The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves™

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Forum: CG News
Posted By: DanielWade
Post Time: 03-12-2010 at 01:54 AM
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The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
I don't think we could be more excited to announce our newest book in our newest series. The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves is the first book in our Art of the Game series, and what a way to start the series. The overwhelming choice for Game of the Year from 33 different outlets, Naughty Dog's instant classic on the PlayStation® 3 has set a new standard for games in visuals, story, performance and action.

Working directly with the Naughty Dog creative team to sift through the mountain of art used to create UNCHARTED 2, The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves provides an amazing snapshot of the creation of the game. The book is Ballistic Publishing’s biggest book at 272 pages and reveals hundreds of pieces of unseen art not available outside of the Naughty Dog team.

The book starts with the concept art for both characters and environments, showing all of the main characters and levels in over 200 pages. Moving beyond a standard concept art book, we also feature the work of the character modeling team, the production art team, the motion-capture and cinematics team, and finally the effects team. Combined, all these chapters show how the entire team contribute to the final game.


See the whole book
The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves can be viewed in its entirety using the Ballistic Book Previewer.




Exclusive concept art video walkthrough offer
The first 300 customers to pre-order The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves softcover edition, and all Special and Limited Folio Edition customers will receive a free 15-minute walkthrough video of three concept pieces from UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. The video shows pieces by Naughty Dog Art Director Robh Ruppel and Concept Artist Andrew Kim. Pre-order your copy now to receive the walkthrough video.



Three great editions
The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves is available in three editions. The softcover edition is available to pre-order today at USD65. The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Special Edition features a suede leather-bound cover, with gold-embossed title and Nathan Drake tip-on artwork and is available to pre-order at USD129. Finally, for true art book lovers, a strictly limited book is available to the first 200 customers. The numbered Limited Folio Edition, features a black suede leather-bound cover, with gold-embossed cover art, and a matching hand-crafted presentation case with a ribbon to easily remove or place the Folio Edition. Completing this unique edition is an individually-numbered and hand-signed certificate by Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells, Creative Director Amy Hennig, and Art Directors Robh Ruppel and Erick Pangilinan. The Limited Folio Edition also includes specially-produced endpaper artwork featuring production environments and is available at USD300. Reserve your numbered copy.


What Naughty Dog says about The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves

I couldn’t be happier with the way The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves turned out. It’s a perfect way to capture forever the amazing work that the Naughty Dog artists and programmers put into UNCHARTED 2.
Naughty Dog Co-President, Evan Wells

We’re all extremely proud of the hard work that went into this unprecedented game. This book is a rare behind-the-scenes look into the type of artwork it takes to produce a truly groundbreaking, award-winning experience. Leave it to Ballistic Publishing to have the vision and foresight to publish such an amazing look into the process.
Naughty Dog Art Director, Robh Ruppel

The unedited screenshots selected in this book are from camera angles you will never see while playing the game, which gives the viewer a new appreciation for the level of detail and care that went into making UNCHARTED 2. This is the first time I can proudly put a screenshot of an in-game environment next to our concept art and say "we’ve accomplished the vision".
Naughty Dog Art Director, Erick Pangilinan


The Art of the Game series
The Art of the Game series takes you into the world of game art development with the year’s biggest game releases. Each book in the series will speak directly with the creative teams who conceive and create the games that are pushing the visual and technical limits. Each Art of the Game book will delve into the process of character and environment concepts with comprehensive galleries of level art, and then show how those concepts are turned into game art along with character models, cinematics and effects. In addition to the hundred-plus pages of concept art, the Art of the Game series will share insights from the game’s creators making the series an invaluable learning tool for aspiring game artists. We have some amazing new titles on the way, so keep an eye on the Ballistic Publishing website.


Working with Naughty Dog has been a rare privilege, and I'd like to thank everyone on the creative team for their enormous help on the book, as well as the great team at Sony Computer Entertainment America. We're confident that we've produced the best game art book out there, and we're looking forward to everyone's feedback on the new series.

Enjoy!

Daniel

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