So... many... Daves...
Entry posted by Nathan Strum
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First things first - Happy New Year!
Yeah, okay, I'm a little late with that.
I've been on vacation for a few weeks, after having wrapped up the projects mentioned in my last entry. The games seem to be reaching the hands of their owners at last (I don't envy the task Albert had in putting all of the orders together), and I hope everyone enjoys them! Being involved with various aspects of some of these games (sprites and other artwork) I generally play them quite a lot before they hit the store. I decided some time ago, if I didn't enjoy playing a game, I wouldn't be involved with it.
This brings me to the subject of this blog. "Dave". Not any one Dave, but just the fact that there seem to be so many Daves involved with the Atari scene right now. Here are just a few that I've bumped into or worked with on recent projects:
- Dave Weavil - Phantom II/Pirate programmer
- Dave Neuman - Space Battle programmer
- Dave Vazquez - Medieval Mayhem label/manual artist
- Dave Exton - label/manual artist for Toyshop Trouble (and more games than I can count)
- Dave Dries - artist for Wolfenstein VCS manual and label, and collaborator on Phantom II/Pirate and Space Battle art
Space Battle was pretty cool to watch develop. In the weeks nearing its release, the programmer - Dave Neuman - continually refined and polished the game. Improving and balancing the difficulty levels, tweaking the gameplay, refining the features, and stamping out bugs. If you don't regularly frequent the game development forums here - you should. You never know when your suggestions might help improve one of the many homebrews being developed. If a programmer asks for people to test a game and make suggestions - go for it! They may or may not use your idea, but if you never suggest it in the first place, there's no chance of your idea making a difference in how a game turns out. The important thing is - be thoughtful. Don't criticize a game just to bash it. Figure out a way to make it better, and make your suggestions with the intent of helping. And don't take it personally if your suggestions aren't used. In the end, it's still the programmer's game. Not yours.
Anyway, onto the next Dave...
When I first started working on label artwork for the Space Battle, I knew I wanted to make 3D versions of the ships in the game. But my first pass at an idea was, to put it kindly, cliché. Basically, I just did a straight interpretation of the game, and it was rather lifeless. Also, something else bothered me about it...
Since I'd been working with Dave Dries on the manual for Phantom II/Pirate, I asked him what he thought. He pointed out, and rightly so, that I was using the 3D software (Carrara) to dictate the layout, and also that I'd used the exact same perspective on other label ideas before. He suggested I get away from the computer, and draw some rough sketches out on paper to step back from it a little. So I went around looking at some old sci-fi art for inspiration (notably vintage Star Wars posters), and came up with:
Once I had that in hand, I felt I had the right idea. An homage to 1970's science fiction art. Fortunately, Dave (Dries) had some spare time and volunteered to create the background art, while I worked on the 3D stuff. I also decided to try something different - to have the cover art wrap all the way around the back of the manual.
I sent Dave the sketch, as well as a bunch of reference art, showing what I was going after (do a Google search for "planetscape" sometime, and you'll see what I mean).
Within a week, Dave sent me this amazing background painting (done in Photoshop with some help from Cinema 4D):
Now it was my job not to screw it up! I used Dave's background to position the 3D models, and establish the lighting. Then I rendered the ships with an alpha channel, so I could composite them into the scene:
I made a separate rendering pass of just the engines. These were all individual light sources with a glow effect. Each of these two passes took about 2 1/2 hours to render at the final resolution and quality.
Next, in Photoshop, I painted engine exhausts and flames, to help merge the 3D models with the painted backgrounds:
When it was all put together, the final image looked like this:
This is quite a large image at full size (some 4200 pixels across), and might make a pretty nice poster for the AtariAge store (that's a hint, Albert). 
The final wraparound cover with logos and such:
Dave (Dries) constructed the background so I could pull apart the various elements and re-use them. So I was able to create some nice full-page interiors for the manual, as well. Here they are, minus the final text:
Explosion deformers are fun! (The green cylinder is a fuel pod.)
The lasers for these were rendered in Carrara as a separate pass, much like the engines, and then composited with everything else in Photoshop.
With each label and manual I work on, I try to push things a little further. To try and make the interiors more dynamic and interesting, and try different techniques and styles. Being able to collaborate with Dave (Dries) on the artwork for Phantom II/Pirate and Space Battle was a lot of fun, and it helped me stretch as an artist. Hopefully, we can do some more of that. There are quite a few homebrews slated to come out this year...
And speaking of cool new stuff coming out this year... if you haven't had a chance yet, and you're a gadget geek in the slightest, you have to check out Apple's upcoming iPhone. I've never wanted a cell phone before, but I'd actually be willing to plunk down $500 for this one.
I'd even be willing to bet that someone named Dave probably worked on it. 
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