TF2 article on cgsociety

[ShadowOfTheSun]

i just came across this so i havent read it, but i believe i see some artwork for the game that hasnt been shown before, so i thought id share with you guys.

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4338

[Carnildo Orion]

Here's a link to a technical white paper on how they achieved TF2's Illustrative look via shaders and art practices:

http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2007/NPAR07_IllustrativeRenderingInTeamFortress2.pdf

What really strikes me is not so much how cool it all looks, or how they pulled it off, but how damn smart they are about design. Many games and movies have a "kitchen-sink" approach to design that implies that a large enough accumulation of detail will add up to "quality". I really appreciate the more thoughtful, refined approach taken by Valve (and others) to achieve a desired visual goal ( in this case a specific visual style, and to reinforce desired gameplay features).

My hat's off to them (even if they lifted the Pyro from Mignola :) )

[egerie]

Sounds like they actually went "kitchen sink" and then back tracked to more basic design rules. Which is great! I wonder what kind of turnover they had to do these changes. I’d be curious to hear how they managed the production (and pre-production). Hmm.