FIFA Online 4 is the latest free-to-play online football game based on EA Sports FIFA IP.
The game was announced on 2 November 2017 and released on 17 May 2018 in South Korea.
And it was released in various Southeast Asia countries before the FIFA World Cup on 14 June.
FIFA Online 4 features 33+ fully licensed leagues, comprising over 600+ clubs with over 30,000+ players.
The game is based on Ignite Engine, an in-house game engine in EA Sports.
EA Korea Studio continues to develop new content and reflect real-world football.
I worked as a technical artist in FIFA Online 4
I was in charge of updating FIFA licensed art assets and solving the rendering, art pipeline issues.
Games massively update licensed assets in time for the new soccer league season once every first and second half of the year. In this time, not only the assets made in EA Korea Studio but also EA Vancouver Studio's art resources are applied to the game.
The art team of EA Korea Studio regularly discusses with the EA Vancouver Studio which assets need to FIFA Online 4. I was here to see if there are any technical issues with applying the assets and to manage the version control of it.
Updated FIFA licensed assets that I am in charge of it as follows.
Football player's modelings and portraits
Accessories (armband, ball, shoe, jersey, etc...),
Official stadiums with props.
Logo and trophy of football leagues or clubs.
Update & maintain head creation workflows
3D artists in EA Korea Studio create 3D face assets of famous players in Asia.
(It was especially the national football team members or South Korea, China, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Like the 2019 South Korea U20 national team on the left.)
FIFA Online 4's Head Creation Pipeline has several tools for modeling, texturing, rigging, and version control.
I solved the issues if the tool is not compatible. And I also updated the tool by compiling the improvements mentioned in the art team.
The tools included Maya plug-in, in-house version control SW, and independent Window application using Windows Forms and WPF.
Preparing new visual contents
There was a variety of demands for visual improvements in our team. For requirements, I analyzed the art asset creation process that EA Korea Studio did not make in the past. And I shared the results by judging whether the process can be worked at EA Korea Studio.
Some of the content analyzed is shown below.
Animation process using new rig hierarchy.
VFX in Ignite Engine.
(Validate to custom Confetti, Firework)Stadium creation focuses on light bake.