Neo Cab: Visual Style Development, Shot Design, and Lighting.

 I worked on Neo Cab for about 2.5 years. I was the Art Director for the project and got to really push myself throughout the project. The above image started life as a visual target but captured so much of the mood of the game that we kept it as our Key Art.

In this case study I have collected some of the highlights from production in an attempt to show the development as a linear story.

The core art team was usually around 3 people with additional support as we needed it. We were a small passionate team and I credit their work in my images where applicable. The team included: Laura Sly ( UI/UX, Graphic Design, Character Rigging), Lisa Fleck ( 3D Modeling) and Dan Fox ( 3D Animation). As well as additional support from: Krista Sanders ( Branding, Design), Brianne Neumann ( Interior Background Design), Scott Duquette ( Exterior Environment Design), Miguel Vasquez (Additional 3D Support), and Armon Nobari ( Graphic Design.)

Visual Design

This was the first image I did for the project. I worked up this mood piece to capture the vibe of the story that Patrick Ewing ( our Creative Director) and I had been discussing. The city was meant to be a futuristic haven but it turned into a very lonely place. I wanted to show Lina at the beginning of her shift, alone, and ready to take on the city. The neon color palette showed up very early and would carry us through the project.

Another mood study. I was initially thinking the style of the game would be more simplified, but through development the style got more complex to match the depth of the writing.

Shot Design

(Above) A test scene in Unity (with some additional overpainting) that Lisa Fleck and I put together. We were trying to capture the look of the early mood pieces using tools we could replicate in engine.

Most of the game takes place in the confines of Lina’s car, which allowed for a lot of efficiency in terms of art production but also added a lot of challenges in how to make the game feel interesting over a long period of time.

I studied a lot of films during development to get a better sense of the common camera angles are used for driving scenes. I didn’t want to hold on a static environment and swap out character expression like a typical visual novel. I wanted to cut to different cameras around the car, just like these film scenes, to add more variety and movement to each ride.

The interior car set was 3D and the characters are 2D sprite rigs built in Spine. Using this above set and character rigs we could switch over to a few different shots ( individual character closeups, a view looking in from the windshield, and even a shot of just the passing city). This allowed us to manually direct the camera during a ride, provide emphasis to story moments, and make each ride feel unique. The most dramatic camera angle shift is this setup when you are in Lina’s POV. You begin and end every ride in this shot. Lina is able to pick up her phone and there you can navigate the game menus in a seamless transition.

The Windshield Cam (above left) angle is not that different from our main Dash Camera set up. But shifting to it mid ride offered the player a more contemplative moment. These little shifts really made the rides come alive, especially when cued up by the strength of our game’s writing. (above right) Character closeup shots gave the player a good view of the passenger and allowed for moments of focus. This is also an example of the vector graphic holographic HUDs that some characters wear. I wanted the technology to feel a little clunky like it was the early days of wearable holographic tech. So I drew from 80s analog technology for most of my designs.

Lighting

Lighting plays a huge role in our game’s style. It was a long process figuring out how we could replicate the style of the concepts in our game engine using 2D assets. The first step was figuring out all the lightning moves I would need to manage the style. This was a step by step lighting breakdown I did in photoshop. This helped us see how many steps and lighting passes we might need to achieve the look.

Neo Cab Lighting Prototype

Above is an animated test done in Photoshop as a proof of concept for our lighting system. We wanted our characters to have graphic and dramatic lighting. In order to accomplish this I designed two different lighting directions, using layers set to Linear Dodge (Additive). I then animated their opacity up and down, while simultaneously animating a vector mask across their face that was in the shape of a car window.

above were the various layers I used for my lighting prototype. This breakdown was then used by our engineer Joel Davis to create a custom shader in Unity where I could control and animate each layer to create our lighting effects. The bloom layer ended up being left out as we opted for a global bloom across the whole game.

In the below 1 minute video you can see the lighting system at work in the car scene. The 2D lighting was synched up with 3D lights that moved along the 3D geometry of the car creating the illusion that Lina is driving around at night.