• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

CKIII Dev Diary #28 - Art Focus

Hello my name is Joacim, Art Lead on Crusader Kings 3, I am positing here a developer diary written by Pontus, Art Director on Crusader Kings 3, currently on paternity leave. Our artists will reply to your questions in the comments!

Art Focus
Hey! Let’s talk about the art of Crusader Kings III!

My name is Pontus, Art Director on CK3. I’ve written this dev diary together with the art team, and if you promise to tell everyone this is the best dev diary so far, there will be some sweet wallpapers at the end of it. Cool?

Certainly, you’ve seen a lot of the art already, in various states of completion, with all our diaries and previews. Let’s start by talking about the way we’ve approached creating the graphics for the game!

The starting point for the art direction is, as it should be, the game design. If you recall Dev Diary #0, Henrik Fåhreus’ vision of the game has a big focus on characters and storytelling, as well as approachability and player freedom. Reinforcing that through the art has been the main goal.

To keep ourselves on-track, three key pillars guide the art department on CK3:

A ROLE-PLAYING EXPERIENCE - This pillar is represented by our goal to give life to the characters and their unfolding stories. An example of this would be the characters’ portraits, we did not want them small and static, they are now front and center, and show off their standing or lack thereof through clothing, as well as show how they feel about what is happening to them through body language.

DD28_king_01.jpg
DD28_king_02.jpg


A MEDIEVAL GAME - We made a great effort to keep a good level of historical accuracy in our designs. Our illustrations and icons are made to reflect the time period, just like the 3D art that populate the map. Of course, sometimes we had to try and find good compromises in the designs that would work for the entire timespan of the game.

Where possible, we based clothes on reconstructed sewing patterns from extant medieval clothing. For example, we recreated the "coronation tunic" of Roger II of Sicily, a well preserved garment from the 1130s (though it was actually made some time after the coronation).

DD28_tunic_comp.jpg


Another example would be a loading screen with some really well-painted sunflowers, but these did not exist in europe until the 16th century, which was spotted in time thanks to our Beta testers: so we sent it back to get the flowers repainted…

A ROUGH WORLD - Crusader Kings is not a game for all-ages, you live dangerously and people do terrible, terrible things to each other. This is reflected in the more somber palette and overall mood of the game.

Now, let’s talk about the different types of art you’ll have fun with in CK3:

CHARACTERS
I’m very excited about our new character portraits, and what we can do with them visually. They are varied and have lots of, well, character. Every day there’s a screenshot shared in the dev chat featuring someone they’ve encountered in-game, and we usually agree, yes, that person wears that hat better than most, or indeed, he looks just like the poster boy for the Deviant trait.

For me, the real test for the characters is if they make you feel, and It IS satisfying to throw especially smug-looking Rivals into your Dungeon, and you might feel a bit sorry for some harmless looking characters before you plot to have someone deliver poisonous snakes upon them.

I really want to stress the fantastic work our Lead Character Artist Nils Wadensten and the character team have done in bringing this new generation of portraits to our games, alongside our Engine team.

In fact, he’ll go into the character portraits a bit more in a future diary, hopefully he won’t show the first iterations of the wounds and diseases, some were a bit too much for a lot of people.. :)

For now, I’ll leave you with a sneak peek of Concept art and the final piece of Clothing as how it appears in the game.

DD28_steppe.jpg
DD28_african_pagan.jpg


ANIMATION
Making the characters move was quite a challenge since the movements need to be very discreet, and not call too much attention to themselves as that could become a distraction from the gameplay.

The posing and idle animations are there to help the immersion and storytelling. Keeping the Rough World pillar in mind, they should not be silly and slapstick - while CK has some wonderful dark humor, we play it straight. I do think the look on a character's face when he realises they are locked up together with a Cannibal is appropriately shocked though.

Generally the characters have a pose that reflects their personality or the situation they’re in.


EVENTS
Here is where the role-playing really kicks in. When an event pops up, we showcase the characters involved and how they feel about the current proceedings, set against a backdrop that really helps sell the setting. This means if you encounter the same event in another play-through, the visuals might be quite different due to the characters involved.

The backdrops have a detailed but hand-painted style that complements our stylized characters’ well. In fact, we have some for you as wallpapers without text, icons and characters obscuring them, enjoy.

When we create a new event background, we also do a hand-crafted lighting setup, which relights the portraits to fit the current scene:

DD28_events_01.jpg
DD28_events_02.jpg
DD28_events_03.jpg
DD28_events_04.jpg


ILLUSTRATIONS
Besides the events, there’s plenty of illustrations in CK3!

For the loading screens, we wanted someone who can do images full of mood and storytelling, in a rough, painterly style. We went straight for the top and asked Craig Mullins. Fortunately, he was up for it, and has provided some really exciting imagery.

They all are of course showcasing aspects of the Crusader Kings experience- from Templars in battle to babies in peril!

Besides the loading screens and event backgrounds, we have cool paintings for Decision categories, terrain types, holdings, army movements, legacies… heck, our Personality trait icons and Tenets are small illustrations - there is a lot to discover and keep you entertained and immersed!

DD28_hunt_text.jpg


The Holding Illustrations make for great wallpapers as well, so we included that in our art drop!

UNITS
Our units are really cool! We were very enthusiastic about these, and really added quite a bit of detail. Let us know if you spot the nails that stick the shield handle into the shield at the back.

The units’ appearance is based on culture - We have Western European, Byzantine, Middle-east / North Africa, Pagans, Indian and Turko-Mongol.

A unit has three visual tiers, becoming more armor-clad and sophisticated as it progresses. So it was important for us to make sure a Tier 2 Byzantine looks equally as tough as a Tier 2 Turko-Mongol for instance.

They have a lot of spark to them as we added a lot of different animations, they cheer when they win, bang their shields during sieges and we make use of red liquid particles when they land some nice hits.

Culture, Tiers and Coat-of-arms colors and emblems make the Units look appropriate and unique. Here’s some examples:

DD28_units.png



HOLDINGS
The Holdings were quite a challenge, they needed to be a certain size based on maximum zoom level and minimum Barony size. Since they are small they need to have strong, readable shapes without looking like toys.

Their appearances are influenced by the region they are found in, in this case Western European, Mediterranean, India and Middle-east.

Similar to Units, they have visual tiers, tied to the Holding’s Upgrade level. Temples and Cities have two tiers, whereas Castles and Walls have four tiers.

Of course, we have primitive huts as well, and a big bunch of unique buildings, some easier to recreate (Pyramids) than others (Charlemagne's Palace).

DD28_western_castles.png
DD28_mena_castles.png

DD28_special_01.png
DD28_special_02.png



MAP
There’s a rumor going around that some of you CK2 players rarely look at the terrain map. We didn’t want that for CK3, so we made our map to not only be moody and pretty to look at, but also more useful, so you’d have more reasons to go there.

CK is information heavy, so we try to make sure that everything in the terrain map serves a function, and is easy to see. Thus a cleaner look, to make sure the icons, borders, text and 3D models that sit on top of the land read well. At a glance, you should be able to see what terrain type a Barony has without consulting another map mode.

DD28_map_02.png
DD28_map_03.png
DD28_map_01.png


If you are into Political Map modes though, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. You’ll notice it feels familiar.

It seems our Paper map has been received well, we’re glad you like lobsters too! Getting the right amount of sea-monsters without making it look cluttered wasn’t easy, but I think we managed in the end.

DD28_papermap.png


UI
A PDS game has a lot of UI. It is something made in close collaboration with UX and Game Design departments. It is constantly iterated upon and is one of the most challenging aspects of our games.
Visually we took inspiration from game design’s character focus pillar and pulled in visual influences from Roleplaying games. To make it approachable we tried to keep it clean, and give everything some breathing room.

DD28_Character_Screen.png
DD28_MAA.jpg


DD28_letter.jpg


We use a lot of illustrations in our UI’s to help immersion and flavor, and we have a cool system where some of the image types are context sensitive, so for instance your Sultan will not stand in front of a western European throne room if he is hanging out in the Middle-east, and if you are dealing with Catholicism in Religion View, well you’ll see churches and similar imagery.


Coats of Arms
Heraldry is essential to the medieval immersion of Crusader Kings, and so heralds will be excited to hear that we have totally overhauled the Coat of Arms system.

We started from scratch, poring over history books and contemporary armorials to ensure every detail is authentic. We designed accurate CoA for over a thousand titles and dynasties to complement a new scriptable random system that weights hundreds of unique elements based on culture, religion, and everything in between. We modeled minute differences across regions, so frequencies of designs and tinctures are different in Germany, France, and Spain. The amount of possible combinations? Millions.

We achieved our primary goal of making our feudal European heraldry as accurate as possible, but we didn't stop there—we wanted to go into extra depth for all regions. For example, the eastern hordes decorate the Great Steppe with their special tamgha emblems, while the Islamic world is fleshed out with immersive Saracenic heraldry (no more endless stars and crescents). Emergent cadet houses differentiate their new arms by quartering, and yes, England's coat of arms will change if William wins the Norman Invasion.

Here’s some examples of the heraldry system in action - firstly how England’s arms can react to gameplay, and secondly a selection of randomly-generated COA from around the world.

DD28_COA_1.png
DD28_COA_2.png


In summary:

The art team has worked very hard and it is a delight every day to see whatever new stuff is coming in. Making games is a group effort though, so we get invaluable help and feedback from the rest of the team: code, design, QA, sound, production all contribute as well.

Of course, seeing pictures in a dev diary is one thing, we can’t wait for you to get your hands on the full experience! As always, your feedback will help guide us as we continue to make content and improvements for CK3!

And for being good sports and reaching the end of the dev diary, here's links to some sweet wallpapers!
 

Attachments

  • DD28_council.mp4
    8,9 MB
  • DD28_event.mp4
    9,5 MB
  • DD28_combat_vid_1.mp4
    18,7 MB
  • DD28_combat_vid_2.mp4
    19,2 MB
  • DD28_western_castles.png
    DD28_western_castles.png
    1 MB · Views: 0
Last edited:
  • 175Love
  • 141Like
  • 20
  • 9
  • 3
Reactions:
Honestly the complaints about cities like Constantinople and the holding size is like looking at this map of the DC metro and complaining that Dupont Circle is as big as West Falls Church and that the Jefferson Memorial is as big as the Washington Monument. It completely misses the point of what information is actually a priority in showing to the person looking at it.
 
  • 15
  • 3Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Honestly the complaints about cities like Constantinople and the holding size is like looking at this map of the DC metro and complaining that Dupont Circle is as big as West Falls Church and that the Jefferson Memorial is as big as the Washington Monument. It completely misses the point of what information is actually a priority in showing to the person looking at it.
Well, that map is utilitarian, its primary function being navigation. That's a fine aesthetic for some games (like DEFCON, for instance), but Crusader Kings should be as decorative and evocative of the time period as possible while still in fact being functional.
 
  • 18
Reactions:
Well, this is a 2020 game, it's not a bad thing to add "cosmetic" elements
And it's not bad especially for Paradox, since it's nearly a decade that they make money selling them in separate DLCs...I'm just giving them ideas, for which I would gladly accept a 1% share. What to you think, Paradox? C'mon, I'll be a good boy :D
 
  • 8
  • 2Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Well, that map is utilitarian, its primary function being navigation. That's a fine aesthetic for some games (like DEFCON, for instance), but Crusader Kings should be as decorative and evocative of the time period as possible while still in fact being functional.
And they are doing that. The decorative and evocative elements are in the zoomed out paper map, where the nitty gritty of holding level functionality is less important. But for zoomed in, functionality of things like being able to recognize the holding type at a glance and not having anything superfluous becomes much more important than decorative elements. Obscuring what type of holding a barony is just to make the barony look pretty is sacrificing functionality of the map purely for aesthetics and not adding any functionality to replace that which was taken away.

Besides, if you really wanted something that was decorative and evocative of the time period, you could always look at maps from the time period like the Tabula Rogeriana which did in fact have Constantinople as the same size as every other city on the map.
 
  • 10
  • 2Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Obscuring what type of holding a barony is just to make the barony look pretty is sacrificing functionality of the map purely for aesthetics and not adding any functionality to replace that which was taken away.
It wouldn't obscure anything. There would be a "major holding" type with a "major holding" map model, recognizable by anyone at first glance
See? In a game you can have both functionality and aesthetic at their maximum level. Everyone would be happy and there would be a better world, at least in CK3
 
  • 9
  • 2Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
I do wonder where this guy is supposed to be from.



It doesn't strike me as either Guinean or Sahelian nobility.

As said, it is just random-tribal-fantasy design rather than actual historic clothes. West Africa have various rich clothing traditions, it seems weird that despite the declaration of trying to be as accurate as possible, the devs switched to stereotypical tribal stuff. Why not give them kente? It was used originally only around Akan area, but it's better than random Aztec robes (and devs have already stated that atm cultures like Slavs and Scandinavians will have the same clothing style, so a bit of generalization for now is better than fantasy).
View attachment 582208

I think that dwarves and hobbits could just use reskinned child/person-with-dwarfism models, and for elves you just need to add another earshape. Who knows how hard it could be though.




The African clothing in the screenshot reminds me of Civilization's depiction of Shaka of the Zulus (see below), which is kinda weird as it's sort of like making the Byzantines look like half naked painted Gaulish warriors.

Hopefully this will be rectified in the future, it would be odd to see a Mansa Musa equivalent walking around half naked with only some "tribal" animal furs and feathers on.



shaka-of-the-zulus-sid-meiers-civilization-v-32543-1920x1200.jpg


3348772-zulu_header.png
 
  • 3
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Python:
e_bjorn = {
    pattern = "pattern_solid.tga"
    color1 = "blue" # the background is solid blue
   
    colored_emblem = {
        texture = "ce_fleur.dds" # we have two yellow fleur-de-lis at the top...
        color1 = "yellow"
        color2 = "yellow"
        instance = { position = { 0.33 0.33 } scale = { 0.5 0.5 }  } # top left, half size
        instance = { position = { 0.67 0.33 } scale = { 0.5 0.5 }  } # top right, half size
    }  
   
    colored_emblem = {
        texture = "ce_star_05_pierced.dds" # ...and a single white and red star at the bottom
        color1 = "white"
        color2 = "red"
        instance = { position = { 0.50 0.67 } scale = { 0.5 0.5 }  } # bottom, half size
    }  
}

View attachment 581868
You just sold Crusader Kings III to me (almost, worried about the Mac requirements)
 
  • 2Haha
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
Really nice work. But there is one problem. The background here shows wooden chairs and other stuff There were no wooden chairs in medieval churches. An example: backless stone benches first appeared in English churches in the late 14th century and they were placed up towards the walls in the nave. Wooden benches only became common in the 15th century. For the first 1500 years of the church history people stood up at mass and then knelt on the floor when needed.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-7bb93e035f1d28b2c15fe0f7f8fd2d18

https://medievalchurchart.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/seven_sacraments_rogier.jpg?w=1400&h=9999

https://images.fineartamerica.com/i...ration-of-mass-mary-evans-picture-library.jpg

Its an easy thing to verify. Just look up medieval art of christian mass or look up the history of pews or chairs in the churches and mass.

Damn, we never stop learning! I never thought about that and just always assumed they probably just had either chairs or benches in there since day 1!
Thanks for that lol
 
  • 1
  • 1Like
Reactions:
If they add a new level of holding, then in order to still convey the holding type to the player at a glance, it won't be able to be unique to each city and the holding model will need to apply to all holdings of that type and level. So Constantinople will look the same as, say, Baghdad, Samarkand, Oyo-Ile, Timbuktu, or Delhi.

Something I find funny about the Byzaboos endless "why Constantinople not more special" is that it wasn't even the biggest city on the map at any point during the game's timeframe.
 
  • 11
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
The African clothing in the screenshot reminds me of Civilization's depiction of Shaka of the Zulus (see below), which is kinda weird as it's sort of like making the Byzantines look like half naked painted Gaulish warriors.

Hopefully this will be rectified in the future, it would be odd to see a Mansa Musa equivalent walking around half naked with only some "tribal" animal furs and feathers on.
I just want to clarify that the outfit depicted in the screenshot is for African pagan shamans and will not be used by Muslims or people of other religions. :)
 
  • 29
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
I just want to clarify that the outfit depicted in the screenshot is for African pagan shamans and will not be used by Muslims or people of other religions. :)

Thank you for clarifying, I - and I'm sure many others who're interested in Africa - am quite glad to hear that!

Though I understand it won't be a top priority at the moment, I hope down the line to see further variation and additions to African clothing.
 
  • 3
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Really nice work. But there is one problem. The background here shows wooden chairs and other stuff There were no wooden chairs in medieval churches. An example: backless stone benches first appeared in English churches in the late 14th century and they were placed up towards the walls in the nave. Wooden benches only became common in the 15th century. For the first 1500 years of the church history people stood up at mass and then knelt on the floor when needed.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-7bb93e035f1d28b2c15fe0f7f8fd2d18

https://medievalchurchart.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/seven_sacraments_rogier.jpg?w=1400&h=9999

https://images.fineartamerica.com/i...ration-of-mass-mary-evans-picture-library.jpg

Its an easy thing to verify. Just look up medieval art of christian mass or look up the history of pews or chairs in the churches and mass.
Maybe we need a thread about historical inaccuracies or myths about the medieval era in CK3.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Something I find funny about the Byzaboos endless "why Constantinople not more special" is that it wasn't even the biggest city on the map at any point during the game's timeframe.
You're right, Constantinople had around 500-800.000 citizens
Paris around 20.000
London something less than 15.000
Baghdad 1.200.000 people!

Now, behold Baghdad, the biggest city in the world!!! Oh wait, you might not see it, after all it's just like all other cities, even if it has easily 10 times their population.
But don't worry, I'll help you...as I was saying, behold Baghdad!!!
26_16_baghdad.jpg


Do you now see the sense of what I and the others are talking about? If so, good for you.
Now you can agree or not, it's totally up to you
 
  • 14Haha
  • 8Like
  • 6
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
You're right, Constantinople had around 500-800.000 citizens
Paris around 20.000
London something less than 15.000
Baghdad 1.200.000 people!

Now, behold Baghdad, the biggest city in the world!!! Oh wait, you might not see it, after all it's just like all other cities, even if it has easily 10 times their population.
But don't worry, I'll help you...as I was saying, behold Baghdad!!!
View attachment 582412

Do you now see the sense of what I and the others are talking about? If so, good for you.
Now you can agree or not, it's totally up to you
That's a problem with the color contrast, not the model size. I agree the castle holdings need to be more distinctive in how they're colored so they show up better against all terrain.
 
  • 14
Reactions:
The fools. They don't realize that he's a decoy while the pageboy who brings you snacks is the real spymaster.
The joke is, neither does the Spymaster. They're all completely clueless...
 
  • 3Haha
Reactions:
I personally don't care about the Constantinople issue because I think the map looks gorgeous either way and I understand that these icons are just used to represent the holding type and not an abstraction of how big the city is. And I'm ok with that. After all, it can easily get out of hand and become some weird immersion breaking city sprawl that covers entire provinces. I would prefer if my medieval map doesn't look like modern Europe in urban development lol
 
  • 7
  • 4
Reactions:
I personally don't care about the Constantinople issue because I think the map looks gorgeous either way and I understand that these icons are just used to represent the holding type and not an abstraction of how big the city is. And I'm ok with that. After all, it can easily get out of hand and become some weird immersion breaking city sprawl that covers entire provinces. I would prefer if my medieval map doesn't look like modern Europe in urban development lol

As a certified Byzantinophile, I could care less about the the city scrawl issue. I think that it is the most nitpicking of nitpicking. Maybe it will be addressed later in an update, I don't care. We already have Constantinople having two unique buildings (Theodosian Walls, Hagia Sophia) compared to other major cities which only have one unique building. There are other things we can do, like holding Paradox's feet to the fire in making sure that when they do rework the Byzantine Empire, they give the Empire its proper due finally.
 
  • 5
  • 2
Reactions:
The art and especially the terrain looks excellent but I noticed that a couple of regions from CK2 don't appear as inhabited on the paper map: the Canarias and the Nenets region east of Bjarmia. It's far from a deal-breaker, but I would feel disappointed if these didn't appear in the game. The Canary Islands were in CK2 from the start and were a cool, memey spot to do a MR or try a world conquest from. I don't know if anyone else cares for Bjarmia but my first game with Holy Fury was as an isolated Nenets chief trying to become king and reform the Suomenusko religion, which was tough but very fun, probably one of my top 3 games. I love secluded and remote starts so my first game in CK3 will definitely be in Myanmar or a Berber chiefdom in the Sahara.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions: