The land of East Anglia has been described as 'eerie, timeless, desolate and ancient'. Much of the land (once drained by the Romans for farming) has been returned to marshy flatlands of reed beds, canals and sand dunes. Where there were once roads, villages and masses of people, there is water, turf and silence. Roman battles, and tribal wars have taken place across this land, but only the occasional wild bird, or North Sea wind break the discomforting quiet. It is a marvelous location to set a ghost story, (or several!), and will be a pleasure to bring to life in 'The Lost Crown'.

Why re-build locations?: Why re-build what's already waiting to be featured? This was my thinking behind using 'real' locations as artwork for The Lost Crown. I am surrounded by coast (you are never more than 72 miles from the sea in the UK), empty countryside, and rugged forests. To re-build the locations using 3D software (as I did with the Dark Fall games) would be a waste of time, and rather pointless. I have spent years photographing the British landscape, for exhibition and artwork, so it has been a pleasure to continue capturing the essence of the land around me. There was never an intention to use just photographs for the locations, as too often the scenes are full of people, or lack charm and mood. Many of the scenes featured in The Lost Crown are actually a montage of several images, including line art, 3D objects and mixed media.

Capturing atmosphere: When drawing up plans for game locations, I find myself (more often than not), drawn to the library, and my art books. They are my main source of inspiration, and haven't failed me yet. I had clear ideas of how I wanted my beach scenes to 'feel', but was struggling to define the actual mechanics of the atmosphere. Should it be stormy, clear or foggy? All weather conditions can be eerie, if represented in the right way. One thing was very important, and clear in my mind, and that was the light quality I wished to capture. Thomas Hardy, in his poem 'The Darkling Thrush', described an evenings gloom as "the weakening eye of day". It's a phrase which has stuck in memory, and one which I'd like to explore in 'The Lost Crown'. Opening up the Thames&Hudson's, I began to search for paintings which captured the mood I was striving for:

Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th 1858, painted by William Dyce (1806-1864).
Painted from memory, this coastal scene is very evocative. The dying day is reflected beautifully in the wet sands, and rocks pools of the beach. The characters are also interesting, as they are both real, and unreal. As we were not present during the excursion at Pegwell Bay, you get the impression of ghosts reenacting a dayout. The timeless quality of the surrounding coast helps cement the impression. I would go as far as to say, that should you stand long enough on the sands, and gaze towards the cliffs, you may see the daytrippers, searching among the pebbles, and shells.

Early Morning - Cromer - 1845, painted by William Collins
In 1815 Collins visited Norfolk and made sketches of the coastline and local life, like many artists of the time. The actual painting wasn't completed until 30 years after his visit, meaning he was working from his sketches, and memories/impressions of the coastline. This late example of his work was praised by the art critic John Ruskin for "the truth of its atmospheric effect". Collin's has captured the atmosphere rather than the actual location. I wouldn't go as far as to say it is early impressionism, but the painting does share many qualities of the Impressionistic art movement. 'Early Morning' is the sum of its many parts, rather than a strict composition (something I would also grow to appreciate further into the production process). I especially like the sky, with its dark rain cloud threatening to break the atmospheric tension. Beyond, we witness another 'dying day', as the sun slips away. These last few moments of light exhibit an ochre glow, which is both radiant, and gloomy.

The important thing to note about both these paintings, is that they were painted from memory. You could say they are impressions of the coast, and scenes witnessed by the artist. A photograph can never capture someone's personal impression of a place, so some artistic licence is allowed to help nudge what is photographic towards the artistic.

To capture the 'eerie/timeless' quality of the Norfolk coast has been a painstaking process. Photographing scenes in the height of Summer has meant airbrushing out hundreds of tourists, day trippers detritus and street furniture. The average Lost Crown background art takes a day to put together. The two images above show the process quite simply. The first image is a shot taken to be a lonely reed filled beach on a stretch of deserted coast line. Sadly, the actual location is far from eerie, deserted or full of reeds! The clouds, on the day of shooting, were nowhere to be seen. A blank, overcast glow of cloud was painfully devoid of atmosphere. So, after importing the photo into Photoshop, I got to work on adding some much needed ambiance.

Changing the weather, planting foliage and adding wildlife: Scroll this page back and forth between the new beach shot, and the one further above, and you'll see the difference between the original photograph, and the almost finished background art for The Lost Crown. These changes include:

• Airbrushing to remove tourists, litter, dogs(!), houses and seagulls.
• Adding a new sky from a separate photograph.
• Pine trees were added to the cliff top to add scale and perspective.
• CGI reeds were added in a 3D package, as a depth element.
• Lastly, the whole image was graded. A slightly ochre tone was chosen to suggest a gloomy day.

To bring further depth, and life, to this scene; I wished to add reeds to the foreground. The player character (Nigel Danvers) will appear to walk among them, as they sway gently in the fenland breeze. This effect could be achieved using a 2D animation, but I would much rather use a '3D actor', which will appear less linear, and repetitive. The image shown above-right, is the 'reeds actor' ready to be placed in scenes. The 'actor' is a series of flat polygons, with a reed photograph stenciled onto the surface. This object is then animated to sway, as if blown by the wind.

The image, directly above, shows the construction of 'hidden geometry'. For our player character to walk around inside the gameworld, he will need to know where, and how, to move around the scene. In the case of this image, the walkpath is quite linear, making it a good example to show. The white coloured walkway is the surface Nigel will walk along. It was placed in the 3D scene via a CG 50mm camera (mimicking the angle and focal length of my original camera). This way, Nigel is perfectly proportioned to the world around him, and angled/aligned correctly with the vanishing point. If these settings were wrong, Nigel would appear to walk at a strange angle to the world, and appear massive, or too small. This is without doubt the trickiest part of the process, and took much experimentation and patience.

The image above-right shows the finished 'hidden geometry' in the scene. The coloured lines, and shapes, are the elements which make up a scene. The blue lines in the foreground are Nigel's 'walk path'. in later scenes Nigel is able to walk around the whole scene, with acres of coastline, forests and town to explore. Thankfully, he has a brisk walk!

To join us on our journey across the fenlands of East Anglia, I have created a pair of hunting 'Marsh Harriers'. These gorgeous birds of prey are a regular sight among the reed beds, and will add extra life to the scene. The birds are also 'actors', like Nigel and the reeds. A 300 frame animation was put together, which includes swoops, graceful wing flaps and soaring motions. The birds are given a wide area of 3D space in which to hunt. The image above-right shows their middle point. Nigel needs a 'walkpath', and the birds need a central point from which to judge the size of their playground.

Finally, Nigel's trusty inventory is added, along with the soundtrack and ambient noises. This is no easy task, but I will cover that aspect of construction in a later chapter. With all in place, players are ready to start exploring the scene, looking for clues, and trying to find The Lost Crown.

Thank you for listening.
Jonathan Boakes. November 14th 2005.


Continue to page two.