REIMAGINING THE SPACERS

A while ago we revealed that one of the big visual differences between Brigador Killers and the previous game is the increased output resolution of sprites. This increase in fidelity means you the player will get a closer look at exported models in-game. If you'd like a longer read on the topic of how these models become sprites then consider reading this other article from Brigador's news hub on Steam.

Getting a closer look means we get to focus on the infantry scale of things. In that spirit, we're going to run you through how an all-new spacer suit for Brigador Killers goes from concept to final sprite render.

The first step is what's called the mood board. This is the conceptual framework where the artist references the mood, texture and detailing that we want to evoke with the spacer power suit.

Step two is the adapt or "kitbash" stage. Seeing as we've already developed a powersuit for Clade Vocc (not pictured), in 3DSMax, we extrapolate a suit design to help suggest how mainline spacers are still related, though considerably drifted away from in both culture and military doctrine.

The third step is the paintover in photoshop. With a basic suit layout in hand, we think about how we are going to change and treat the design. Returning briefly to the mood board's astronaut references, we decide on a cloth-covered suit. At this stage the helmet is unsatisfactory, but that will get revised later.

Once we have arrived at a satisfactory model of the suit, the finished design is then broken down into components for baking down and then texturing in Substance Painter. The final sprite render shown in the bottom right corner of the above image is done in Blender. Here is the finished suit as a render (click here to open a full-size version in your browser).

As a bonus, a scene was composed using the model of this new spacer powersuit, which was used as a header image for this article. You can get a wallpaper sized version by clicking here, with deference to American digital painter Craig Mullins for this piece.

This post was based on one of our monthly newsletters that was sent out back in March 2022. Click here if you’d like to check out our newsletter archive.