Splinter Cell // Double Agent - Concept Arts - Update3 !!

[Aleksi]

Hi !
Splinter Cell Double agent had just been released so I can show some of the concept arts I've produced for Ubisoft on this SC opus.
More about the game here : http://www.splintercell.com/
I've worked on the game and especially on the Multiplayer mode with the UBIsoft Annecy studio : a really cool crew and nice people. I've really enjoyed this collaboration for a lot of reasons. First the game is huge and it allowed me to work on more close SciFi and technological subjects than most of my usual projects.
Ubisoft allows me to show my artworks. (I'll be talking about the Concept artist job in two weeks at "Les Utopiales", the biggest european SciFi event, with some demos and I'll also show more SC artworks. (my friend Ornicar got the illustration award there this year : yeah !!!

So here are some of my production concept arts :




















In few words, more details on this work, hope it could interest people :
This is the fourth Splinter Cell game so the challenge was to keep the same flavor but adding more.
Keeping the realistic Tom Clancy's touch so it means finding the good balance between realistic elements (weapons, suits, contemporary military elements) and "sexier",more impressive and seductive things.This is a really close future setting.
Working on the SPYES bodysuits was a real challenge. In my opinion the three googles of Sam Fisher are something close of a perfect design : It's realistic, credible (military googles) and it makes sense on another level : a third eye in the forehead that express very well the idea of another kind of vision : infrared, others...
And it's something like a really strong graphic logo (It became the SC trademark for this reasons).
So we've tried a lot of different things on this concept arts (more googles, less...) but we've finally kept the three luminar circles.
I've worked from a lot of inputs and ideas of the Ubisoft crew, specially something about the "trinity" ideas.
Working on the ennemies, previously called Mercs, I've began to think about this three light circles. If the Spyes are smaller, feline and aerial, curves are perfect for them. At the opposite, the ennemies are stronger and more massive, closer of the ground. So square and lines are perfect for them. I've used an horizontal line and produce this small logo :

This is symetrical and reflects the link between Spyes and their ennemies (In the Story = same basis but divergent military/governmental development) . The names of the ennemies changed naturally into Upsilon (Y in greek).
So the new name was found and this research gave me the keys to build the entire look of this characters : refering as much as I could to this main ideas.
It was something like building a styleguide for them.

Wow, I've written a big letter here. I'll post more and add other pictures soon.

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More pictures, weapons, gadgets and orthos for the technical side :
I've applied as much as I could the points I've talked about above : trinity, curves or lines and angles...
When dealing with a second or third or fourth opus of a license one of the approach to enhance it is to give more impressive opponents to the "hero". I mean if you can't change him too much then give him more powerful opposition. That's why we've developped the Upsilon characters this way.
For the weapons developpment I've think about Coro's process but it didn't fit very well with the game (See his CA Montreal Workshop demo




















This one was fun to do. I was thinking first about the ReeYes StarWars characters


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Another bigupdate with new images and concepts. Some of them aren't in the finished game. That's the usual videogames production process.
SplinterCell DA multiplayer is the most played game on Xbox360 since two weeks : Yeah !!










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I've recently went to the SciFi convention called "les Utopiales" in France and I was glad to show there some of my Splinter Cell conceptarts and talking about the videogames creative process.
Talking about art events some of the biggest is now really close : I'm really glad again to take part in the next Conceptart workshop : INSOMANIA.
More details here for those who've missed the info : http://www.conceptart.org/insomania
The instructor list is really impressive. I feel like a child, wooohoo !
This one seems to be the biggest CA workshop so far.

And some other Splinter Cell concept arts (with some ammo boxes, pure IKEA style) :

[Unbreakable]

great work!


Thanks for the info, about the your design process and research.

[Matt Smith]

these are all awsome, but i really like the 4th guy down and the vehicle. did you do the 3d model too?

[AC_HAO]

nICE ~

[m@.]

That's some good woodenbeat !

[schaal]

Very inspiring, Aleksi.
The costumes and props are well designed and the character poses and the rendering are excellent, I really like the graphic design of the presentation sheets too
Congratts

[Beelow]

Hip! I love the presentation as well!

[Mike Dutton]

Eye candy! Aleksi, how did you get that steel mesh/floor panel effect in the first image? Was that from a 3d model? The venetian blinds effect on the dossier textures is a really nice touch as well. Beautiful presentation as said earlier. Thanks for showing us, and I'm looking forward to playing the game.

[Charlie_2.0]

Cool...can't wait to buy the game, that drone looks wicked, but the spies have gone a bit too sci-fi (rather fi<ction>), but I still like these concepts. Good job

[Mr.Blonde]

cool designs... good ideas, thanks for sharing!

[JakkaS]

Wow...cool characters...

[Mr. Visions]

Great stuff again dude. I clicked on this right away after reading that you did the concepts in IFX - congrads on the spread aswell. Keep up the great work and bonne chance!

- Chris

[squidmonk3j]

sweeet, finally i get to expand my aleksi-folder!

it's stuff like this that gets me through another day

[dinfet]

great concepts, and guys get this game if you have a 360, it rocks offline (really good story this time) and online love the mercs in this game, dont think I need to be a spy

[twoheaded]

Diggin your graphic sense, Aleksi!
Would love to your preliminary drawings, if you'd be so kind to post them.

[SIggE]

oh thesa are realy cool. i just bought the game and enjoyd it to pieces.
i notised that the spyes had gotten a new look since the last game, and i´ve been wondering who made this design.
would like to know more about Les Utopiales, must admit i´vee never heard of it.

[spudstudios]

wow.. Beautiful. Loving the game so far.

[Haxxxor]

Wow!
I like this sort of concept art!
I realy love the spygirls, nice.
the upsilon fighter is also impressive...

thanks for your good explanation on what you was working on.

i´m going to buy this game now btw...

[Oblio]

FINALY ! YAAAAAAY!
Congrats brother!

[AgAtA]

At Last !

Very very good job Aleksi,
and a brilliant adaptability in your works.
Definitively it was good to wait for...

You always rock !

[Chuck,mate.]

very cool design work.
i really love the girl in the 3rd piece, very well done.
the tank/robo is sweet as well. the 3 steps down there adds a good sense of its functionality.
thanks for sharing these, man.
keep it up.

[bhanu]

ALeksi food for my artistic needs,
It was waiting for something new from you and here it i , thank you sir..
My fav. is the spy blue.
Any chance we can see some pecilled stuff here?
Just curious.
Bhanu.

[Eric Gerhard]

I like it a lot. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Alday.J]

Originally Posted by Aleksi

(my friend Ornicar got the illustration award there this year : yeah !!!

Ornicar is Ben Carré, right ? Mes félicitations pour le prix, c'est mérité !

Good job, Aleksi, the renders and the presentation are great, as said before. Bravo.
J.

[Living Rope]

Ouch !

I know these pieces already but seeing them into the same thread makes me think that it would fit super well inside an artbook. And the graphic design's a really cool addition too.
I remember a year back when you begun working on them, I got soOo inspired ! You never cease to kick my ass bro' !

[guterrez]

if you`ve done this just in PS ( and I`m quite sure you did ) its just awesome work - but the third figure and especially her face are my personell highlight in this post, this girl should get her own game man

[shadoman]

The characters are extremely dynamic on their own, but the graphical elements around them make the whole piece great. Thanks for sharing.

[Aleksi]

I've added more pics : big update.

Thanks all for the comments!

Matt Smith : No, I didn't. I'm sometimes doing some overpaints on 3d models but just occasionally.

M@ : BeatenBois rules

Mike Dutton : Maybe some photo textures ? and paint ?
There's no 3d basis on any of this concept (this is the next step of the process).

Twoheaded : There's no real preliminary sketches : I'm working all digitally. So there's just different work in progress steps.

SIggE : Les Utopiales : http://www.utopiales.org/2006/

Oblio : Yeah !!

AgAtA : Thanks !

Bhanu : no pencils works for all this batch of pictures. All digital, from first speedpaintings to the final images.

Alday.J : Yes, he is Benjamin Carré : http://www.blancfonce.com/

Living Rope : Kiss Kiss

[DSillustration]

these look fantastic aleksi!
thanks for the updates too.

[vigostar]

holy Smokes dude.. You are a machine.. I really dont know how you find the time to work on all this stuff... Im amazed you have time to sleep.. amazing work.. super inspirational as usual..