A Breakdown of Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s Graphics – Part Two: Capturing the Granblue Spirit in Motion
We are happy to share with you the second part of this two-part interview with the development team for Granblue Fantasy: Relink (hereinafter “Relink”). One of the major selling points of Relink is its beautiful graphics, and the development team will tell us how they worked to capture the intricate, illustrated world of Granblue Fantasy (hereinafter “Granblue”) in moving 3D.
Maintaining the essence of the original illustrations while capturing the movement of the characters in 3D.
In part one, you explained how to capture the essence of Granblue characters when viewed from any angle. Were there are any other difficulties in rendering the world of Granblue in 3D?
Our biggest challenge was making sure the characters didn’t lose their Granblue spirit when we added movement to the images. It was really tough making the characters move in a way that appears natural.
As illustrations are by nature a still image, how did you decide on these movements?
The original illustrations may be static, but they were still our biggest reference point for working out the characters’ movements. Looking at the illustrations, there is still a sense of movement to them. These are represented by hatching, line weight, rippling fabric, and more. However, even if we just take and render these elements as they are, the movements will still differ too much unless we analyze what movements the illustrator wished to represent and decide how best to render this in 3D.
So you try to visualize how a still image would move… Sounds really tough.
Yes, it’s difficult to express in words. One example of this process was lighting—how the light falls upon a character’s nose or how rim lighting crafts their silhouette. Essentially this overall shape provides a huge part of the feel of the characters in Granblue, and this is influenced by the direction the face is facing. In Relink, shaders can control these conditions depending on where the characters face or where the camera is pointing.
I assume this is related to what you mentioned in the first part of this interview, when you mentioned recreating the unique laws of physics present in the world of Granblue?
Yes, it is. When we were looking at the illustrations, we noticed that there were many cases where rim lighting shouldn’t be present judging from the light source in the image. However, we had to concede that this made sense in the world of Granblue’s illustrations, and so we needed to consider how these rules would work in the game.
If we took a photorealistic approach, then Granblue’s characteristic rim lighting just wouldn’t work. Rather than abandon it, we instead needed to work out how to change and process the materials, filters, and post processing in order to draw out the essence of Granblue in the game.
Do you reference the illustration’s original intent while working?
We do. We lay out the illustrations for everyone to see and discuss them together. For example, for one of the characters there is this granular lighting effect around their head, and we wondered why there would be a highlight there—maybe the artist wanted to draw out a sense of depth; maybe it was to accentuate the roundness of the character’s hair. We then worked out possible solutions, like maybe placing the light so that there will be a real sense of depth when looking at the character face on. It was a lot of fun to discuss possible solutions together, and in doing so we were able to think of ideas that everyone was on board with.
So by putting your ideas into words and rules, you’re able to ask the engineers to implement these ideas?
Exactly. However, rather than write up what we want to do, it is usually easier and faster to show them an image, and so we often get the art team to draw up reference data using DCC tools*. We then show these to the engineers so that they can see what methods we want to use to get certain effects, and from there they work on creating the final product.
*Tools for digital content creation.
Breaking down expectations for 3D games『Relink』 and the importance of motion in Relink.
The original illustrations make use of a wide range of expressions due to their 2D art style. I imagine rendering this in a moving 3D model is rather difficult?
In all honesty, it’s impossible (laughs). But still we aimed to recreate the illustrations of Granblue in 3D and create a style of game that hasn’t been made before. In order to achieve this, we got our best members of staff together and remade the game engine and started from scratch with our graphics tools. I think if you’ve watched the stream you can probably see how close we managed to get to these original illustrations.
Yes, the illustrations of Granblue are not really designed to be put into 3D, are they? What aspects of this process were the hardest?
What stands out the most are objects with a lot of movement to them—capes, belts, long hair, accessories. Not only that, these items tend to be multilayered as well. At any rate, we had to deal with a lot of these items. If an idea for a new 3D game were announced, with character designs coming afterward, I am sure illustrators would avoid including so many moving parts.
With Relink, the 2D character illustrations already existed. But you are right, all these rippling elements are really representative of Granblue’s art style. It must have been really hard to make these elements react naturally to the character’s own movement.
It isn’t that difficult to make a lot of elements that can move on their own, however the problem lies in making them move smoothly within the game itself. A lot of moving parts increases the data load and can inevitably cause lag. One method we used to reduce this load was by reducing the number of joints.
On the other hand, if you reduce the amount of joints too much, then the clothes start to clip through the character’s body. To avoid this we needed to carefully work out the collision detection, and to make this easier we actually reprogrammed the moving object creation tool. After all, we have a constant drive to keep the essence of Granblue and maintain the game’s high quality.
Rosetta, who was shown in the demo this year, was a walking example of moving elements, from her long hair down to her skirt. It was amazing seeing all those parts flowing naturally. Considering the effort you guys put in, I almost feel that it should be toned down a bit (laughs).
Obviously clothes are a big sticking point for developers, but we also hate when these 3D characters have long hair (laughs). It needs to move and sway naturally in the game, and this is why a lot of protagonists in 3D action games have short hair.
Despite all this, we actually wanted to increase the amount of free-flowing effects in Relink—after all, the original illustrations are full of them. We want to aim for a level of quality to make people wonder if they’re in fact looking at an illustration not a 3D model.
But that’s a lot to create, isn’t it?
Yes, it is. Taking our production schedule into consideration, we rebuilt the system that deals with these moving elements so that they would be easier to work with. Their settings in the demo we presented last year were overly complicated, so we streamlined and simplified it. Once we implemented it, the development team were able to get their heads around it really quickly.
Implementing a variety of strategies to create high quality clouds!
Clouds are a real important part of the Granblue experience, aren’t they?
The world of Granblue takes place on islands that float in the sky, and of all the background art, the clouds were the area in which we put the most effort. A lot of it was trial and error, but by the end, we were able to create a variety of clouds that will be used depending on the feel we want for each scene. As of this point, we have five different varieties of cloud.
The stage which took place upon an airship soaring through the clouds was a real highlight of this year’s demo footage. I was really impressed both by the weight the clouds have when viewed from the distance, as well as their more gaseous state when up close.
That stage is designed to make it feel like you’re gradually getting closer to distant clouds before plunging into them. We actually used multiple varieties of cloud to simulate this feeling. We gradually change from far-away clouds to mid-range clouds and then to close-up clouds to make it seem like a seamless transition. Also, since cloud distance differs for each stage, we have picked the right varieties of cloud to suit each location.
For example, we may want clouds to have a certain weight to them on some stages, so we implement clouds that have a firmer outline—it goes without saying, these are 3D models, not 2D drawings. On other stages we have clouds whose shapes we can change freely to give them the image of floating by. Then in other stages where the characters have to progress through the gaseous clouds you mentioned earlier, the clouds are rendered in real time so as not to look odd even when they overlap with the character. Another thing we were able to achieve thanks to our technological improvements is creating a donut hole effect when a character drops through a cloud—it’s rather high level stuff, if I may say so myself.
In the aerial stage there were impact effects when some cannon fire was directed at the clouds.
We actually decided on implementing that idea after seeing it being used in ’90s anime. Clouds don’t really “splash” in real life when something collides with them, but we wanted to hearken back to this stylistic choice. The stage we showed during the live stream had battles among the clouds, with warships floating in and out of them, and I think it was a good way for everyone to see what we’ve been working on.
Producing high quality assets, with enough content for two games?
I can imagine creating all the resources for not only the characters but also for the backgrounds must have been very time consuming. Can you tell us about Relink’s current state of development?
The core content and gameplay of the game has essentially all been decided, and now we just need to put it all together. We want the multiplayer quests and boss battles to be really fun, so I hope you look forward to the range of bosses that will be waiting for you.
As we’ve discussed, you’ve developed a lot of assets for this game. Can we expect a similar amount of content, too?
One of the key points of the original Granblue is how much story-related content it has to offer. Not only that, it has a lot for gamers to sink their teeth into with raid battles and the other modes available. For most console games, the developers tend to focus on either the story or on gameplay, because if you focus on both, the game could get bloated.
However, for Relink, we wanted both of these areas to be equally important. As a result, the game will have a lot of content, focusing on both the dramatic spectacle of the cutscenes in the story mode, while also having lots of fun multiplayer quests to play. Not only that, in this genre of action games there are usually only two or three playable characters, but we have managed to hit double digits on the amount of playable characters available. If that wasn’t enough, we’ve worked hard on the stages so that you’ll barely see the same terrain and backdrop twice. Honestly, I can’t believe we decided to go through with this (laughs). There are two games worth of content here, I think.
It sounds like it will be real fun to play when it’s out.
Yes, we want to please both the players who are looking forward to the story and those who can’t wait to play the multiplayer battles. We really want our players to go, “Wow, Cygames did an awesome job.”
Future developments are yet to come.
Cygames is hiring!
Will the Relink development team be growing from here on out?
We hadn’t intended on really increasing our staff by that much, but we are open to hiring anyone who really, really wants to work on Relink or who wants to make a special game.
What kind of person are you envisioning?
Someone who craves the highest quality and who has a strong will to not give up. After all, as we’ve discussed today, the Relink development team has an abnormal obsession with quality. Honestly, anyone who has a single-minded desire to really show what they’re made of would be a good fit, I think. Oh, and of course, someone who’s a fan of Granblue.
In regard to talent, we would love for someone who has honed their technical skills to give Relink the care it needs to take it to the next level. Someone like this could really show off their skills as part of the Relink team, and it is a good environment for those who are real sticklers for quality. We always welcome new ideas, so being able to help improve quality and performance is a real asset.
So you’re on the lookout for the talented and ambitious.
Of course we would welcome any ambitious young talent, too. Even though Cygames is a relatively young company, to suddenly undertake a huge console title presents a unique opportunity in Japan. Development is tough, yes, but the experience is also very rewarding.
Cygames Osaka is an even newer organization, so there are still many ways for the company to grow. I think being able to both do game development and establish company culture is a really valuable experience. So, we also welcome the management-minded as well.
We would like someone who really wants to create a console game that will be enjoyed by players around the world.
On a final note, do you have a message for the eagerly awaiting fans?
Yes, I would first like to apologize for keeping you all waiting for Relink. We spoke about the reasons why things have taken as long as they are during the live stream, so please watch the footage there for more details. We really want to be able to present to you the best version this game can be. I am happy that we’ve reached this point where we can share our development details as much as we have today. We are on track for our release date in 2022, so please wait just a little bit longer. We are sure you’ll enjoy this high-quality console game that captures everything about Granblue.
Thank you for reading the second part of our interview with the developers of Granblue Fantasy: Relink. I hope you can sense their burning desire to create a game that will exceed all of your expectations.
Cygames Osaka is heading toward the final stages of development and is hiring new staff, so send in your applications with the link below.
Cygames Osaka Recruitment Page (Japanese only)★Read other articles related to Granblue Fantasy: Relink★
Interview with Senior Engineers: Stories behind the Founding of Osaka Cygames and its Goals≫≫≫
