Caleb O'Brien - Game Art Portfolio

'The heroic inventor faces up against a fierce assassin in this feud between nature and technology during the height of the industrial revolution'

For this project I chose to create two characters simultaneously, both the hero and the villain of a game concept. I wanted to explore the design of two opposing characters, creating both contrast and harmony. This piece challenged me to create a cohesive art style, and make the characters feel like they belong in the same universe. I feel I achieved cohesion through areas such as cloth thickness consistency, colour pallet and even down to the mark making in the sculpts. I had so much fun working on this project whilst building my confidence in the workflow and building on my artistic fundamentals.

Created in a 2 week time frame, I hoped to push my skills and knowledge further with this piece. Using Marvelous designer for the majority of the cloth creation, I have a better understanding of the software and the importance of weight. Gravity really helps to sell a realistic feel and create an appealing aesthetic. Using substance painter I pushed myself to create textures and paint skin in detail towards a more realistic style. I rendered the bust within UE4 as a chance to develop my understanding of efficient shader and material set up. 

'Alert, observant and ever watchful, Cayce works hard to keep crime and mystery locked down in Mega-tech City. Perhaps working a bit too hard as there doesn't seem to be any cases left to solve. However when a strange portal appears revealing an infinite number of alternate dimensions, it seems there may be more cases to crack than ever before...'

Cayce was created as part of the Search for a Star competition hosted by Grads in Games, in which I was a finalist. As I had a tight deadline on this piece, my main goal was to have fun and enjoy it. I drew from my passions and a range of sources such as 50's fashion and retro tech to create a fun, colourful and charming character.

One of my favorite game memories is exploring the vast wasteland of Fallout 3 and stumbling across a run down abandoned location and unveiling its history and narrative.  With no external motivator or set goal to accomplish, I found accomplishment in taking my time reading through notes, terminal entries and analysing the placement of various items throughout the scene to discover its secrets. 

With this environment piece, I hoped to create my own Fallout inspired environment with a focus on narrative, telling a story through the layout and design of the scene. Being a small and compact scene, I hoped the unfolding narrative would make players feel as if they were part of a bigger world. 

Although my focus is in character art, having an understanding of other disciplines of the pipeline is important and allows for the creation of more successful and efficient projects. Therefor I decided to feature this environment within my portfolio to show an understanding of a wider range of areas.