In 1996 I directed seven artists at Mondo Media in creating some pre-rendered 3d environments for the Westwood Studios game Blade Runner.

Below is the first scene we created for Westwood Studios, and it helped secure a contract for more environments. I directed four other artists in creating this from scratch, using 3D Studio Release 4 (DOS) and Photoshop. I personally created the reflective street materials, the rain, and the volumetric mist below the streetlights.



Later in the project, as both our studios transitioned to the new Windows version of 3D Studio Max, we went through a somewhat painful conversion process. Most of the procedural textures did not translate but we ended up improving the volumetric and rain effects.



Each game environment was sixty frames of 640 x 480 animation, playing in a four-second loop at fifteen frames per second. In the game they played in the background while real-time 3D characters walked across them, appearing as if they were in the scene.