A skybox is the background of any tileset. What sits above and in the distance that fleshes out the world and makes everything feel immersive. Sometimes it's a simple night sky or asteroid belt in space, and other times it can be a series of buildings or structures that make you feel a part of something greater.

A new tileset is a chance for everyone to push Warframe's stylistic design to the limit by taking established, iconic features that are already in-game and applying them to something wildly new. The Underwater Sealab is no different. While the interior features a distinctly Grineer look, the toxic liquid that surrounds Tyl Regor's laboratories is its own unique world.

More specifically, capturing the unique look of two 'worlds': the surface and what lurks below.

While the Grineer are best known for using environments to their advantage, most of those designed so far have been fairly straightforward. With the Sealab our artists not only worried about creating Grineer architecture but also about designing the terrain it sits on. These sketches represent a few ways the Grineer could also build around Uranus' 'coral', whether using it for protection or as a brace to hold up heavy structures.

These early concepts give us an even better idea of what such facilities would look like -- bulbous and apart from the environment, but clearly reliant upon the natural landscape for stability. Once the Art Director is satisfied with the look it's up to our various artists to begin to painstaking task of piecing it all together. Our Skybox artists have their own unique challenge.

Creating textures that look real but don't consume excessive resources is only one major hurdle. This test page gives a better idea of the practice and experimentation that goes into creating the various shapes that coral can take. Above the water we can see how these shapes contrast well against a haze of smoke or how they look supporting a structure.

Depth, size and shape are all pretty easy to discern. These test images play around with the desolation that such formations would have on the ocean's surface. It helps give the artist an idea of what smaller formations can give a sense of scale, in addition to playing around with effects like fog, reflection and lighting.

But diving under the surface we're faced with a new set of problems…

Color became a major tool in helping make the undersea portions of the tileset feel deep and inhospitable. Yellow-greens against blues help create the uncomfortable feeling of liquids falling off into the distance. Combined with the distortion effect that liquids have on objects at a distance and you'll begin to see the challenges faced by our artists.

By using light from the Grineer compounds and fog effects we can create the illusion of underwater distortion. It also gives us a chance to create some really impactful silhouettes on the terrain. The end result are two skyboxes that show very different worlds: one above the ocean, and one deep beneath the surface.

Keep in mind that both panoramic shots are works in progress, and the final release may contain alterations. We hope you enjoyed this special Skybox edition of Building Warframe. A preview of the Grineer Underwater Sealab is currently live with 16.5, and will release on Consoles in the next available build submission.