Deciphering History
A Conversation on the Details and Design of Grand Voyage
Sometimes it might be difficult to remember that we didn’t always know how the ships of Grand Voyage looked in reality. It’s taken a monumental effort on the part of our team to find, interpret, and analyze any and all existing historical references to these ships and recreate them virtually - and so much of it comes down to the tiny details. Grand Voyage’s Texture and Art dream team, made up of Historical Advisor Robin and Texture Artist Sylvie, are mainly responsible for the exquisite carpets, stained glass, paneling, and upholstery you will find in the ship’s interior spaces. We sat down and chatted with both Robin and Sylvie to find out a little more about how they bring these striking details to life, and some of the challenges they faced along the way.
Thanks for taking the time to chat, you guys! You've both been pretty fundamental to the way GV's ships have taken shape, especially with regard to the interiors. Can you describe a little bit about your process and how the two of you work together?
Robin: Hey, thanks for being part of this interview! To create the interiors of these beautiful ocean liners, extensive research is needed when it comes to color and design choices. My main task is to research the specific vessels, especially in the sense of their interior designs. I analyze photos, brochures, paintings and color illustrations or builders notes to determine the colors and designs that come the closest to the specific sources. Sometimes there are many sources for one vessel and I have to collect all the information and evaluate which source makes the most sense. When there are only a few sources available I have to determine the colors and designs by looking at other known examples from different ships of the same era to get a pleasing result. When the main research is done, I send Sylvie any helpful references for the targeted object and guide her along the creation process.
Sylvie: Following Robin's guidance, I recreate the textures and surfaces of the interiors using a range of 2D and 3D tools. For the interiors, the texturing mostly consists of creating various types of woods, metals, fabrics, and stained glass designs. Many of the iconic stained glass designs and carpets featured are very unique, and have to be recreated from very old, blurry, black and white reference photos. My usual process begins with making 2D textures and designs from scratch, either drawing them by hand, or using procedural workflows. Along the way Robin advises me using his amazing expertise and extensive research to ensure the textures are as accurate as we can make them. I then ensure these textures fit the models and work as intended in engine, baking details, optimising, and fixing import issues.
That process sounds like it can involve some pretty in-depth coordination. I know for example you guys were able to work in tandem to recreate the intricate stained glass used for the backlit dome found in the Empress of Ireland's Music Room. Can you talk a little more about that process and how you two worked together to get the final result?
Robin: The stained glass dome was indeed a very tricky object to make, since no source gave us any real color specifications. I was able to find recovered parts of the stained glass, raised from the wreck of the Empress of Ireland, which gave us a little clue how the general tone of the glass looked like. With this little evidence and the study of the greyscale in black and white photos of the dome, Sylvie created the color pattern we can see in our recreation.
Sylvie: Once Robin provided me with the references he gathered, I started by breaking down the dome's design. Each section of the circular dome had the same mirrored design, which allowed me to focus on a smaller section and repeat the design across the dome. I first started by doing a sketch of the design, then refining this sketch into a complete linework. Next, with Robin's guidance, I worked on implementing a color scheme. Finally, all that was left to do was set up a stained glass material in-engine, bringing the design to life.
And the end result is nothing short of stunning! Can you guys go a little more in detail about how exactly you determine things like colors and textures when all you have for reference is grainy old photographs?
Robin: When we only have grainy old photographs and no other way to somehow gather the design, we try our best to analyze these grainy photos to see if we somehow can make something out. During our work, we encountered some of these photos and we had to go a bit back and forth sometimes to get a pleasing result. But so far everything worked out fine, which of course heavily depends on the information available for the specific ships. When it comes to colors it's a bit trickier, since we only have very few color photographs of interior spaces for ocean liners till the 1950s. In this case I put all written information into a spreadsheet (shown below) to have a general overview of every source we have. I then proceed to look how many double confirmations exist and if they somehow work with some of the illustrations. Sometimes you have the problem that the written sources and black and white photos contradict each other. For example, in almost all articles written about the Empress of Ireland’s 1st Class Dining Saloon, the authors mentioned that the wall is painted white, while in the photos you can see that the walls are too dark to be white. For colors we don't have any source we go for the best looking choice that matches the other colors of the rooms.
Sylvie: A tricky part of creating a lot of the texture designs was getting a detailed design out of some blurry, grainy photos. For example figuring out the design of the staircase dome, how it was all connected, symmetrical, and repeating designs was a challenge. All we had was a low detail illustration of the dome, from which I was able to make out the large scale designs and small details that made the design complete. It's a tricky process where I often had to use my best guess and try to interpret shapes in a way that made sense for the whole design.
That sounds like an overwhelming amount of work but we can see it clearly pays off. What would you say has been your biggest challenge you've faced so far when working on Grand Voyage?
Robin: This is a hard question! The biggest challenge so far was indeed to interpret grainy photos. Next to texture work I also help the modelers with research as it's essential for them to have good quality photos and plans to model specific areas on the ships. Reading and understanding plans can be quite tricky and creates its own kind of interesting challenge, but sometimes it gives us a fair bit of surprises too and helps us understand the design choices behind these ships.
Sylvie: There have been many challenges so far, such as making surfaces like silk and glass in Unreal Engine react to lighting accurately. For this we had to experiment with many different techniques and shader workflows. The pattern for the Music Room couches was also especially difficult; it was one of the first designs we needed to make, and our references were blurry and confusing. Coming up with a floral design from such low resolution photos, where we could just about make out basic shapes, was tricky to say the least.
It definitely isn't easy work, but you guys kill it every time! Last question - in the course of working on GV, what has been your most interesting discovery?
Robin: My favorite discovery I made is how the colors and the architecture play together in-engine. The moment when the rooms and the colors finally appear together after 100 years is just breathtaking and is my favorite part of Grand Voyage. Just to see the rooms and ships coming to life is the best feeling after the many hours of research, texture and modeling work.
Sylvie: Discovering just how many different types of woods, carpets, wallpapers the Empress of Ireland, and other ships of the time had. I can imagine the amount of time the original designers of these interior spaces spent on making lavish luxurious interiors, especially in the first class ship spaces. Recreating these beautiful spaces is truly incredible, and there's nothing quite like seeing them finally come to life.
GV has been such a memorable journey to bring to life and it's those kinds of surprises and discoveries along the way which make it so special to all of us. Thank you guys for all your hard work and for taking the time to chat! It's been a pleasure!
Keep your eyes peeled for more of Robin and Sylvie’s work as we continue to bring you even more updates in the future. For now, we’d love to hear from you! What details in Grand Voyage stick out to you the most? Is there anything you’d like to know more about? Sound off in the comments!
And until next time… Bon Voyage! :)
