Star Citizen: Monox (Pyro II) - Aerial Shots
During the system’s initial discovery, the coreless Monox, nicknamed for the toxic carbon monoxide in its part-oxygen atmosphere, was a major focus. The world’s seemingly significant mineral deposits led to a minor “metal rush” that saw Human trade ships quickly try to harvest what they could. The planet today bears the scars of these quick and dirty mining operations, with a sparse transient population who drift through hoping to find a vein that might have been overlooked during the initial boom.
As part of the work for the latest Star Citizen's star system - Pyro - I was responsible for the planet work of Monox (Pyro II). This work encompasses setting up the rules for procedural asset distribution in each biome, as well as biome distribution on a planetary scale, creating both the ground level visuals of the biomes as well as the aerial and orbital visual reads, while trying to target for the concepts and art direction provided for the planet in it's multitude of close and far distance reads.
Creating a planet is a complex team effort that requires the use of data and assets generated by a wide range of people within and outside the team. In the case of Monox, besides the planetary work, I was also responsible for some of the assets and heightmaps used on it.
The focus of this project is to showcase what we call "Planet Painting" a process where the artist is responsible for "painting" biomes on the planet surface using tools that are part of Planet Tech v4, assigning certain biomes to certain parts of the planet and at the same time ensuring a pleasant macro read of the planet from aerial and orbital views. Due to the nature of Star Citizen, where players can fly from space to the planet surface without interruptions, it is very important that the artist guarantees that the visual read of the planets is both plausible and interesting from multiple different distances.
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Creative Director: Ian Leyland
Planet Content Art Lead: Sebastian Schroeder
Planet Content Environment Artists: Maximilian Keilich; Patrick Gladys; Özlem Gladys; Pascal Müller; Niklas Rüffler; Hasbi Adenan; Lukáš Chovanec; Hyun Jung Choi;
https://www.artstation.com/sebastiansch
https://www.artstation.com/maxikeilich
https://www.artstation.com/patgladys
https://www.artstation.com/miu
https://www.artstation.com/schnibbsl
https://www.artstation.com/niklasrueffler
https://www.artstation.com/hasbi
https://www.artstation.com/miroxs
https://www.artstation.com/hyunjungchoi