Behind the Scenes: Half-Life Illustration

I love to return to some of the games I played while growing up, as it always sparks some inspiration to create. This time I went quite down the memory lane while browsing my Steam library and found all the Half-Life games. It immediately transported my mind to Black Mesa or Ravenholm and I immediately wanted to capture it.

I had to decide what to create and since I never done a Half Life piece, it needed something basic and iconic at the same time. I explored some of the game screenshots here and there and it became apparent the first and original game is a way to go.

I remember the Half-Life 2 took the gameplay to a whole another level with its size, interactive world and narration, but it's the first one that introduces you to the world and the setting.
 

Visit the full Pinboard here

I created a Pinterest boar to help me save all the ideas and keep them at hand. I searched for the first game's screenshots both on Google images and on Pinterest to make sure I don't miss anything. I wasn't focusing on any particular scene, I was still looking for inspiration. After a while it was obvious I will go with a scene similar to starting location in Black Mesa. One screenshot in particular basically caught the whole experience as I remember it. Checkerboard floors, red accents and crowbar in hand, facing a head crab (or a head crabbed scientist :) )

After that, I thought it would be great to include Gordon, the main character, as well. At first, I thought it would be too time-consuming, but after seeing the screenshots in the old graphics, I decided to do the diorama in low-poly. That meant, I can use some of my low poly character base meshes and quickly create Mr. Freeman.

After that, I added some more references to my board, focusing on different Gordon depictions, as well as some more environment shots, this time with focus on interiors.

When sketching, I took inspiration from the main screenshot and quickly drew a room with checker floor and large door and started to sketch in some details from other reference shots. For this, I use PureRef software, that helps me to further organize the Pinterest board, shuffle the images and crop them to create details palette. So when sketching, I can just quickly glance at the board and use whatever detail catches my interest, such as different crates, furniture, barrels, etc.

After few attempts and re-draws, I had pretty solid foundations and sketched in some more things, like the computer desk with equipment and character too. I saw a bit of empty space on the crate and thought it would be cool to place a sneaky head crab there. 

The rest of this process is adjusting the sketch, working with proportions and details to make sure the scene is readable and balanced. Of course, doing this on iPad helps a ton, because its really easy to move parts of the sketch around and resize, before jumping into 3D production.

You can watch the process video on Youtube.