Waching daily Nov 1 2017

Greetings earthlings!

Welcome to the MadQueenShow, I am your host, the MadQueen

On today's menu, we're going to dissect the art of Horizon Zero Dawn

First of all, I'd like to thank Jan-Bart van Beek, art director at Guerrilla Studios,

for his invaluable help in doing this video, who gave a deep insight of the complexities

of the art of this beautiful game, so most of what I'm going to say here are his own

words, invaluable to understand the depth and complexity of this amazing universe

And also a warning: this video contains spoilers of the main plot of the game, so if you didn't

play it we strongly suggest that you enjoy Horizon Zero Dawn first and then come back

to learn how the game was designed

Horizon Zero Dawn is a post-apocalyptic dystopia but, instead of the wasteland we are used

to when we play these kind of settings, the future in Horizon Zero Dawn is bright, colorful,

and full of vegetation thanks to the tireless work of the terraforming robot-like animals

In this future, the world has been rebuilt after the apocalypse, but the cultural legacy

that the previous inhabitants of the earth left to the newcomers was lost, as the library Apollo was destroyed

Lacking the basic knowledge to rebuild a technological society similar to the one that was destroyed

by the Faro Plague, the new humans returned to a primitive stage where they gathered in tribes

To design the general settings of this world, three key points were the base: first was

to go one step beyond the post-apocalypse genre, this is not a world that is dead and

barren, this is a world of lush wilderness, as the Zero Dawn project was designed to bring

back life after it had gone completely and utterly extinct

Second: the world needed to reflect a lot of natural diversity, for this reason, the

design team created a map where you could find vast forests, snow-capped mountains,

rainforests, deserts and large lakes

This would create a much more compelling journey for Aloy and the player as they moved through the world

This way, they created something new to be discovered in each valley and in each tribal territory

Third: They wanted the world to be recognizable, with natural sites that the player would be

likely to know about, or have seen pictures of, this way the feeling of recognition would

ground the whole universe better and move it away from a purely fantastical world

This was a reward to the players, who started the game knowing nothing about the universe

and spent a lot of time on it trying to figure out where the game took place, as the sites were very recognizable

This sense of familiarity also gave a feeling of an authentic and relatable place

To start building the setting and set the basis of this world full of diversity, the

design team at Horizon Zero Dawn watched countless nature documentaries to learn about iconic

natural sites around the world, and no place on earth has so many, and so many different

ones than the American mid-west

Utah and Colorado have 9 national parks that range from iconic places such as Bryce or

Monument Valley to the Rocky Mountains and the Great Sand Dunes

Early during production they decided to travel to these sites with a small group from the

studio, and they came back blown away by the natural majesty of those places, so Colorado

and Utah became the setting for Aloy's adventures

To reinforce the feeling of a relatable place, we can see through the game very recognizable

locations, not only in the landscapes of this universe, but also emblematic buildings that

in the universe of the game were left behind by past civilization, like the Sports Authority

Field in Denver or the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado Springs

The modern architecture of these buildings, that seems almost futuristic for our times,

helped reinforce the feeling of a futuristic civilization being destroyed, especially for

non-American players that never saw these buildings before

The core value that based the whole ideation process of this universe, and mostly the tribes

that will live in this universe, is that everything must have a reason to be the way it is

The aesthetics of each part of this universe were based on a solid ground to help create a realistic

and believable setting inside a fantastic and futuristic story

To set these solid bases, the design team read a lot of literature about the rise and

fall of human civilization and talked with anthropology experts on how human culture develops

and the first pattern that emerged on all past civilizations on earth is that

everything revolves around the resources they have available

so when designing the tribes that were going to inhabit the lands of Horizon Zero Dawn

the first and foremost question was: what do they have around them?

Is there arable soil so they can grow food?

Are there animals to hunt and eat?

Are there trees around?

What is the climate like?

And this also would lead to another question of the specific Horizon Zero Dawn universe:

What kind of machines are around them?

The Nora is the main tribe of the game, as it's the tribe that Aloy belongs to

even though she's been an outcast all her life

and she doesn't feel attached to their customs and religion

They gather around the cradle facility of Project Zero Dawn, surrounded by high mountains

of continual snow, that isolate the Nora from any other tribe of the game, as trade would

be unusual; without this trade, the contact with outsiders would be also unusual and this

would shape their wary view of outlanders

This lack of trade also means that they need to be self-sufficient to survive, taking advantage

of the wild life that surrounds them with the limitations of their environment, as there

is very little farmland in the Rocky Mountains, so hunting and gathering would be their most

accessible source of food, and would also shape their mentality as a tribe, that values

hunters, and the bravery and skills needed to be a hunter that is useful to their community

This way of surviving as a tribe would also shape the culture of the Nora in a visual

way: the fur and leather obtained by hunting in combination with the cold climate give

an obvious result about the materials used in their clothing

And similar to this, their environment would also shape the style of their architecture,

as the abundance of trees around them makes wood a resource easy to obtain

To look for inspirations to create the visual design of the Nora, the design team of Guerrilla

put an eye on human cultures that had to survive similar conditions

All these tribes, even being so fall apart in time and space, showed a lot of similarities

as a culture due to the similarities on their environment, but also a lot of differences

that the art team of Guerrilla mixed with mastery to create the visual aspect of the Nora

To create a tribe that had details inspired in human tribes of the past that lived in

the same environments and at the same time had a whole new conceptual and visual development

with a solid base on the ground

The Carja settled high on the mesas of Monument

Valley, where they were relatively well protected from the machines

Access to fertile farmlands would allow the civilization to grow much faster than their

neighbors who were dependent on hunting

And the size of such a tribe would require a more complex economic, political and social system

With the help of anthropologists, the design team at Guerrilla Studios learned that access

to storable food would free up a part of society to diversify away from farming, and create

castes of soldiers, merchants, artists, religious and political leaders

Under this point of view, they studied various human cultures that would have similarities

to these environmental and societal factors

Living on the edge of both jungle and desert brought the design team to look at the Khmer

Empire in Cambodia and the hilltop cities of Al Hajjara in Jemen

But by far the main source of inspiration came from the hilltop forts of the Indian sub-continent

Jaisalmer Fort, built in the 12th century in the city of Jaisalmer in India

or the Mehrangarh Fort, built in the 15th century in Rajasthan, also India, where key inspirations

to create the architecture of the Carja city of Meridian: a city that shows an incredible

level of sophistication in terms of wood and sandstone carving; two resources that would

be readily available for the Carja Tribe

A rich agricultural culture like the Carja would also see more refinement in clothing

Fine cotton, access to dyes, craftsmen that can specialize in jewelry

These elements brought the design team to look at the cultures of the old Silk Road,

the ancient network of trade that was, for centuries, central to cultural interaction

and trade between the east and the west

A key inspiration to recreate this opulence of clothing was the Orientalism paintings,

that showed a romanticized vision of the opulence of the east under the view of western artists

The Carja are large enough as a society to have an institutionalized military and religious caste

A very common pattern among many human cultures in history is the reverence of powerful elements of nature

In real life, and as such also in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn, the sun is a very common

component in many worship systems

but of course, the world of Horizon also contains another 'force of nature':

the machines

So the Carja worship the two most powerful elements in their surroundings:

the sun, and the gigantic Stormbirds

These two elements are recurring patterns in all of the Carja culture

A lot of the architecture shows a stylized sun symbol

The king even wears it on his crown and chest, as they do as well the religious caste

The military caste pivots more towards the Stormbirds

The Kestrel armor of the Shadow Carja are directly inspired by the Stormbirds and show

beaks, claws and feather-like features

Sunfall is one of the three main cities of Horizon Zero Dawn

It is the capital of the Eclipse and the Shadow Carja

It was once the Mad King Jiran's summer place until his loyal followers claimed it as their capital

To create the city of Sunfall, the design team at Guerrilla Studios wanted something

that really felt like a no-frills military citadel, and to do so they put their eyes

in the Lal Quila, also known as the Agra Fort in India

This fort, built in the 16th Century shares many points in common with Sunfall: it was

the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, when the capital

was shifted from Agra to Dehli, becoming a military citadel after that

But even though Lal Quila was a strong inspiration, several changes were introduced to adapt it

to the style of Carja Architecture, very sharp and angular, but keeping the sloping walls of the forts

They also added large copper roofs to certain buildings to make it close to the architectural style of Meridian

Copper is one of the most common metals in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn, as it's

a key resource that the carcasses of machines provide

It's too soft to use as weapons but soft enough to be hammered and melted into shapes

without the need for advanced metallurgy

The Oseram's main cultural territory, the Claim, isn't within the map of Horizon ZeroDawn

We only see a couple of small settlements, Free Heap and Pitchcliff

The Oseram were one of the first tribes to explore the ruins of the ancient world and

discovered many industrial techniques that helped them survive

Of all the tribes Aloy encounters they are the only ones that can work with iron and steel

They're also the ones that can create complex weaponry from machines parts

Iron is so important in their culture that it's everywhere

Meanwhile, their sophistication in woodwork and masonry is far less than those of Carja craftsmen

But the Oseram build things to last; rough-hewn stone, heavy wooden beams, curved walls for

structural integrity and loads of iron reinforcements

The Oseram culture didn't have a direct real-world inspiration like the Carjas or

the Noras had, their visual interpretation in terms of architecture and clothing was

more based on the study of the relation between this culture and their environment

although as a culture they were partially inspired in the Cossacks: a group of East Eslavic-Speaking

people who became known as members of a democratic, self-governing, semi-military communities

Bandits are parasites, feeding off the endeavors of fellow survivors

They have no honor, but they do not entirely lack intelligence

rather than produce anything themselves, they raid villages and encampments,

looting or sometimes claiming abandoned habitats entirely

Bandit sites comprise of improvised awnings and tents from numerous regions, some of which

were grandiose but soon degraded

Bandit style, in terms of concept, intends to be ugly and dirty

The bandits aren't really a tribe

They are groups of outcast criminals that have banded together for survival, and their

origins are diverse, that's why their clothing is made up of items and garbs from all different

tribes, although the majority comes from the Carja

They transform everything into an irregular mishmash of incongruous of material and form:

they don't create; they repurpose what they can find

The Banuk are a nomadic tribe, native to the mountains north of the Sacred Lands

The Banuk have lived up in the mountains for a long time, trying to live in harmony with

the machines that roam the world

Made up of fearless hunters and mysterious shamans, they are constantly trying to prove

their worth against increasingly stacked odds, and favor this over engaging with other tribes

The design of the Banuk tribe again started with their surroundings

Living in the northern part of the map, they are very reliant on hunting as their main source of food

No food will grow in the snow, and there isn't much to gather

Like other cultures that have had to survive in such harsh conditions, they are nomadic

and travel to follow the migrating herds of machines and animals

They have the most intimate relationship with the natural world around them

Misjudging the landscape, its inhabitants, or its weather can be fatal

To create the culture of the Banuk, the design team studied various cultures that lived in similar situations

The final look is inspired by elements from all of these cultures

The Eclipse was founded by Sylens in order to use Shadow Carja followers to serve HADES' own ends

The Shadow Carja were chosen to form the Eclipse due to them being easily manipulated through

religion and nationalism following their defeat in the Carja civil war and were made into

believing HADES was the "Buried Shadow" god from Carja mythology

The Eclipse is a death cult, which is heavily inspired by Hades, the ancient Greek god of the Underworld

Hades is a sub function of the terraforming system which core function is to be a reset

button, a button that would destroy all life on earth to start anew building a new world

Hades was the delete function if GAIA needed that

The Zero Dawn team even gave it the "reset button" icon as Hades logo, a recognizable

symbol of our everyday life, that became something special in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn:

the power logo is simple and recognizable, it can be interpreted as a symbol of electronic

resurrection, and thus associated with power over the machines or, ultimately, the power

over life and death

The Eclipse worship Hades and the old war machines, we can see how they wear the "reset"

symbol of Hades with pride, as well as their armor made of ancient bullet shells, both

symbols of death

Much of their clothing and weaponry are the tools and gear you need for mining and digging,

which is all intended to raise as many old war machines as possible

The first machines were created by Faro Automated Solutions as domestic servants

the Focus, and @lfred

However, Faro soon began developing machines built for combat, two of which were the Scarab,

known in game as the Corruptor, and Khopesh, known in the game as the Deathbringer

heavily-armed robots that could supplant entire armies, convert biomass into fuel, and replicate themselves

allowing them to operate indefinitely, thanks to the gargantuan automated field manufacturers

of Chariot robots and massive siege units known as Horus, or the Metal Devil

an end-all destructive machine designed to destroy fortifications

The Horus, Scarab and Khopesh war machines share a lot of visual themes

They're all based on arthropods, so spiders, scorpions, and crustaceans were the key inspiration

to build these machines

The art team at Guerrilla wanted to ensure that the ancient machines

had a distinctly different look and feel to the terraforming GAIA machines

So while GAIA's inspiration for the terraforming machines was very much based

on megafauna of the world and was in some ways a monument

to all the biodiversity that the Earth had lost in the past and could never be brought back

The Faro plague machines are machines of war and were designed by Faro to make people feel uneasy

Cauldrons are underground facilities where machines are built

Project Zero Dawn envisioned a series of underground facilities to rebuild the lifeless Earth

these facilities would be controlled by Gaia while the sub-function Haephestus would oversee

construction of Cauldrons where specialized robots would be designed and constructed for

use in terraforming

To design the cauldrons, the art team at Guerrilla Studios looked for the most logical building

structure to use, as they would be built by an Artificial Intelligence

and as the triangle and the tetrahedron are some of the strongest construction shapes in nature, that were the

shapes that were primarily used when designing them

The intent of the Cauldron was to give you the impression of being inside a fully artificial

and alien life form and the triangular shapes helped to get that across

Also, the triangle shape is a subtle pattern that comes back over and over in the game

and it ties many things together with a common visual motive, such as the focus

the cauldrons

the cradle facilities

and Faro Industries

The terraforming Machines are the technologically advanced, mechanized creatures

that are the dominant species of the land,

created by GAIA, the terraforming Artificial Intelligence, to rebuild the life on Earth

She created many different machines modeled off of forming animal life

to purify the Earth's toxic atmosphere and biosphere

Just like animals, the machines are sentient creatures with their own ecosystem

No single machine type can function outside of this system; each type has its own role

to fulfill, and it needs the other types to survive

To reflect this naturalistic approach, Guerrilla tried to have as many machines work and relate

together as possible

The artists were quick to adopt highly optimized shapes and forms for the machines, to suggest

different roles and functions for each type

Other aspects of the machine looks took longer to crystallize, as a delicate balance needed

to be struck between organic shapes and advanced mechanical elements

For the machines designs, any real life animal, past or present, could be used as a reference

They weren't bound by the actual scale of creatures; small designs could be adapted into bigger versions

Animals were chosen based on requirements from the design and experimentation in what would fit

If you want to know more about the amazing art of this incredible video game, you will

find the book The Art of Horizon Zero Dawn, where you will find detailed sketches and

gorgeous concept artworks as well as an insight from the artists and creators

You'll find a link in the description to get in on Amazon

Well folks, thanks for watching, I hope you found this information useful and amusing

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See you in next videos and stay being amazing