72   ◾    An Architectural Approach to Level Design

Perspectives are most often used for concept art, as they are the least
useful for actual spatial planning but most useful to develop the visual
art of a level. They can either be drawn manually or generated through
3D underlays. Three-dimensional underlaying is when an artist creates a
simple version of his or her concept art scene in a 3D art program, then
paints on top of it using a digital art program like Photoshop. Such under-
lays are helpful for creating many versions of the same scene to develop a
game’s final art style (Figure 2.25).
Now that you know a few different drawing techniques and the types of
drawings used to understand spatial design, we will show how these tech-
niques can be applied in order to better understand and plan game levels.

FIGURE 2.25  This perspective sketch of a building was painted over a simple
3D rendering. Such underlays can be used to create multiple looks for the same
model.