Game Art and Animation
Objective 1:
Demonstrate and communicate aesthetic skills and choices based on traditional art theory, current game development practices and next-generation research
Skull and Lillies
Made over the course of 2 days, in 6-hour sessions, this painting was meant to encapsulate color theory and negative space to show how some pixels that look discolored at face value bring an entire image together.
This was my way of bringing my specialty (pixel art) to real life, and demonstrates the lessons I learned about color balance at close and far range.
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Platform: Real life
The very final, now varnished version of the 32x32 Skull and lily painting.
The very final, now varnished version of the 32x32 Skull and lily painting.
Micro Sea Angel
Inspired by my first painting of the skull, I decided to try at an even smaller scale, using a lot more negative space to create a small image of a sea angel, a tiny, shell-less sea snail.
This painting was my study of translucency in negative space, with the added challenge of an even smaller scale, demonstrating my ability to take what I learned one step further in a physical sense.
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Platform: Real life
The Ugly Gupling
This Painting is my rendition of a gup from the roguelike game Risk of Rain 2, making a very melancholic expression.
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This painting demonstrates my ability to not only capture organic form on canvas, but also study light reflection while also encapsulating in-game shaders with a cel-shaded style. The ugly gupling showcases my ability to combine a realistic and cel-shaded look in real life.
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Platform: real life
Value Practice
These are some sketches I did to practice form and lighting in standard graphite!
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These sketches demonstrate my artistic ability in real life by showing how I properly capture different forms on paper, showcasing my abilities in shading and still life
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Platform: Real Life
Perspective Practice
These are some sketches I did to practice perspective!
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These sketches demonstrate my artistic ability in real life by showing how I properly capture perspective in my drawings, showcasing my understanding of form within different pov contexts.
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Platform: Real Life
Objective 2:
Conceptualize and generate pre-production art assets through pre-visualization and prototypes usable for multiple game platforms
Solarpunk Adobe Pre-production
As my very first piece as an environment artist working in concepting, I needed to go back to studying function and form. Here, I chose to work on a perspective-based piece that concepts a futuristic style adobe-like home for the project Cliffside-K.O. This was eventually used to create a full-scale desert-futurism style house later on.
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This demonstrates my ability to create pre-production concept art based on a new concept and idea, for use in a 3D game.
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Platform: Photoshop
Solarpunk Desert Cliffside
Another concept piece I did for Cliffside-K.O. involved integrating my single-home ideas into a full-blown cliffside town that lies beneath and within a cliff face. This desert-futurism concept piece was another full practice in perspective and in transformative work, as I used a real-life location to make this piece.
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This demonstrates my ability to generate a pre-production piece for a 3D game based on the transformation of real-life locations
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Platform: Procreate
Isaac Owens
In what will eventually become a full cutscene, I detailed the last moments of Scientist Isaac Owens at the end of the world. This storyboard was a full 80 frames that were eventually redone in color and then put together into an animatic! This full process took several weeks and details my understanding of shot composition and storyboarding as a whole.
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This storyboard demonstrates my ability to create comprehensive pre-production storyboards for a Unity-based project and then produce a full animatic for the project.
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Animatic Here
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Slides Here​
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Platform: Photoshop and Premiere Pro
The Space Between
These concepts were made for the world outside of time in a place called the Space Between. These three concepts show my progression in the concepting for the environment itself, and how I slowly refined what I wanted the space to portray.
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These concepts demonstrate my ability to iterate on previously produced preproduction assets in order to make them more comprehensive for visualization.
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Platform: Photoshop
Goob World
This collection of concepts is all done for my character Goob! This future of Earth relies on the passing of humankind, only for other animals to take over, mainly being cats. As such, they’re slowly progressing and now hitting the industrial age of catkind, with tons of cat-themed architecture. This collection shows my progress in concepting Goob Himself, as well as the city he inhabits, and finally, his main mode of transportation: a water skater.
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These concepts demonstrate my ability to conceptualize and visualize an entire world for pre-production and use in a future setting.
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Slides: Here
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Platform: Procreate and Google Slides
The Thumper
Tasked with creating a prop for a futuristic society that works in tandem with Mother Nature, I devised the Thumper v2. The Thumper was an improved upon concept for an ore detector that is non-invasive to nature, and uses pistons with seismic waves to detect ores. This was a great practice in practicality while concepting for props with backstory and function.
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This concept really highlights my ability to conceptualize a prop for use in a 3D-game, as well as generate a backstory and use for better visualization.
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Platform: Photoshop
Objective 3:
Demonstrate a cross-section of baseline skills needed to create 2D and 3D art, textures and animation assets utilizing industry standard software tools.
Space Merchant
Space Merchant was a game developed in 2021 by a colleague and I. In this project, I made a few thousand different sprites for different actions, environments, bosses, and shops the player would encounter. These few represent the soul of the game and some of my best work from the project. Each stage of the game had to be iconic, and each sprite had to be vibrant and retro. This was the most I have undertaken in a project involving pixel art, and it was a very unique experience to commit to.
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This large-scale project demonstrates my ability to consistently create industry-level pixel art, animation, and assets, all for a long-term project.
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Platform: Unreal Engine 4​​​​​
VW Beetle
This Volkswagen Beetle was my third undertaking of a vehicle model, but this time made entirely in Blender. This vehicle underwent a very long process from start to finish, and was iterated over 7 times before its completion.
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This project demonstrates my ability to follow industry-standard pipelines in creating a high-quality 3D vehicle, including proper topology.
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Platform: 3Ds Max
Lurk
This is my very first character I made from start to finish by working only in Blender. Based on concepts I was given, Lurk is now fully complete and textured for in-game use, or even for posing in environments. I settled on a style inspired by Guilty Gear for the wireframing, and utilized a toon shader I made in Blender to get her style to be exactly what I wanted.
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This character demonstrates my ability to use an industry-standard process in creating a humanoid character. This also demonstrates my ability to style-match with industry-standard tools.
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Platform: Blender
Elemental Boss Rush
This was the third time I had made pixel art cards and backings for a medieval-themed board game, and it was the time I had finally perfected my pixel art for such a theme. When making these, I finally studied metal reflections, color composition in wood/metal, and finally worked in a much larger scale than I usually work.
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This project demonstrates my skills in creating high-quality industry-standard 2D art for use in a physical game using industry-standard tools.
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Platform: Aseprite
Space Cargo
This high-tech environment serves as one of my best examples of a modular environment. All assets were made in Maya before being put together and textured in Unreal Engine 5, using Adobe Substance Painter. I also created a parallax material to act as space when the player looks outside the window.
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This project showcases my ability to fully concept, model, and finally texture a scene and every object inside of it. Everything besides decals were created and textured from scratch.
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Video: Here
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Platforms: Maya, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine 5
Voxels!
​​One of my favorite mediums in which to create game assets is in voxels. This is a small collection of different voxelated assets, all with full color and standardized formatting.
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This collection demonstrates my ability to work within a voxelated medium and produce high-quality assets that may be used within future or current games using industry-level tools.
Platform: Magicavoxel
BOTW x Scandinavia
As a challenge, a team and I attempted to recreate Scandinavian assets but in the style of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The assets that I made were a cel-shaded shield and are for the character to wield.
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This collaborative project demonstrates my skills in both style-matching and conceptual design of a real-life item in-game using industry-standard tools
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Platform: Photoshop
Little Guy
From the challenge of “two perspectives”, I decided to add another: a limited color palette. Using these rules, I crafted this pixel art painting of the vessel from Hollow Knight, looking back at a kid gazing at the bugs in the grass.
This piece demonstrates my abilities in static pixel art, mainly using a limited palette and industry-standard practices and tools.
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Platform: Aseprite
Objective 4:
Demonstrate the ability to build industry-quality game assets specializing in specific 2D and/or 3D art and/or animations utilizing industry-standard software tools, pipelines and platform guidelines.
Ouroboros: Sun and Moon
This piece for a currently unannounced project is my very first animation I have ever done, but in my opinion, also my most iconic. This blender animation of two snakes representing the sun and moon circling until they create a black hole uses tracks to execute the movement and complete the cycle.
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This animation showcases my ability to create a stylized, looping 3D animation using a static camera.
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Animation: Here
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Platform: Blender
Fusion
This is my best full animation so far. Matching the theme of the challenge “fusion,” my first thought was nuclear fusion, and then of course nuclear fission. I decided to make a seamless loop of a plane dropping an atomic bomb on a city to the tune of fortunate son. This project required a lot of assets, shaders, and camera work, and was the best personal exercise of animation I had experienced.
This demonstrates my understanding of a proper pipeline in creating a short animation using industry-standard practices inside of Blender.​
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Speedbuild: Here
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Animation: Here
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Platform: Blender
Space Merchant
Made for my game Space Merchant from 2021, this animation serves as one of the best examples of my sprite animation work. This animation served as the very first asset to be created for the game, and the color palette was actually based on this animation.​
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This demonstrates my ability to create 2D animated sprites in pixel art with industry-level tools for a larger-scale project.
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Platform: Piskel Pixel art creator
Inifnity: The Ophanim
For the final boss of an unnamed project, I needed to come up with a being that was a cross between an Ophanim angel and the concept of the number Infinity. After days of thinking, I devised infinity herself.
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This project is a demonstration of my ability to create a fully animated non-humanoid figurine by following industry pipelines on a short-term basis.
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Animation and Speedbuild: Here
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Platform: Blender
Eve '96
Made for Christmas 2024, this animated lo-fi video aims to set people back 30 years to the days of the PS1 and Nintendo 64. This animation was made in Blender, with several animated parts such as the Christmas tree, fire, smoke, snowflakes, and northern lights, all working with some post-processing to deliver a stunning look.
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This project demonstrates my ability to create a full animation
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Speed Build: Here
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Full Animation: Here
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Platform: Blender
Objective 5:
Adapt, export, integrate, and optimize game art and animation assets (including shaders and lighting) into 2D and 3D game projects working within a production pipeline and the confines of a project’s game engine, tools and other constraints
Ground Up: The UE Starter kit
Ground-Up is my personal magnum opus of shaders and 2D integration in a 3D atmosphere and environment. This pack features a 1, 2, 4, and 8-tone cel shader, as well as different dithering, cloud, pixel, color, and color depth shaders. These all work in tandem to provide UE users with a starter pack to make 2D or highly stylized games.
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This project demonstrates my ability to create a market-ready pack of assets and shaders for use in industry-level situations and projects.
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Video: Here
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Page: Here
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Platform: Unreal Engine 5, Blender​
IO
IO has gone through the full development process of being concepted years ago to being fully animated into Ouroboros Protocol. This is his full journey and concept! IO was made and remade several times, each time a little more style-matched and optimized for the game that he is going to be in.
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IO's pipeline demonstrates my ability to iterate a character along an industry-standard pipeline to create an asset completely ready for programming and shipping. This also demonstrates my ability to adapt when the original idea no longer matches the style and confines of the game moving forward.
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Platforms: Blender, Unreal Engine 5, MagicaVoxel, Substance Painter
Axis Software Urban Server
Axis Software Urban Server is a Frutiger Aero-themed level that takes place on a giant computer motherboard. This level contains dozens of assets all concepted, drawn, and created in 3D voxelated software before finally being optimized and imported into Unreal Engine. This level serves as a playground for the player, themed around the open-ended exploration and progression inspired by Risk of Rain 2’s levels.
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This level demonstrates my ability to combine optimized game assets, props, environments, set design, and shaders all into one to create an industry-level game visually
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Video: Here
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Platforms: Blender, MagicaVoxel, Unreal Engine 5
SPACE CARGO
This high-tech environment serves as one of my best examples of a modular environment. All assets were made in Maya before being put together and textured in Unreal Engine 5, using Adobe Substance Painter. I also created a parallax material to act as space when the player looks outside the window.
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This project showcases my ability to fully concept, model, and finally texture a scene and every object inside of it. Everything besides decals were created and textured from scratch.
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Video: Here
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Platforms: Maya, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine 5
Rock!
This is a full process of me texturing a rock that I had previously 3D modeled. I tried a couple of different styles and settled on these!
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This showcases my ability to texture a natural object, as opposed to my usual man-made technology-esc texturing. This demonstrates my ability to texture organic models.
Brick by Brick
Brick by Brick was a doomscrolling-themed game made by team 1 of Tongue-in-Cheek Productions LLC. For this game, I worked on the UI, background, and foreground art, as well as the game design. Here is the art that I worked on for the game, which had a full concept-pipeline lifetime of about 28 hours.
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This game properly demonstrates my ability to create assets for a complete game within the confines of matching style, limited color palette, and all within a short time limit.
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Itch: Here
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Platforms: Unity, Aseprite
User Interfaces!
Here are some exmaples of different UI elements I have made throughout my career
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These showcase my ability to cretae 2D elements for use as in-game HUDs and demonstrate my ability to work in different art styles whilst doing so!
KATLYST
While I was an artist intern on project Katalyst, I made several models, as well as took several models that were given to me so I could complete their process and texture them.
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These assets demonstrate my ability to not only create 3D assets stylized just for the project, but also my ability to play a part in finishing an asset's pipeline process by texturing and finalizing pre-existing models.
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EVE 96
Made for Christmas 2024, this animated lo-fi video aims to set people back 30 years to the days of the PS1 and Nintendo 64.
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This animation demonstrates my ability to model out stylized assets and fully texture them to deliver a full, cohesive project. All assets were modeled, textured, and rendered by me
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Speed Build: Here
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Full Animation: Here
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Platform: Blender
Objective 6:
Establish collaboration, mentorship, and professional leadership skills by working with other disciplines to deliver highly polished and completed projects.
Project: Katalyst
Project Katalyst is a currently in-progress game I am developing through Tongue-in-Cheek Productions LLC. As both an artist and the current Design Lead on this project, I have had my hands on both physical assets and design behind all major aspects of the game.
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This project represents my ability to take a leadership role in an industry-level project and collaborate with other teams to continue to deliver a high-quality product.
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Platform: Unity, Blender, Substance Painter
Brick by Brick
Brick by Brick was a doomscrolling-themed game made by team 1 of Tongue-in-Cheek Productions LLC. For this game, I worked on the UI, background, and foreground art, as well as the game design. This collaborative project serves as one of my best examples in using a limited color palette in tandem with design to tell a story.
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This project demonstrates my ability to take an art and design role within a small time limit and work well within a team to complete a project in such a short amount of time.
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Itch: Here
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Platforms: Unity, Aseprite
Wrap-It-Up
Made for the 2025 Global Game Jam, Wrap-it-up was one of my most polished Game Jam games that I worked on in a very small team to make. For this project, I did all of the 3D art, game design, and all programming and UI implementation.
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This game jam game represents my ability to work well within a small team to create a highly polished project within the tight confines of a weekend-long jam
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Itch: Here
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Video: Here
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Platforms: Blender, Unreal Engine 5
Ground Up: The UE Starter Kit
Made for my student innovation project, Ground Up: UE Starter Kit was made in collaboration with YouTuber LordKevep to create everything a developer would need to make a 2D or stylized game in Unreal Engine. I personally created all assets for this project aside from Kevep’s pixel-perfect camera shader, and I reformatted all assets to work in tandem. This shader, camera, and model pack is now available on the Fab store.
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This market-ready product demonstrates my ability to work with an industry professional and use their work in tandem with mine to create a tool for designers and artists alike in UE5.
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Video: Here
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Page: Here
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Platform: Unreal Engine 5, Blender​​
John Lemon and the Ghastly Hassle
Made for the Unite the Valley Game Jam, John Lemon and the Ghastly Hassle was a challenge in using pre-existing assets to create an entirely new game. My work on this game was in systems design, level design, art, and camera implementation.
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This project demonstrates my ability to work in a team as a lead design and artist role to create a game within the confines of the asset packs provided.
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Platform: Unity
