In an attempt to give all our readers the best insight into Black Prophecy possible, we have been talking to the various third party companies that Reakktor have outsourced work on the game too. We previously had an interview with Dynamedion, who worked on the impressive orchestral music for the game. This time we have been talking to Rocketbox Studios, who do 3D art for games as well as selling pre-created libraries for game development.

As such, we asked them to tell us about what art they created for Black Prophecy as well as the process involved in doing so. Our contact at Rocketbox was Markus Wojcik, the company's CEO. Here is what he had to say:

TPN: On your website you state that you created 165 spaceship modules, 70 weapons, 5 space stations module systems, 5 level locations, 27 character models. Can expand in a bit more detail on those assets for the game?

Rocketbox: These assets were created with the requirement that although they have to look good from a far away distance, they also have to have very much interesting detail when the player comes very close to them. We worked out a very good approach to technically achieve this with creating the bigger assets from a modular system. The space stations for example are extremely huge objects. In other space games, objects of this size often lose detail when you come closer and textures become blurry. In Black Prophecy you will see a very high texture resolution even at the closest distance possible.

TPN: What tools are used in the process of creating an asset and what path does this process take?

Rocketbox: Our main software tools are 3ds Max for the 3d models and Photoshop for textures. Additionally lots of tools and plug-ins are used, too many to list here I guess. The path the process takes often differs for the various types of assets: for example the very organic Genides character models require different techniques for creation than the technical ships or weapons of the Tyi.

TPN: What steps are involved in the process of creating an asset and how long does this take?

Rocketbox: For most assets the first step is the concept art. It is followed by the creation of the 3d mesh and its uv mapping. And last but not least the texturing which again has several steps like color maps, dirt layers, normal maps, specular maps etc. How long this takes is different for every single asset of course – it varies very much depending on its size and complexity.

TPN: In making say, an individual ship module, how many people are involved? Do you use separate 2d and 3d artist or is one designer responsible for the whole asset?

Rocketbox: In the case of one single ship module mainly three people: concept artist, 3d modeler and texture artist. But of course additional people are involved giving these artists feedback and suggestions for improvement along the way.

TPN: Did you take any inspiration from other media (games, films, TV, comics) when creating the designs? Some of our staff have remarked on a degree of similarity to Homeworld.

Rocketbox: As a matter of course we paid much more attention to movies or games that had a setting or style comparable to Black Prophecy while we were working on it. The graphics was created with a very independent style in mind, but it should still have a authentic and believable look for the player later on. We did not let us influence by any concrete existing project, but with so many visuals that players have around them, it is impossible not to be compared to other games or films.

TPN: Has Reakktor given you concept art for you to work from, or do you as a company have more free will in the design?

Rocketbox: Yes, for most of the assets Reakktor prepared concept arts for us. But we still had enough freedom to modify designs if we had additional ideas or suggestions. Also the concept art often does not cover every detail of the asset - and after the first months of cooperation we already knew very well what to deliver, even from concepts that were rather roughly outlined.

TPN: Does creating modular components that can be fitted together in any method of the players’ choosing create an additional challenge over normal vehicle/structure design?

Rocketbox: Yes, it is definitely more challenging. The hardest thing was to remember that the single module will only be a small fraction of the whole ship or structure. In the beginning we tended to put too many tiny little details into the single modules textures, because the artist "fell in love" with this one module he was working on. However if you put many of these too-detailed modules together to bigger structures, the whole thing can quickly look overloaded. So you have to go back create some more quiet areas to give the viewer's eye some rest.

TPN: Approximatley how many polygons would a complete fighter consist of? What texture resolutions are typical and how many additional layers of detail (eg normal maps, bump maps) are there?

Rocketbox: Round about 1000 polys for the average fighter module, which means that a complete fighter consists of approximately 15-20000 polys. The average texture resolution for one single fighter module is 1024x1024 pixels and we used color, normal, specular and glow maps.

TPN: Do you feel proud reading comments across the gaming media about how good Black Prophecy looks?

Rocketbox: Of course we do. We have worked longer on this project than on any other game we did graphics for – so it is very satisfying to see that people like the visuals. Reakktor also did a wonderful job on the graphics: I love how they set the stage for all assets in the game.

TPN: What was your favourite piece of work done for Black Prophecy?

Rocketbox: Personally I like the faction 1 fighter planes with their classic and heavy style the most (Ed's note: "Faction 1"" is presumably Tyi from the description)

TPN: Will any of the Rocketbox staff be playing Black Prophecy?

Rocketbox: Yes, of course. Actually we already had the chance to play it at the Reakktor office. And I can tell you that the gameplay trailer does not promise too much :)

TPN: Were you surprised when asked to produced character models for a spaceship game?

Rocketbox: Surprised in a positive way – we were very happy about that decision. Although the ships and stations are a central part of the game, I think that actually seeing the characters that you are playing with is great for the players, because they get a more complete image of the whole Black Prophecy universe.

TPN: Thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions. Any last thoughts you'd like to add?

Rocketbox: My pleasure! I would just like to say that you do a great job at the Prophecy Network. I personally visit the site often to check out which new interviews or previews are released all over the internet. Keep it up please :)

Rocketbox and Reakktor also kindly agreed to provide us with some exclusive renders of a Tyi fighter both untextured and in the fully textured form with a background. (Note: shrunk down, click for full size).

When you have viewed the images, please feel free to leave a comment in our forums.