NBA 2K12 Developer Insight #3 - Art Direction

Feature Article

Submitted on: 08/30/2011 by Steve Noah

Lynell Jinks here, Art Director for NBA 2K12. Today I am going to be talking about both new improvements that you can look forward to in 2K12.

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The artists here have taken a lot of time to make our game feel even more life-like than ever before. We took a lot of time to research and find references for all of the greatest players in every era, along with the old school feel that each of their eras is known for. We really worked hard to recreate more than a 150 new retired players with their accessories, hair, uniforms, court floors, etc. because, as Erick said in the NBA Greatest Insight, we are often going at least ten players deep on the 34 new legendary teams.

This year, the broadcast of each game is so life-like that you will have a hard time believing you’re not watching old clips from back in the day. The amount of detail we put into making these games fit into their respective era’s is crazy, from the old school baskets, press tables, overlays, camera angles, etc. We also did a lot of work on post process filters; adding sepia and grayscale to display older games, the way they were broadcasted in their day. As you can see in the below screenshot, a game from the 60s or 70s will have that “grainy” look and feel. The combination of camera work and color adds to the authenticity of each broadcast and is specific to each era, venue, etc.

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One of the most noticeable updates, we made this year, is capturing the likenesses for a lot of the key players. We updated close to 400 player heads that I felt weren’t up to par or needed a new, fresher look. I honestly think this is one of the biggest places you’ll see a difference up close.

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Every year we get a ton of feedback about tattoos or should I say lack of, so to help solve this problem we worked with NBA to provide us with hi-res shots of any player who has tattoos from every possible angle. And while I can’t get into too much detail in an effort to not spoil future Insights, we have made advancements that should make the most hardcore fans on the 2K Insider blog, those breaking down the slightest intricacies in shoes, tattoos, or hair, quite happy.

Click here for high resolution image

Another cool aspect, unique to this year’s game, is crowd and collision animation. Mascots have been given more props such as a t-shirt gun they shoot into the crowd with fans actually fighting to get one. Watch closely, you may even see a Mascot race out on skates.

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The first row animation of the crowd has been spiced up as well. There is more contact and more interaction. Watch out if a ball, or worse a player, comes hurdling in your direction. I don’t want to go to deep as our Presentation folks have an Insight in the coming weeks, in which they will focus on all these subjects along with pre-game, post-game, atmosphere etc.

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Thanks for reading. We’re feeling very proud of the steps that we’ve taken in Art and hope that you appreciate them. In the next couple days, we will be revealing a trailer from the one and only Momentus that bring a lot of what I discussed to life. It will blow your mind.

** TRAILER COMING SOON**
- Lynell Jinks
Art Director

NBA 2K12 Videos

Member Comments

# 61 GSWarriors9 @ 08/30/11 06:36 PM

Looks like we have new generic shoes, Artest, Bynum and Anthony have them on in this pic......

# 62 Control-X @ 08/30/11 06:39 PM

Quote:


	The artists here have taken a lot of time to make our game feel even more life-like than ever before. We took a lot of time to research and find references for all of the greatest players in every era, along with the old school feel that each of their eras is known for. We really worked hard to recreate more than a 150 new retired players with their accessories, hair, uniforms, court floors, etc. because, as Erick said in the NBA Greatest Insight, we are often going at least ten players deep on the 34 new legendary teams.

This is definitely not an easy thing to do. Gotta give props 2K for this job alone

I'm sure 2K12 will look great on the 360, but I do not know if it'll look the same on the PS3 or the PC.

# 63 btrapp @ 08/30/11 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stevenash22


	how about we just look at the positive stuff that we have seen on da screenshots. Look at Derrick Rose, he looks amazing, D-wade's accessories are great and look at kobe's sneakers. Best of all i didnt see any generic sneakers. it's an art insight people and the screenshots are showing art within the game. smh

To some folks it's a lot more fun to just complain and whine then ever look for anything positive. After seeing all of these complaints, I honestly wouldn't be bothered if 2k just stopped the insights all together. This is seriously annoying.

# 64 wallofhate @ 08/30/11 06:45 PM

I guess I totally misunderstood what the art insight meant. I thought they would elaborate and show examples of last years models compared to this year with pictures to show the difference of accesories,player faces,tattoos,court floors,lighting,jerseys etc. im a little bummed because this was the insight o looked most forward to. It was delayed which easnt a big deal because I figured it would be a boat load of info and detaols but this I could see ign writing not an actual developer. Oh well Oct 4 I will get to see.smh

# 65 NYdreams @ 08/30/11 06:52 PM

whelp the insight coulda been worse.. i mean imagine the art insight with no pictures lol... glad to see faces improved but i swear i read through this in like 60 seconds =/

# 66 wallofhate @ 08/30/11 06:54 PM

Madden insight about art changes was good imo. Because it compared inages. Most people cant tell the difference in things without a comparison . Doing that really shows off the great effort the 2k team has mad imho

# 67 Bolt957 @ 08/30/11 06:56 PM

If this is the 3rd Insight, where are the first 2 insights!?

# 68 btrapp @ 08/30/11 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshPrince22


	lol. they're not gonna stop. contrary to popular belief, 2K isn't doing us a favor with this info. they're trying to sell a product.

lol, good point. It's just kinda annoying listning to people complain about everything.

# 69 Xx Qontrolz xX @ 08/30/11 06:59 PM

i gotta admit i was disappointed by the insight itself (cause i alrdy knew quite everything) but i dropped a few WOWs at the screens

# 70 Goffs @ 08/30/11 07:00 PM

OS should've gotten the trailer first.

# 71 Stevenash22 @ 08/30/11 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by btrapp


	To some folks it's a lot more fun to just complain and whine then ever look for anything positive. After seeing all of these complaints, I honestly wouldn't be bothered if 2k just stopped the insights all together. This is seriously annoying.

u are right on the money with that one. it's really annoying.

# 72 wrestlinggod1 @ 08/30/11 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qpc123


	So now (according to Ronnie's twitter) the trailer has gone from needing to be with the insight, to close* in response to coolcras today, to whenever it's released. still smh*

Those were my facial expressions for the parts in bold.

# 73 eko718 @ 08/30/11 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qpc123


	In the first pic, is that an armband on Bosh's elbow or it just look that way? If it's on the elbow, isn't that a new addition?

Looks like a straight up elbow band and that must be new. They added many accessories judging by the vids and pics thusfar...props to 2K for that.

I would expect that they would elaborate on some of these things in the art insight, but hey....

# 74 mlp111 @ 08/30/11 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inkcil


	how will this game look on the ps3? can they specify what system these screenshots r for?

From a guy who owns a ps3, xbox 360, and custom pc, I personally would never buy 2k12 or any other 2k game on ps3, I buying 2k12 on pc and xbox!

# 75 mlp111 @ 08/30/11 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Control-X


	This is definitely not an easy thing to do. Gotta give props 2K for this job alone I'm sure 2K12 will look great on the 360, but I do not know if it'll look the same on the PS3 or the PC.

For ps3, wont be up to par with xbox, but PC, what 2k don't do, modders will, so pc version will be the best!!!

# 76 Cripterion @ 08/30/11 07:38 PM

Being a 2K PC player, I can't say I'm impressed watching these screenshots. To be honest, they look worse than last year's (I know, it's taken from consoles without mods) but where are the facial expressions?

And I too gotta say this insight is pretty weak. Show us comparisons from last year instead of releasing a bunch of random screens with half the players looking stoned or like zombies.

On the positive side, looks like they finally got Bynum face right.

EDIT :

Quote:

As ever, increased realism is also on the agenda too, and this year you can interact with the entire first row of the crowd. It sounds strange, but it means you can make the extra effort to keep a ball from going out of bounds, jumping over the score table or diving into the cheerleaders. A neat touch

Also from this quote, it sounds like they put back the cheerleaders under the basket yet every screenshot released doesn't feature them. Screenshots from an old build? Maybe that's why the players look so lifeless.

# 77 Naismithball @ 08/30/11 07:51 PM

Metta World Peace is number 70, not 15 anymore.

# 78 NINJAK2 @ 08/30/11 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallofhate


	I guess I totally misunderstood what the art insight meant. I thought they would elaborate and show examples of last years models compared to this year with pictures to show the difference of accesories,player faces,tattoos,court floors,lighting,jerseys etc. im a little bummed because this was the insight o looked most forward to. It was delayed which easnt a big deal because I figured it would be a boat load of info and detaols but this I could see ign writing not an actual developer. Oh well Oct 4 I will get to see.smh

Great Post! That would have been a better way of showcasing their improvement from last year. Kobe looks much better this year though.....

# 79 qpc123 @ 08/30/11 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naismithball


	Metta World Peace is number 70, not 15 anymore.

He won't be Metta World Peace, until Sept. 16th at the earliest because Ron Artest still has outstanding traffic warrants.

# 80 GSWarriors9 @ 08/30/11 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naismithball


	Metta World Peace is number 70, not 15 anymore.

Does that guy plan on changing his # every year? lol

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