3D artists have to create environments and worlds largely from their own imagination. In Forza Motorsport 5, designers had to piece together elements from the real world and their own fiction in order to place a race track right in the heart of Prague.

In this GDC 2015 session, Microsoft Studios' Arthur Shek discusses the technologies behind gathering reference data for Forza Motorsport 5, explaining how the method can be used to create more assets at a lower cost.

The talk goes over best practices for taking environment references, where Shek explains reference planning as the process of documenting everything about a space so that environment artists can create those results in 3D. He goes on to highlight how this gathering technique became the foundation for creating content quickly and efficiently.

Artists interested in utilizing the same techniques in their own work can now watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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