Dev Diary 186 - Character Art of All Under Heaven

Akash Garg here, 3D artist lead at Studio Black! Today we’re going to cover the new character art coming in All Under Heaven, so let’s get right into it.

Tang & Song Dynasties

We wanted to share some insights into the creative process behind the character apparel in All Under Heaven. Our primary inspiration comes from two of the most aesthetically striking and culturally rich eras in Chinese history: the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) and the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD). Together, the two dynasties fit our game's timeframe perfectly.

Each of these dynasties had its own distinct cultural and creative identity, which we've carefully studied throughout the development of All Under Heaven. Our aim has been to provide a good level of visual variety as well as a believable representation of these historical time periods. We hope our effort in this area results in a richer and more historically authentic visual experience for all of our players.

[Examples of primarily Tang Dynasty attire. The Emperor is wearing a mianfu, the Empress a diyi. There are Ministers with yuanlingpao robes as well as a soldier in cord-and-plaque armor, and a Taoist priest.]

[A combination of primarily Song Dynasty attire. The Song Emperor is wearing Tongtianguanfu, and he is surrounded by court ladies, ministers (one of them wearing the iconic spread-horn futou), as well as a soldier with gilded mountain-pattern armor.]

Research & References

As always, we first needed to develop a solid understanding of the time period and learn as much as we could about the Chinese clothing styles of the Tang and Song dynasties. With great help from our stellar team of beta testers, as well as other team members with extensive knowledge and resources, we started by collecting historical references from:

• Ancient murals, books, museum collections (e.g., Palace Museum, History Museum)

• Academic papers and books on Chinese costume history

• Reconstructions of Hanfu clothing

We then set up a moodboard/reference board to collect our sources and ideas in a visual way. At this point we also got help from our talented colleagues in the 2D art team who created concept art for many of the assets. These drawings, combined with the reference images, are what the 3D artists use as guides when working on each item.

• Tang Dynasty: Typical features include long sleeves with long skirts and bold colors.

• Song Dynasty: Characterized by wide-sleeved Hanfu clothes, long skirts, floral embroidery, and elegant simplicity.

[A snapshot of (a small part of!) the Miro board put together by the character art team to collect references for everything related to Chinese clothing.]

Overall, we have successfully created a total of 84 Chinese culture assets for this initiative, distributed as follows:

• 16 hairstyles

• 21 clothing assets

• 12 beards

• 12 legwear

• 18 headgear

• 2 armor sets

• 3 map units

Below you can see some game renders for various hairstyles, beards, and headgear for both male and female characters. These items are triggered in the game based on the character's ranking and status.

SOME EXAMPLES OF CHINESE HAIRSTYLES AND HEADGEAR.

Clothing Patterns from the Tang and Song Dynasties

We’ve also created many new fabric patterns for the Chinese clothes, all based on historical sources. These are applied to clothing in the game both as multicolored brocades as well as more subtle, monochromatic patterning.

PATTERN TEXTURES.

Since Chinese dynasties had strict rules regarding colors, fabrics, and cuts of garments, we developed a system for classifying clothes according to their Merit ranking in-game. Our approach involves using specific palettes to categorize outfits based on color variations. This is then scripted so that a character like a minister will wear different-colored robes depending on their rank.

We hope this system will provide players with a clearer understanding of how garment aesthetics played a role in status and hierarchy within China.

[Some examples of Chinese patterns and color combinations applied to the clothing.]

Color Palettes

We use color palettes like the example below to enhance the color diversity of each outfit. This is what allows us to do the previously mentioned robes for differently ranked ministers, for example, but it also lets us create more