Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019 Posted by Jim Thacker

Discover how Borderlands 3’s unique art style was created


With its pioneering, not-quite-cel-shaded, animated-comic-book art style, Gearbox Software’s Borderlands series of looter shooters has one of the most distinctive visual styles of any games franchise.

And next month, visitors to Gnomon’s Hollywood campus will have a unique opportunity to see how that art style is created, at The Art of Borderlands 3: An Evening with Gearbox Software.

The free presentation, which features four of Gearbox Software’s key VFX and technical artists, will also be broadcast on Gnomon’s Twitch channel: you can watch it via the player embedded above.

Discover how Borderlands 3’s real-time visual effects pipeline works
Although it was orginally very much a last-minute choice, Borderlands’ distinctive art style quickly became one of the defining features of the franchise.

During the Gnomon presentation, Gearbox Software will explore how that style has evolved over the past decade, culiminating in the release of Borderlands 3 last month.

The session will also provide a breakdown of the game’s entire real-time visual effects pipeline, revealing how assets like the guns, the Echo Device, the Guardian enemies and destructible cover are created.

The panel, which includes Gearbox Software VFX director Nicholas Wilson, VFX artists Samantha Spray and Seung Kim and technical artist Caitlyn Trout, will also discuss the technical challenges presented by moving to the current generation of consoles and a new version of Unreal Engine.

Free to attend, but register online in advance
The Art of Borderlands 3: An Evening with Gearbox Software takes place at Gnomon’s Hollywood campus from 7:30-10:00pm PDT on Thursday 14 November 2019. Entry is free, but you’ll need to register online first.

If you can’t make it in person, the event will also be broadcast free on Gnomon’s Twitch channel. You can ask questions via Twitch chat.

Read more about the The Art of Borderlands 3 event on Gnomon’s website


Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.