[MUSIC]
ROBH RUPPEL: My role as art
director on Uncharted 2 was--
it was like being an architect
in a virtual world.
And you've got lots of people
doing different things.
So as an architect, you just
make sure we're all sort of
moving in the same direction.
[MUSIC]
ROBH RUPPEL: I think some of the
challenges of working on
Uncharted 2 is just keeping
that bar raised.
It's pretty easy to just quickly
push something out.
But it really wasn't an
option on Uncharted.
[MUSIC]
ROBH RUPPEL: Concept art is
sort of the first front.
First thing we start doing
is quickly sketching.
First rough ideas,
shapes, tones.
And then, as soon as
we can, we start
going into the 3D process.
And for me that's where SketchUp
is completely useful
because it's so fast.
So right away, I start making
real design choices that
actually we can implement
them in the game.
Because I'm really thinking
about how tall is the ceiling?
How many pillars are there?
How thick are those pillars?
Can you hide behind
those pillars?
Instead of just drawing, by
actually making design choices
in the third dimension, you
can help the process along
more accurately and faster and
keep it more flexible because
you're working in 3D, and gosh,
it was just my personal
choice, just because it's so
fast and easy and quick.
We used it a lot in the Shambala
level, which is the
big ending of the game, the big
lost city, the lost city
of Shangri-La.
What was super useful about
blocking that stuff inside
SketchUp for Shambala was that
we had to come up with a
modular system.
We've got to have this immense
city, but it also has to
render at 30 frames
per second.
So you have to have a lot
of instances, which
is repeatable geometry.
It came up with kind of like a
simple modular system that you
can have half a dozen pieces,
but if you arranged them in
the right way, you wouldn't
notice that
it was so few pieces.
You'd just be, oh, what
an amazing city.
So being able to work out that
shape language inside SketchUp
was super useful.
[GONG]
ROBH RUPPEL: I definitely see
concept art going more three
dimensional.
Drawings only get you so far.
You can do a really sexy
drawing, but the real design
comes in working out the design
in the third dimension,
whether it's films or games.
Again SketchUp, fast,
easy, quick.
It's a great, great
design tool.
[MUSIC]
