Fortnite maker Epic Games has offered a rare glimpse behind the scenes at how it designs new character skins and in-game locations — and shown how certain stages involve the use of generative AI tools.
In a video published to the Unreal Engine YouTube channel, Epic Games shows how a new Fortnite character is designed and iterated on by hand before being modified using an AI prompt to look more like a 3D model.
The video makes a clear distinction between the ideation stage and later changes made by AI generation — and all of this still in the concept art stage, before any asset is recreated in-game. But the footage also shows how AI generation will create unwanted additions or errors, which then must be identified and corrected in a further design pass by the (human) artist.
“The design is king, AI can generate generic stuff all day, but that’s not what we’re doing here,” an Epic Games staff member says. “It just skips ahead in the timeline so [the artist] can focus on honing in on the design and crafting it exactly how he wants it to be.”
The video’s publication follows repeated questions from Fortnite fans over potential AI use for certain in-game assets — such as a poster showing a nine-toed character in a hammock — that the company has previously kept quiet over answering.
While the video makes clear that AI isn’t used for designing characters from the ground up, it also makes clear that generative AI use is now a part of the company’s workflow — and opens up the possibility that mistakes could still get missed within subsequent human checks.
When designing concept art for in-game locations, it’s a similar process. Sketches are drawn by hand in Photoshop, then recreated in 3D via the commonly-used 3D modelling tool Blender. Images from here are then adapted within Photoshop using AI prompts to explore alternative takes, such as day or night versions of the same scene, or to add destruction from a meteor strike.
“At every stage of the design, artists continue to polish and refine, but now teams can revise faster, so artists have more oppurtunities to explore,” Epic says.
“All along the way there are continual reviews, before anything makes it into our games, and artists are careful to respect originality, track providence of their work, and ensure the finished product meets Epic’s high quality standards.”
Epic Games is no stranger to AI technology, of course, having previously used generative speech technology to reproduce James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader portrayal. But despite having the rights and approval of Disney, the character’s inclusion proved controversial, especially as players quickly began making Vader say things more aligned with the dark side of the Force.
Last year, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney suggested that Valve should ditch Steam’s AI Generated Content Disclosure label for games, as he believes AI use will become so ubiquitous it will make any warning redundant. “Why stop at AI use?” Sweeney wrote on social media. “We could have mandatory disclosures for what shampoo brand the developer uses. Customers deserve to know lol.
“It doesn’t matter any more,” he continued. “The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation. It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social