来自另一个星系的神一样的龙。它必须是它所处星系的核心部分。
When the concept is approved it's safe to spend more time on finalizing the silhouette and continue with adding details. Starting with a blank canvas can sometimes be daunting and 3D sculpting is no exception when trying to add age and weathering to a baby smooth model. To overcome this I roamed around old substance designer files from previous projects looking for heightmaps I could use to project onto the surface of the dragon's shielding. It doesn't have to be perfect but it’s something to continue sculpting more details onto.
当概念被批准后，我们终于可以放心地花更多的时间来确定轮廓并继续添加细节。从一张空白的画布开始创作有时会让人打退堂鼓，3D雕刻也不例外，我们要试图为一个光滑如婴儿的模型添加做旧和风化。为了克服这个问题，我在以前项目的旧文件中翻找，寻找我可以用来投射到龙的保护罩表面的高度图。它不一定是完美的，但它可以是继续雕刻更多细节的底板。
(1) Highpoly sculpt with topology ready for more details. (2) Sculpt with medium sized details added. (3) Lowpoly model with baked information from highpoly with added details. (4) Final textured model with placeholder for VFX.(1) 带有拓扑结构的高精度模型雕刻，为添加更多细节做好了准备。(2) 添加了中等大小的细节的雕塑。(3) 低精度模型，从高精度模型中烘焙出信息，并添加了细节。(4) 最终的纹理模型，为视觉特效做占位替代。
It's important to get a feeling for how the final product will look and that's why it's important to get a model into the game as soon as possible. Even if it's only a first draft of a lowpoly model with badly baked textures you will get a feeling of how the lightning in the game will affect the model. From that point it's easy to iterate on the model continuously exporting and reviewing the changes in the game. That way you avoid spending a lot of time on a model and then in the end realize the model doesn't work.
对最终产品的外观有一个感觉是很重要的，这就是为什么要尽快把模型放到游戏中。即使它只是一个低精度模型的初稿，纹理烘焙得很差，你也能感觉到游戏中的光效会如何影响模型。这样一来，就很容易对模型进行迭代，不断地输出和检查游戏中的变化。这样你就可以避免在一个模型上花费了大量的时间，结果在最后发现这个模型不行。
When working from home it's more important than ever to break your own vacuum and communicate with the rest of the team. The same way I worked close to the concept artist I want to continue working close to the VFX artist and animator that will continue the work after me. So I don't create something that will make their job harder but instead prepare the model to make their job easier.
当居家办公时，打破自己一人工作的放空状态并与团队的其他成员沟通，这比以往任何时候都重要。就像我与概念美工密切合作一样，我希望继续与在我之后继续工作的视觉特效美工和动画师能密切合作。因此，我不会创造一些会使他们的工作更难的东西，而是准备好模型，使他们的工作更容易。
This kind of work is what makes working as a 3D artist on Stellaris interesting. I'm not only producing ship after ship but is also being challenged with tasks outside my comfort zone.
这种工作是使在Stellaris项目作为一个3D美工工作的有趣之处。我不仅在制作一艘又一艘的飞船，而且还在接受我的舒适区之外的挑战。
See you all next week, when we will talk some more about the art process for the aquatic portraits.
下周见，届时我们将进一步讨论水生生物肖像的美工制作过程。
翻译：Frost 摸鱼怪
校对：一水战阿部熊 三等文官猹中堂
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