Ash Sky [Tris Babayan]

foreword
Being the Art Director on a project like Borderlands 2 was like stepping onto Pandora for the first time. There was raw beauty to witness, adventures to be had,
and the ever-present lure of glorious loot to be obtained around every corner. However, just like exploring an uncharted territory, there was danger at every turn.
How do I take an immensely beautiful and unique art style and improve upon it? How do I add snow, grass, and lava to Pandora’s barren wastelands without
changing the character of this amazing planet? How do I make 87 bazillion guns even bazilliondier?
CONTENTS
Quite simply put: I didn’t do any of those things.
Gearbox Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Instead I had the pleasure to direct an amazingly talented group of individuals who rose to the challenge and made Borderlands 2 the incredible experience that it
is. I am well and truly honored to work with such a passionate, creative, and hardworking team. These folks are the kind of people who are excited to have a fifteen Art Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
minute discussion about Bandits wearing sombreros and whether said sombrero-wearing-Bandits should drink Molotov cocktails. They are also the kind of people
who routinely asked for the chance to improve an asset even though they knew it would mean a long night of work ahead. Mostly, though, they are the kind of Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
people who love what they do and you can see that passion in every crate you leap over, every monster you explode, and every loot chest you delve into.
Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Many people might assume that in a game where visuals are at the fore, much of its look must come from the Art Team. While we do have a big impact on the
game’s visuals, I think it’s important to understand that the final look of Borderlands 2 was a teamwide effort that involves every discipline at Gearbox. Story and Weapons & Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Design dreams up an incredible world, and Code helps us realize those dreams while Effects, Animation, and Audio all make heads explode along the way. I think
however, it’s important to note that the Level Designers are the people who combine the elements created by the other teams into a rich and expressive world for Enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
players to explore. We owe much of the final look and feel of Pandora to their tireless effort.
Items & Props . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Thanks to everyone at Gearbox for making the development of Borderlands 2 an amazing adventure and I hope this book will provide some insight to the reader as
to how we got it made. Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Tech Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Cinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Jeramy “The Chef” Cooke Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

 13

CHARA C T E R S
forgiving
o ra m ig h t b e a harsh, un
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e ct ru m o f p eople. The ca
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Borderlands
e fascists to
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m u rd e r co u ntless people
and/or
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at.
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But of cours ck used
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But did you Jack
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E li? N e a rl y all of the cha
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in Borderla ase, and
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ing room floo
up on the cutt

Illustration
[Scott Kester] Right

12
 23
CHARACTERS [SALVADOR]

SALVADOR
CONCEPT ART
When it came time to announce Borderlands
2 to the world, Salvador the Gunzerker was
chosen as the game’s unofficial mascot—his
bandaged, mohawked head was the first
thing Gearbox fans saw when the team
released BL2’s teaser trailer in August
of 2011. Why? Perhaps because his
action skill was the most easy for fans
to wrap their head around in a thirty-
second teaser. Or perhaps because
his short stature and dark skin made
certain that he couldn’t be confused
with any character from the first game.

Or maybe it’s just because he

looks so damn cool.

Concept designer Scott Kester

strove to create a character who is
“the essence of Borderlands…a guy
who lives and breathes guns.” From the
numerous bandoliers slung across his
body to the bullet tattoos that adorn his
right bicep, Sal makes no pretenses about
his purpose on Pandora. He’s here to shoot
stuff, and have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Gunzerker Model [Adam May] Left

Gunzerker Concepts [Scott Kester] Right

22
 25
CHARACTERS [SALVADOR]

“ It’s true, the little dude loves his big

guns.

”
But no, he’s not compensating.

Scott Kester says, “Sal is probably my favorite design of all the characters;
I love how he came together. The small touches on him, the bullets, buttons,
and bullet spurs. His whole body has so much personality. I think we tend
to try things that other companies might not in regards to characters. I’m
thankful we are asking more questions than just starting with what is already
status quo.”

“It’s true, the little dude loves his big guns,” Adam May says. “But no, he’s
not compensating.”

Despite his relatively simple gameplay premise, Salvador’s class name changed more often
than any other playable character. First, his class was called “Merc,” until the team decided
that was too bland. Then, “Gunslinger.” Then, finally, “Gunzerker,” to convey his status as
an evolution of the Berserker class from the first game.

Much of his design also revolved around creating a distinctive silhouette. “In Borderlands 1
we had Brick, the big tough guy,” Scott Kester says. “This time around, we wanted another
big guy, but didn’t want to use a similar body type. So we said, ‘Let’s make a little big guy!’
From the start we really wanted to make a more compact character with Sal: short and
stocky, and totally badass.” Gunzerker Concepts [Scott Kester]

24
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CHARACTERS [Borderlands 1]

Zippy (Claptrap) Concept

[Lorin Wood] Top
Claptrap Concepts
[Lorin Wood] Middle Left
Claptrap Model
[Brent Hollon, Lorin Wood]
Middle Right
Claptrap Credits Cartoons
[Kale Menges] Bottom

claptrap
“Claptrap was created as both a nod to a friend of
mine who designed Pixar’s Wall-E character, and
my own personal challenge to design the most
generic robot I could think of,” says concept artist
Lorin Wood. “I like to think I was successful.

“I was working on another project at the time and

did the initial sketch that started it all, and named
him ‘Zippy.’ I posted that in our database system
as a joke. When I was pulled onto Borderlands,
the art director, Brian Martel, saw the sketch and
loved it. I fleshed out his design in meetings with
Brian as we acted out his behaviors and developed
a personality. Some of those details, such as
articulated eyebrows, were removed before we
went to the modeling phase. It was added to in
spades by David Eddings (when
he provided the voice) and our
fantastic animators.”

Claptrap Models
[Brent Hollon] This Page

76
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environments [zone 2]

z o n e 2
Control Core Angel Fink’s
Slaughterhouse
Lynchwood
The Bunker
Handsome Jack’s stronghold in the sky affords players the ability to
get killed by all kinds of fun stuff, such as robots, turrets, or a giant,
transforming warship.
The Highlands
Grass! Water! Stalkers! The highlands of Pandora are as lush and inviting as
they are dangerous.

A techno-horror battleground of sudden death and Of all the wild west-esque areas in Pandora, this is
harsh lighting. the wildest and the westiest.
If you love ice and bandit murder, this is where
you wanna be.

Natural Selection The Highlands – Thousand Cuts The Holy Spirits

annex Outwash The bandit-infested cliffs that Brick’s Slab Bandit Welcome to the home of the amoral Zaford Bandit
Clan calls home. Clan, who love murder as much as they love
This Hyperion-owned circle of slaughter arena is a Hyperion’s Eridium Extraction Plant stands out like
booze. And they really love booze.
paradise of overgrown machinery and Varkid blood. a garish, industrialized sore thumb. Covered with
robots. This metaphor is atrocious.

Opportunity Terramorphous Peak

Handsome Jack’s fascist city of the future is waiting for you…to get the hell The mysterious cliffs where Borderlands 2’s terrifying raid boss lives. Try not
out so our taxpaying tenants can move in. to fall to your death.

Wildlife Exploitation Preserve

Hyperion’s awful creature torture facility of awfulness. Visually, this map
represents a close marriage of Hyperion hi-tech with Pandoran nature.

96
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environments [zone 2]

GYROCOPTER FACTORY AND JACK’S BUNKER

“The fight up to Handsome Jack’s fortress needed to feel epic,” says Kevin Duc. “The house was intended to sit on the edge of the Grasslands and Ash. I
pulled a lot of influence from the recent volcano in Iceland, and thought that a giant, lightning bolt laden volcanic plume would be a perfect backdrop to
the player’s first encounter with Jack.”

Artist Matias Tapia was

tasked with creating a
Buzzard factory—before the
Buzzards had actually been
designed and built. “At this
point, I think we didn’t have
a Gyrocopter yet, but needed
to have a factory. So, the
factory sketches were sort of
designed to be an abandoned
Hyperion factory instead of
what it actually became.”

Factory Concept [Matias Tapia]

Jack’s Bunker Concept [Kevin Duc] Right

104
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weapons & GEAR [bandit]

Assault Rifle
“The Bandit guns were originally designed to have a rag-tag, pieced together look,”
says David May. “After a few designs came on board we opted to go with a more
streamlined aggressive look. This helped the design to integrate better with other
manufacturers as well as look less ‘junky.’ The original gun was then redesigned and
built to fit the updated Bandit aesthetics.”
overview
The Bandit class of weapons was pushed by a want for us
to answer the question of “what type of weapons would an
isolated bandit, sitting out in the wastes, build?” We wanted
these guns to look cobbled together with found objects,
to have screws and nuts and bolts coming off at skewed
angles, and at the same time look dangerous. The design
team wanted a large capacity magazine and left the rest to
the artists’ imagination.

“On our first light machine gun pass, we went really far into
the junky, cobbled together look,” Duc says. “We even built
our first scope out of a beer bottle. As the weapons system
was implemented, and parts began swapping with other
manufacturers, we found that our initial design language
may have been a bit too scrappy. In later iterations of the
Bandit machine gun, we tightened up some of the odd
angles, and went with a sturdier looking design.” RED
GRAFFITI
BLOOD

Assault Rifle Concepts [Martin Sawkins] Above

Bandit Explorations [Kevin Duc, Jeramy Cooke] Right
Assault Rifle Models [David May] Left
Weapon Breakdown [Kevin Duc] Below

Borderlands weapons are made from many different

pieces. “These accessories are ideas of what Bandit
accessories might look like. Later in development,
we dropped the idea of having manufacturer specific
accessories, and instead made the accessories
universal throughout a weapon range,” Duc says.

Accessories Breakdown [David May, Kevin Duc]

126
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weapons & GEAR [bandit]

SMG rocket launcher

These SMG concepts show the reboot of the Bandit “The Bandit launcher and Bandit weapons in general were a special challenge because all of the crazy ‘bandit’
manufacturer identity. We wanted these weapons to look type things we did in the environments (piecemealing it together from other objects, cloth wrapped around
sharp, strong, and deadly. You can imagine the metal is everything, etc.) had to be toned back so they still looked good when mixed with the other guns,”
pressed quarter inch steel, the kind of thing you could throw says Jett Sarrett. “I think the end result was better for it.”
off of a building, pick up, and stab someone in the face with.
We still wanted the homebuilt look, but maybe built with a bit
more skill than we had first envisioned.
Rocket Launcher Concepts [Virtuous] Below
Since our weapons are made of parts that are procedurally Rocket Launcher Models [Jett Sarrett] Right
mixed in our game system, we have to breakdown each
weapon into its component pieces. Here the individual parts
that make up the Bandit SMG are called out for the 3D artist.

“Once the initial design for a weapon is solidified, our 3D

artist, David May, makes a 3D block-in mesh for each
weapon in a class. We have to make sure that all pieces in
a particular weapon type fit together. For example, all barrels
must attach to all bodies in a functioning, aesthetically
pleasing way. Once these pieces fit, I paintover David’s
block-in mesh to provide a very accurate representation
of what the final model should look like,” Duc says.

SMG Concepts [Kevin Duc] Right

SMG Mesh [David May, Kevin Duc] Below

pistol
ShotGun
“The Bandit pistol retains the large capacity theme. In these
The Bandit shotgun continues the theme of high capacity magazines. 3Point, a partner of sketches we explored various configurations and types of
ours, handled most of the heavy lifting on the shotgun designs and models. The process magazines. In the end, we went with a side-loaded magazine
was very similar to working with in-house artists, as 3Point sent us a set of sketches, we and a big, double-drum magazine for rarer pistols,” says Duc.
provided feedback, and so on and so forth. The middle piece is a paintover done over one
of 3Point’s drawings to pull the design closer to our established Bandit language.

Shotgun Concepts [3Point] Left

Shotgun Concept [Kevin Duc, 3Point] Below

Pistol Concepts [Kevin Duc] Above

Pistol Concept [David May, Kevin Duc] Right

128