NBA 2K12 Developer Insight - Art Direction

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.

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.
 
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.
 
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.

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.