God of War Ragnarok - Niflheim: Cards + Houdini Tools
Zoo frost card examples
Ice card shapes made with my ice forms tool and packed into a sheet.
Procedural ice bulbs, natural light source in Niflheim.
Made with my frost tool.
Zoo
In-game card mound set
In-game card mound set
In-game card mound set up close
In-game card bulb set (light sources)
This was a beast of card population tool that covered every scenario I needed for Niflheim. Later in development I ended up making a simplified version of this tool for my artists to use in their own levels that also allowed them to paint ice coverage.
Niflheim Card Tool Sets
Niflheim Card Tool Sets
Niflheim Card Tool Sets
Niflheim Card Tool Sets
Niflheim Card Tool Mounds
Niflheim Card Tool Mesh Cover
Niflheim Card Tool Mesh Cover
Ice Bulb Tool
Frost Tool
Frost Tool
These are the card models and methods I made as the Level Lead for Niflheim.
All tools/models/materials/textures in these shots/videos are by me.
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This is the less flashy work that goes into making a level like this. Part of the look of Niflheim were brittle curled (and straight) ice cards covering the ground, walls, and larger ice models. Pulling this off required making the necessary card sheets and tools to populate them in a variety of ways.
I created a tool that:
-Populated cards into various mound and set formations as easily placeable models for artists.
-Populated cards on models using their existing normal information and procedural curve vector information to drive their placement along the models creating a more natural look.
-Populated cards onto levels by exporting sections and painting them on.
-Use the same painting that populated cards to generate low poly ice geometry for level coverage.
The tool also had rulesets within that allowed for the various classes of looks to be placed based on the needed situation.
Other tools made in this post: Ice Bulb Creator, Ice Frost Creator
Niflheim visdev by Abe Taraky