Making of Beyond: Two Souls – A Look At Visual Arts

In this latest video posted by Sony, we once again go behind the scenes of Beyond: Two Souls, this time taking a look at the graphics aspect of the much anticipated upcoming game by Quantic Dream.

The visual team speaks to their goal of keeping the themes consistent over the game’s 15-year story span. After the initial concept art, the team made pack designs for each character. Both of the main characters are based on famous actors (Ellen Page, and Willem Dafoe) and one challenge the team struggled with was staying true to those likenesses. Complete body scans of stills and emotional reactions of the actors were taken in order to ensure total integration.

Over the story’s span, there are seventeen or so incarnations of Ellen Page’s character, Jody. One of the biggest challenges was rendering a younger version of characters, as the entire process of that specific element was dependent on the artists. Page’s mother apparently said that she recognized a 9 year old Page as one of the incarnations of Jody, which speaks to the success of their efforts.

With over 300 unique characters in the game, the team placed a lot of emphasis on making sure that each character had the same level of detail and artistry applied to them as with the main characters. As varied as the cast of characters are the sets of the game. Over 80 different settings are included in the game’s story.

Beyond: Two Souls will release for PS3 on October 8th.