Brian Maricle
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A walk-through of the collaborative look-dev process I went through with my artist, Emilie Vaccarini, for the boss fight at the end of Gobsmax City.

Things were going well, but Emilie had a tough time with thi
Things were going well, but Emilie had a tough time with this one initially. This was her first sketch, way back when we first started. It was good artwork, and there were elements I liked, but it felt tame for a boss battle, so I asked for another sketch and gave her a lot of reference and a couple of mood boards to help her get there.
Her next sketch was good and very interesting. I liked many
Her next sketch was good and very interesting. I liked many parts of it, but it didn't have the intensity and drama I was looking for.
I played around with various elements from the PSDs she had
I played around with various elements from the PSDs she had sent over until I got something that really worked as a composition. I added a little chiaroscuro and duplicated some of the pointy shapes, and suddenly this had all the drama, danger, and sense of impending doom I was looking for. Emilie and the team loved it.
The next step was a color comp, but to my delight, Emilie co
The next step was a color comp, but to my delight, Emilie couldn't hold back. In her excitement she went straight to a full color illustration. Normally I like color comps because they're less of a time sink to iterate on, but I was thrilled at what she sent and told her so. Done, or so I thought.
A little time went by and I wondered if the image could be i
A little time went by and I wondered if the image could be improved by tweaking the color contrast. Though slight, I thought it an improvement and presented it to the team. We got a ton of positive feedback.
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