MOUSEOVER FOR WIREFRAME / RADIOSITY VIEW... WWII seems to have taken its toll on Call of Duty 3's cafe model.

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Bombed Out Cafe

The battle-ravaged cafe exterior and interior figures prominently in the second half of the spot. Call of Duty's signature continuous, first person camera meant that the cafe had to be built inside and out as one complete model. Levels of detail were worked out according to what actually appeared on camera and how clearly. Care was taken to be mindful of the overall complexity of the model, in that it needed to integrate into an already very complex scene. The final model weighed in at 253,000 polygons and uses more than 100 image maps collaged from reference photos and hand-painted in PhotoShop.

Building & Texturing

The Cafe model began as a leftover asset from Call of Duty 2. I built out and detailed the mesh, reconfiguring what was there alreadys and adding the previously nonexistent side wing, courtyard, and all of the interior elements. Work on the model was largely completed in two weeks. The trailer takes place at night and under battlefield lighting conditions, so many of the textures, particularly their bump maps and in some cases normal displacement, had to be exaggerated in order to read correctly on camera.

The Cafe model was modeled and textured using LightWave 9.