Hello, everyone. My name is Shirai, and I am a background designer here.
Time passes so quickly… To think it was three years ago that I joined the company… Whenever I think that, I get a bit impatient, and end up working hard every day to create even better things.

I was mainly tasked with background modeling during Bayonetta, and I would like to show a few of them to you in this blog.

Ithavoll Building (Exterior)

According to the background information, the building is incredibly tall, upwards of 3 km!
　
The Ithavoll Building is the symbol of Isla Del Sol. At the time I had just entered the company and was a complete rookie when they told me to model this, so I did feel some pressure, but I was also very happy.
　

This is what the model looks like.

This is what it looks like when textured.

And this is once the shadows are baked in.

At the spire of the building, there is a sphere that floats via a mysterious power. (Perhaps the person inside…)
　
Gjallarhorn Strategic Defense Initiative Building

During the game, these two buildings appear during the final fight with Jeanne.

These buildings have very distinctive sculptures on their front facades. I spent a good deal of time thinking about the feel of the kind of material these sculptures would be made out of.
　

Ultimately, I decided to go with someone very mechanical around the shoulders, and then with something more concrete like as you head downwards.
　

When the defense system is activated, the wings spread out like so. On the wings, written in our Angelic font, are the words: “Our fate rests on the wings of divine providence.”
　

Jeanne’s Last Stand
　
This building is the scene of Jeanne’s last stand…! When I was asked to create this, I proceeded with production with the goal of really wanting to make the building stand out.

The bottom part of the water fountain is broken glass, which allows it to glitter as if illuminated from below.

Water flows down off of the roof.

This is the finished product. Kamiya-san wanted things to pop, so he asked that the small items placed in the area could be destroyed, so I made sure that the water fountain and parts of both sides of the roof could be broken apart.

This is how we went about creating the backgrounds in Bayonetta, in small teams of 3-4 people per stage. Once you put all of these elements into one stage, this is what you end up with.

After this stage, the Effects designers will add special effects, and then I will consult with a programmer to get the stage implemented. Then final tweaks will be made.

I hope you all enjoyed Bayonetta! If you are interested in the game, but haven’t picked it up yet, I assure you that it is really fun, so definitely give it a try!