In-Depth Look at the Art of the Masterpiece and the Living Painting

People LOVE our art style and that's very much thanks to both our Art Director Fred Mangan and our 3D Artist and Animator, Mario Sena.

Want to see what goes on behind the scenes on making our monster models? Here's a look at just some of the excellent work Mario has done on Eyes of Hellfire.

Mario crafted the full 3D model, textures, rig and animations for the characters and monsters all while carefully ensuring that he kept to the key vision and concept art by Fred. You find Mario's portfolio on his Art Station!

Here's a breakdown from Mario of how the Masterpiece and Living Paintings came to be:

The Connection

Here's a Render of the Masterpiece and the Living Painting monsters! This image highlights their crucial link, as the Living Painting spawns directly from the Masterpiece.

Meet the Boss

The Masterpiece is the terrifying final boss of Scenario One: New Subjects. It's a creature made entirely of a black mass. This Render gives you a better understanding of its unique "anatomy" in the respective Orthographic views.

Front and side views, scaled up

Back and side views, scaled up again!

Topology Showcase

I modeled two distinct levels of topology for the final asset. The medium version is perfect for my portfolio, allowing for incredible detail in close-up renders. The low poly version is the one used in the game to ensure smooth, optimal performance.

Textures

This slide shows the map textures I created and used in the game to achieve the final look for both the medium and low poly models.

Animation Showcase

The Masterpiece's idle animation, exactly as it appears in the game

The full walk cycle

Attack 1 — the Ram

Attack 2 — the Gulf Attack

The vulnerable/weak point state

The Death sequence

Concept art by Fred Mangan for the Masterpiece

And back when it was called the Paint Golem!

Refined Ram Attack

This is the Attack 1 Ram animation again, but with a brand-new set of textures and lighting created specifically for rendering purposes. (Pictures in frames are not present in this one)

The same refinement applied to the Walk Cycle animation.

An Illustrative Render of the Living Paintings

Concept piece of the Living Painting, also by Fred Mangan

The Minions

The Living Paintings are minions spawned by the Masterpiece and are composed of the same black mass. This illustration provides orthographic views to clearly show their "anatomy."

This slide features the medium version topology, which I use for portfolio close-up renders.

Animation Showcase

The Living Painting's idle animation, in-game preview.

The Walk cycle

The Death sequence

The Attack

Minion Variant

This is the second version of the Living Painting found in the game, shown without the merged Painting Frame. Here are once again the Orthographic views for an anatomical breakdown.

This slide shows the low poly topology for the Living Painting model used in the game.

The same attack, but with a slight hold-up moment, as implemented in the final game.

Development Thrills!

A short video recorded during one of our boss fight tests, where we were balancing the number of Living Paintings spawned. It was such a thrilling sight, I couldn't resist sharing it with you!