Autodesk customer success story CD PROJEKT RED

COMPANY

CD PROJEKT RED
The Witcher 3: Wild
Hunt – behind
LOCATION
Warszawa, Poland
SOFTWARE
Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk MotionBuilder 3D

the scenes
When developing the game
we were using Autodesk 3ds
Max, which allowed us to
create models of characters
and location objects of
fantastic quality. We were
also using the MotionBuilder
– it allowed us to develop
top notch gaming animations
and cutscenes.

— Stan Just
Producer

Graphics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone made by CD Projekt RED

“The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” super-production "When developing the Witcher we wanted
game was produced by CD PROJEKT RED with to show the players a really living world that
the support of Autodesk solutions. is beautiful and visually rich, and then put
The software was delivered by PCC Polska, a fascinating story in it that the players
Autodesk Gold Partner. will remember for many years to come"
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a role playing – says Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, Game Director.
game which has been developed during over Development of the game would not have
3 years with the main objective to present to
been possible without the tools supporting
the players the story of Geralt of Rivia, set in
the work of the designers.
a tenebrous world known from the books by
the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. "The key factor and challenge when developing
games is nearly always the time. The more
"Golden Joysticks" to the Witcher we have, the more we can achieve. I think
The team developing the game included over the tools we are using extensively ‘make more’
250 specialists from all over the world, and the time, however, on the artistic side the most
game has received over 200 awards before its important is the user of these tools. In other
premiere. Now this number increased to 250 words, the better tools, the more time,
– the collection grew by, among others, and the more time and the better skills
4 Golden Joysticks, considered “gaming of the artist, the better the final result"
industry Oscars”, awarded to the Witcher for, – argues Konrad Tomaszkiewicz.
among others, the Best Visual Design, Best
Storytelling and Best Gaming Moment. "When developing the game we were using
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was also awarded Autodesk 3ds Max, which allowed us to create
the Golden Joystick as “Ultimate Game of models of characters and location objects
the Year”, and its developer CD PROJEKT RED of fantastic quality. We were also using
also picked Studio of the Year. Within two the MotionBuilder – it allowed us to develop
weeks of the game’s premiere 4 million copies top notch gaming animations and cutscenes"
of The Witcher 3 were sold and the costs - says Stan Just, Producer.
of development were recovered in full already
on the first day of sales.
Autodesk customer success story CD PROJEKT RED

In the Autodesk 3ds Max application we are creating skeletons of the characters
and pinup the character model onto the bone system

How do you create realistic From The Witcher 2 to the Wild

garments? Hunt Our tooling is evolving with our
Autodesk 3ds Max software allows for quick The software tools used by game developers vision of the games and ideas how
creation, customisation, rendering and should be viewed as one of indispensable
elements of the complete production system,
they should be developed. A change
combined development of 3D models
and animations. The functions available in this without which the final effect – despite of concepts concerning the size
tool allowed the CD PROJEKT RED’s designers the idea, efforts and talent – would not be of the world and which of its areas
to create models, renderings and 3D possible. This is clearly visible when comparing may be explored has significantly
animations. Some of the most demanding the toolset used to produce the latest “Wild
influenced the development
graphic elements are the subtle details forcing Hunt” with the one used in the previous release
the authors to focus on minute items – The Witcher 2. of technologies we have used when
the seasoned game player is able to observe "Our tooling is evolving with our vision
making The Witcher 3.
and appreciate the amount of work spent of the games and ideas how they should be
on their refinement. Such nuances include, developed. A change of concepts concerning — Krzysztof Krzyścin
for example, the outfits worn by the characters. Technical Art Director
the size of the world and which of its areas
"We commence the work on modelling may be explored has significantly influenced
an outfit with creating Mid-Poly model the development of technologies we have used
in Autodesk 3ds Max. It consists of building when making The Witcher 3" - says Krzysztof
the attire from simple solid blocks defining Krzyścin, Technical Art Director.
the silhouette. Sizeable elements made The biggest changes were in the scale and
of fabric, such as shirts, dresses or trousers ways in which the terrain is created, displayed
are created in simplified form. All elements and managed. In the second part of the game
made from rigid materials, such as armours, the players could move around hundreds
buckles, belts, bags, are modelled down of square meters. In the “Wild Hunt” individual
to the smallest detail. A model created levels include tens of thousands of square
in this way then goes into ZBrush, where it kilometres. To create them the artists are using
is sculpted until we get a ready high polygon generators that can simulate mountain
mesh. It then goes back to the Autodesk 3ds formation, sedimentation of deposits
Max application where we create the low or automatic overpainting of areas Graphics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone
polygon mesh and do the UV mapping" made by CD Projekt RED
that should be covered in snow. An additional
- says Paweł Mielniczuk, Character Art Director. “playable level”, unavailable in previous parts
The role of modelling tools is also clearly of the game, is water – not only its surface,
noticeable when creating the characters. when we are travelling in a boat, but also
when we are exploring the underwater world.
"In the Autodesk 3ds Max application we are
creating skeletons of the characters and pinup "Such a huge world requires tremendous
the character model onto the bone system number of objects – not only props, but also
in a process called weighting. We have saved characters, animals and plants. To populate
plenty of time with task automation using it (while controlling the memory management
the MAXScript scripts" - adds Paweł Mielniczuk. of the device the game is running on) we had
to develop an entirely new loading mechanism
and optimise many other components.
The new plants management system Graphics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone
had to cope with huge volumes of data, made by CD Projekt RED
a best example of it are the trees – numbering
hundreds of thousands, many times more
than in The Witcher 2! We have achieved more
realism using the new renderer and physically
based rendering. Every surface in the game,
whether it is metal, wood or skin texture,
reflects the actual properties of the real objects.
In addition, the artists can add multitude
of details (e.g. a specific thread weaving
Graphics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone pattern in a fabric, visible only with huge
made by CD Projekt RED zoom in) making the game look even more
like the real world" - adds Krzysztof Krzyścin.
Graphics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt made by CD Projekt
RED
Autodesk customer success story CD PROJEKT RED

In difference to The Witcher 2, now we are using a much bigger number of our
own plug-ins and scripts

The Witcher climate in animatics plug-ins (working with motion capture

Besides creation of the characters the player material, animation of characters and faces, Now we are able to display
can control, the backgrounds, other heroes Story mode editing, cleaning)" - says Jakub Ben, a bigger number of more
and objects, an important role, building Cinematic Artist.
detailed characters, operate
the narration climate in the game is played by The movie sequences in this part of the game
in-game cinematics. with higher number of bones,
are much more advanced than in previous
"When working on the new Witcher we have parts, mainly due to higher rendering
use advanced physics and
produced around 250 video sequences totalling capabilities. achieve higher realism using
around 150 minutes (from several seconds "Now we are able to display a bigger number new shaders and other
to over a minute per sequence). What’s more, of more detailed characters, operate with technology solutions.
they were fully localised into 7 languages. higher number of bones, use advanced physics
Autodesk MotionBuilder 3D is our basic tool and achieve higher realism using new shaders — Jakub Ben
in the Cinematics department, while Story Tool and other technology solutions. In difference Cinematic Artist
allows convenient creation of complicated to The Witcher 2, now we are using
movie sequences. And it is the very tool we use a much bigger number of our own plug-ins
at the preproduction stage to create ‘animatics’ and work-accelerating scripts, allowing us,
and then the final in-game movies. All movie for example, to have a live preview
sequences were produced using the Autodesk of the game in the editor" - adds Jakub Ben.
MotionBuilder 3D program supported with our

Graphics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt made by CD Projekt

RED

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