A Little Update On the Art Style of Our Houses
Hi everyone! This is Chloé, your friendly neighbour, bringing you today’s Patreon post!
As some of you may remember, I was working on a house to test improvements to the art style for the houses, furniture and general environments. (Here is the link for those who need a refresher: https://www.patreon.com/posts/creating-new-and-58897848)
Right now, Léa and I are focussing on improving the art style for the game’s vegetation; we won’t be showing you all the exterior of the house just yet until that’s done. You’ll have to wait a bit longer!
Today, I will be showing a sneak peek of the interior of the house, the creative process behind it and the improvement of the art style.
The sketch for the first floor of the house was previously showcased on social media.
An Iterative Process
We had to test a lot of things when it came to revising the art style for the houses and furniture items –different modelling styles, texture styles, shaders, colour palettes, you name it.
As an example, the trickiest to figure out was the texture style. I talked about the goals for our art style more in-depth in a previous Patreon post, but to put it simply, the texture style has to be artsy but has to make the materials identifiable and accurately depicted. It was a long process of trial and error to find the style and subtleties we wanted.
For this wooden floor, we did multiple versions. The ones above are samples that didn’t make it to the second phase of the tests. They just didn’t feel right to us!
Once we found one that felt right, it still had it go through many iterations so we could get the subtleties right.
All the variants tested for this style of rendering for this wooden floor.
More of a Feel for the Materials
One of our goals was to make the materials identifiable. As such, we have been testing and implementing a few things. For one, we are using metallic: it helps to make metal surfaces stand out.
On the left, a material without any metallic applied; on the right, the same material with metallic. You can feel the difference.
We also decided to add some more depth to the surface’s reflectivity. Now, you can see the light interacting on the surface (it’s fun to move the camera and see the light shift!)
A fridge with a highly reflective surface. Look at that shine! (If you are on mobile, the GIF may not show up for you!)
Tiles with a more subtle reflection. Sometimes, less is more. (If you are on mobile, the GIF may not show up for you!)
Where The Interior is At Now, and The Next Steps For It
Throughout the past months, the style has undergone a lot of changes. I’ve seen this first floor so many times in so many styles by now! We decided to go for a softer approach with painterly details in the end.
Here is where we currently are at for it, with the art style we decided to pursue:
Interior of the Render Target house, fully modelled. The objects in orange don’t have any texture at the moment. Can you spot the changes in terms of furniture and colour from the original sketch?
We have recently hired Javiera as an environment art intern. She is currently hard at work on adding clutter items to fill up the space. I also wanted to show off the nice sketches that she did for how we want the space to be filled!
Javiera’s sketches (with a bit of censorship by yours truly, eheh). With the different clutter items, we will get a livelier space and a feel for who lives there.
We are hard at work improving our art style of the houses, furniture and general environments; what you saw is a work in progress. We are still testing a variety of things, like lighting, vegetation, food, etc! We are looking forward to showing you this house when it is complete. You will, of course, be able to find the furniture and items from the house in the game to use in your builds!
That is all from me today! Have a great weekend everyone (*´∀`*)
Chloé, signing out!
Edit - January 19, 2023: This Patreon post is now public, feel free to share it!
Comments (68)
I love this!!! I love building and decorating, so this makes me super excited!! Everything looks so good. Modern and fresh! I look forward to seeing some non-western styles(asia, africa, middle east etc)/and more different European styles as well(super minimalism for example)
The style looks so cozy, and I adore the colors!
cool, i love these kind of furniture. i cant wait of play!
ohhh Javiera you go girl!
just one word: gourgeus
omg i love this so much!!
so cute!! love how its coming along
J'adore! je peux emménager quand? Le rendu des pièces est tellement chaleureux; Pourrons-nous poser de petits objets comme la théière pour se servir du thé sur le canapé? Beau travail!
looking seriously amazing, really wonderful. <3
Really like the different looks and feels, like metallic, reflective, *soft*. Can't wait to get to build and decorate my first house!
I noticed all the windows seem to be blacked out. I wonder if it's because you guys are still working on them and if it would be possible to have glass surfaces slightly reflect light as well? I would love for Paralives windows to actually refract light accurately instead of just being completely transparent. On something like a glass table, it would also be absolutely gorgeous. I love your goal of depicting different materials (like with the sofa appearing like a soft fabric meanwhile that sink is def metallic) and thought this idea could fit right in if feasible. Another idea: indoor lights casting shadows. The static shadows under objects in Sims for example has always made indoor lighting look flat. Dynamic light source-based shadows could give indoor scenes a really good look.
Hello Ramaru! Currently our glass shader isn't functional, that's why the glass is blacked out! As for dynamic source-based shadows, they are unfortunately not possible. They are very heavy to generate, and most games offering placeable lights don't support them! Generally, the shadows underneath the items are faked in some other ways. Currently, we are looking at ways to ''cheat'' the shadows, too! :)
So much clutter *_* I imagine it can be resized like other objects we've seen before ? (turning a large plate into a dessert plate, for instance) Thanks for the hard work, Javiera ! I see a lot of great ideas. For instance ; we will be able HANG that bag on the chair ? That's very interesting as far as clutter goes, and a detail I haven't seen before in similar game. Opens tons of possibilities, instead of just putting things on flat surfaces. I must admit, one of the reasons why I don't mod (aside from my computer being dumb as a rock) is textures. I don't know how people do it. Each asset is one bad texture away from ruining an entire room, simply because it doesn't match the rest. I don't understand how people make "Maxis match" textures, for instance, or anything that fits into someone else's existing textures. It takes a kind of brain I do not possess. And it's even more apparent when I see all the subtle differences between different kinds of textures for just this one example you showed. I really admire the work that goes into all that.
automatic clutter leftover from cooking would be great for the kitchen. And laundry being thrown on the floor. And uhhh… idk just random things from tasks the paras do being left around to automatically clutter. More importantly, the clutter would make sense. Flour is great and all but what if they haven’t baked for weeks and don’t plan to soon.
clutter if they're more messy yes
To be honest, the floors that look kind of old and beat up, slightly realistic but not really are my favorites.
This is cute! The style is so soft and cozy, I'm excited to see more of the house when it's done.
It's so cute and sweet <3
I'm so in love with the FRIDG <3
i can not wait to see how the 2nd floor looks. keep up the good work👍
Truly looking very well. A lot of hard work for sure
I am in love with this showcase it's crazy to think that this isn't the final art style* when it looks clean and super polished I can't wait to see more!
I absolutely love the art style, it’s fitting. It’s so cozy🥰 you guys put so much hard work into this game, I can’t wait what you show us next.❤️
Just the overall art style is so clean! It gives a very soft and intimate feeling while still being detailed and true to life. I especially enjoy the lighting and reflective surfaces. I always become transfixed in games that feature those surfaces, spinning the camera and such lol. How the parafolk appear in these environments is gonna be exciting!
It’s looking so good guys! Keep up the fantastic work :)
Wow the textures match the game way better now! Reflective surfaces are so important and make all the difference. It’s all clicking together a lot better than previous iterations. Very excited!!
This is looking so beautiful! I can't wait to see it in game one day.
Wow, it looks amazing! I'm getting more and more excited for this! 😍
Obsessed!! I love the soft feel of this. I can't wait to play when it's released.
Love 👏🏻 this 👏🏻💖
I love it! The reflective surfaces especially look absolutely beautiful
I just noticed though, the furniture doesn’t all seem to cast strong enough shadows, that makes it look a bit flat perhaps
I'm short on time, but wanted to at least say, "Love it, love it, love it!! 💕 ...and sending love and encouragement to an awesome and highly creative team!! Keep doing what you do!! ♥
HMmmmmmm it looks as though this home is on an apartment block however I could be wrong 🤣🤷🏽♂️ I am sooooo impressed with the level of detail put into this game so far it has such a beautiful French aesthetic to it I am sooooo thrilled and excited about this treasure of a game 😍😍. Clutter is sooooo important and much needed as most games 👀👀 don’t provide much to work with and what they do provide is usually very generic and odd. It’s lovely to see some themed pieces and clutters to match.
I really like how the floor textures seem to have slight imperfections in them, which allows for a more natural-looking floor.
Omg, this looks amazing. I love how it's so detailed but still stylized just right to fit with the paralives aesthetic. I cannot wait to build in this game.
Very well
Love it !
LOVE how this is looking, it feels like stepping into a book!
That is so cozy, I love it so much! The detailing on that rug is top tier as well.
Love the new material reflections! 😻
I love it!!!
I was about to comment on how the para that owns this house must really like the color orange before I got to the part where you mentioned you were still working on those textures lol. As always thanks for the update! I can’t wait to see what secrets were censored 👀
Looks awesome!
I'm in awe of the attention to detail that you all put into this game!
The duck pillow omg😭 Nice work with the textures, it looks lovely! Very impressed with the reflections’s subtlety, you guys are amazing❤️
Its gorgeous! Looks real and lived in
This looks so pretty! Your work with textures is really paying off!
Yay! I love that you are making everyday stuff. I always cringed at a lot of The Sims stuff they put in. A lot of it was weird and rather abnormal, stuff you wouldn't see in an average house, so you were left with the same few everyday, average things that looked like they belonged in a normal house. Plus we have a colour wheel to change things to whatever colours we like, right? Awesome!! Don't get me wrong, weird and obscure stuff might be cool too at times, but not when those items took up a large percentage of a select small selection. This looks like you guys have really looked around and are making sure you cover the more usual stuff one would find in a standard house first. Well done!! It looks great!!
I love this style!
The goose pictures 😁❤️
Wow awesome work 😍 I can already see myself in build mode for hours XD ❤️
This looks SO cute! I'm so excited with the way the style is coming out.
I really love the softer color pallet and the lightning gives a warm and cozy feel. I'm really curious to see the camera FOV that paralives will have in the final iterations.
I am so excited for this game! I especially love the stained glass lamp and the duck pillow! Can't wait to see what comes!
I ADORE the art style of this game so much. You can tell what everything is, but it always looks so beautiful. 😍
I'm so proud of this team and the hard work you guys are putting into everything. This looks AMAZING. Each time you release more information to this page, it never disappoints and only makes me a million more times more excited to see how incredible the final product is. You guys are perfectionists, and I can't wait to continue to watch the progress! WOW!
Thank you so much Toria! It means a lot to us! :)
Whole house has that intimate, hand-drawn feel, same as the Parafolk, and I LOVE it!
I'm in love with the whole thing ❤️
Gorgeous!!! What a lovely style you guys have developed! I especially like the bright, inviting colors and just the style of the textures in general, they're very soft and pretty with just the right amount of contrast and detail.
I love it! It looks so soft and cozy
I love the screenshots and sketches! Really happy with your progress on this game. Thanks Chloé and team! <3
I love this style, it's so good when you improved it 🤍
😍😍😍
Great work! Will the clutter items be usable or are they just for decoration?
Hi Christine! Some clutter items may have functionality, but it's a bit too early to say which ones, and in which way! This will be figured out by the team as we progress through the live mode :)
I love how everything looks!