Artistic Learning Initiative

One of our company values at Iron Galaxy is continuous improvement. We’re always looking for new and exciting ways to invest in the talented people who make games with us. On the Art Team, between project deployments, we find moments to further explore our craft.  These initiatives can be focused on creating new art or leaning into upcoming and emerging software and technologies. With the release of Unreal 5 and the many features it brought to the game engine world, we saw a huge opportunity to experiment with new tools.

Our main goal was to blend our creative work seamlessly with Unreal 5's cutting-edge features. This let us explore and harness the full power of the latest game development tech. The results were amazing, far surpassing what we'd hoped for. We tapped into a wide range of Unreal 5's innovative tools to elevate our art. One key to our project—got a huge boost from Lumen, Unreal's dynamic lighting and reflection system. This tech helped us create incredibly natural lighting, bringing our environments to life in ways we'd never seen before.

Additionally, we harnessed the power of Nanite, Unreal's virtualized geometry system, which enabled us to create detailed, high-poly models without compromising performance. This breakthrough enabled our artists to push the boundaries of visual complexity, resulting in breathtakingly intricate designs. The integration of MetaHuman technology further elevated our character creation process, allowing us to generate highly realistic and expressive digital humans with ease. Moreover, we explored and implemented numerous other features of Unreal 5, each contributing to the overall polish and sophistication of our project.

The universe we initially conceived and developed was heavily focused on an aesthetic known as cassette futurism. This unique and captivating technological aesthetic draws inspiration from the iconic visual elements of the late 20th century, specifically spanning the 1970s, 1980s, and extending into the late 1990s. Cassette futurism embraces the charm and nostalgia of retro technology, regardless of the actual temporal setting of the media in which it appears. This distinctive style is characterized by its representation of early microcomputers, analog devices, and the futuristic visions of that era, creating a compelling blend of past and future.

The aesthetic is particularly noteworthy for its incorporation of design elements that were prevalent during the dawn of personal computing. This approach allowed us to craft a rich, immersive world that feels both familiar and excitingly novel, providing a perfect backdrop for our artistic exploration and technological showcase.

Here is a look at some of the art that was made during this time.

The concepts here really helped us establish the story line and what would be the ambiance of the interior scenes.

Here we see establishing shots of key locations that would be featured in our cinematic:

The robot and its personality really comes out once you see all the beauty renders we did to show potential variations.

Character artists even had the opportunity to really dive into specialty tools add more to the main character.

It was great for our VFX folks to dive into what large scale world effects could do for the environment.

This innovative creative learning initiative proved to be a big success on multiple fronts. It contributed to the professional growth of our artists, allowing them to expand their skill sets and push the boundaries of their creative abilities. The project provided a unique opportunity for our team to immerse themselves in cutting-edge techniques and technologies, particularly those offered by Unreal Engine 5. The knowledge and experience gained will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping our future visual creations, enabling us to deliver even more stunning and technologically advanced artistic content in our upcoming projects.

This endeavor has reinforced our commitment to continuous learning and innovation, ensuring that Iron Galaxy remains at the cutting edge of visual artistry in the gaming industry for our partners and ourselves.