It’s a truly fantastic moment to see our name and 3D character art team show up in the credits of yet another huge title. We had the opportunity to deliver our 3D art and 3D character art skills to Blizzard’s own, Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred expansion. Like our work on Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, this project put our team’s skills to the test! Let’s take a look at the work we did and how we got engaged with the Blizzard team.
3D Art Test Assignment for Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
Most engagements begin with a test assignment, unless we’ve been approached directly by the client. This time, the Blizzard team wanted to see how our team handled delivering work at their required level of quality. The test assignment was to build a 3D object out of some preexisting concept art. In this case, it was a morbid artefact carried around by the Necromancer class. The quality required needed to be balanced against Blizzard’s other requirement: speed!
April 2023, our team began the assignment and by May, one of our stellar artists had delivered the fully finished and rendered artefact. This trophy was delivered to Blizzard as a finalized 3D model and they were very pleased with our work. And from there, we started on the first of what would be three batches of work for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred.
Batch 1 of 3D Character Art
The first batch was two individual armor sets. While that might not sound like a lot, the level of quality expected was beyond what you can imagine. Even for our previous AAA co-development and art production experience, our art team found themselves looking at a significant challenge. Despite the isometric perspective, Diablo is renowned for its dark visual style. Our team weren’t found wanting however!
We can’t talk exactly about each piece, as some have yet to be released. But this first batch had us working on a Druid outfit and a Necromancer outfit. From June to October, two of our artists delivered an incredible and impressive output, delivering the final low poly render ready for gameplay.
Our art production process for this was standard. High poly first, then low poly and texturing. In the texturing stage, we also had to execute different color styles that could be used in game. The 3D art production pipeline was the same but, as mentioned, the level of quality and the thoroughness of their feedback meant our team were always pushing themselves to meet the rising standard.
Batch 2 of 3D Character Art
Our next batch was just one set of armor. Another set for the Necromancer, it was drowning in detail, which was tackled by the original artist who handled the test assignment. Archaic, haunting, and beautiful, Necromancer outfits fall into a few different aesthetics. Some more brutal and ritualistic, some are ornate and resplendent, some show a reckless devotion to the darker powers. All are incredible and our artist delivered a phenomenal piece of work in this outfits final low poly render.
By December, this piece was shipped off after final affirmation from Blizzard. They then prompted us for one more.
Batch 3 of 3D Character Art
Our last batch! This time, our artists got to tackle some incredible Barbarian armor. We can’t reveal much, only that it draws heavily from an Aztec style! This Barbarian set began work in January 2024, by February, the high poly was finished.
Excitingly, around this time, our test object and one of the Necromancer outfits was added to the game! It’s something players don’t often see but it is good to know. This is how far in advance these pieces of content are prepared. Far in advance, things need to be planned and prepared to ensure both quality and quantity for a steady stream of enjoyable content for players.
To finish this final batch off, we had low poly and texturing done by March. Final delivery, April 2024!
Working with Blizzard on Diablo IV
We can’t emphasize enough how high quality these pieces needed to be, how incredibly detailed and full of life each one is. The Barbarian set especially, so many layers and details in every element. 3–4 months of work per character outfit is a serious commitment!
It’s been a fantastic collaboration, Blizzard certainly has a high level of quality it accepts and it’s been a really fun challenge to match up to their standards. Wanted that quality without sacrificing speed so we had to really dig in and give it our all. They have a very strict workflow which our team adapted to. While the 3D production pipeline doesn’t deviate much from the standard, the expected level of quality was a truly exciting challenge we were happy to rise to.
Blizzard’s feedback process was thorough, seriously in-depth, we were always working to keep up with their requirements. They have such massive teams, we had several voices pitching in over multiple feedback sessions. It was something we had to balance as we maintained both quality and speed in our delivery.
At the end, we couldn’t be more proud of our art team. And we couldn’t have been happier to collaborate with such a name like Blizzard on a game series that many of us admire and have loved for years.
If you’d like to leverage our AAA 3D game art and character art services, get in touch today! Our art production services, which cover every element of game art, are just one branch of our A-Z service offerings from game development to game VFX, cybersecurity, and much more!
