Felix Miall - Game Art Portfolio

Hello! This submission will take you through my first steps into the character art industry as I transfer my skills in illustration to game art. My main intentions behind training in this discipline are to broaden my opportunities for artistic expression and to find financial stability as a professional in a creative field.

For those who would like a more comprehensive look at the processes behind this work - and for the sake of brevity on this submission page -  you can find links to two Production Reports below which take a much deeper dive into the development of The Sunless character and their UE5 showreel. 

The Sunless Character Model - Production Report

The Sunless UE5 Showcase - Production Report

The Sunless

The Sunless is my first ever 3D character. The idea behind the project was to prove that I could effectively translate my illustrative work into a game-ready 3D asset. The most important element here was to create a functional game character whilst establishing a stylistic throughline which would lead directly back to the concept art. I approached this by focussing on clear shape language, on creating textures which evoke a hand-drawn feel, and on maintaining a tonal coherence with the 2D designs. 

Below is a look at the final results - I'll get into the details a little further on, or you can find them in the production reports above.

I created a UE5 character showreel with these assets to show practice in moving camera shots, in-engine lighting, sound design, character rigging, weight painting, animation, and storytelling. 

I made design sheets which detail each step of the process on The Sunless - from initial concept through to texturing and final renders. Each of these pages represent a significant learning curve which was overcome in service of the final output - I am especially aware that my retopology requires a lot of work, but am proud of the outcome nonetheless. 

One key revelation of this work was that I was able to hand-draw drop shadows onto the PBR texture maps to exactly replicate my inking style, lending the final character an authentic illustrative finish. This is a technique which I intend to explore much further as I continue to hone the craft.

The design sheets below show the process of concepts, high-poly sculpts, retopology and texturing:

Siren Tankard

Before The Sunless, and during the very first module of the Game Art course, I made my first 3D game asset: a tankard inspired by sculpture of Hypnos, God of Sleep, which I drew at the British Museum. I've chosen to include it in this submission because it represents a significant, early milestone on my journey into the industry. I used my work on this tankard to inform the armour on The Sunless, and even included its sculpted face on the character's cloak brooches. 

Below: Siren tankard, rendered in UE5. Sketchfab viewer. Process view.

Below and Behold

I've since been working on a team game project that I've contributed to with both concept and character art. I've included the key art that I made in this submission only to add context to the character work which follows, wherein I further explored the method of making ink drawings atop texture maps. The objective here was again to closely represent and replicate the 2D characters - Nessa and Isaac - in their 3D counterparts. To help guide my head sculpts, I've looked closely at reference from products like Dishonoured, Arcane, Borderlands and The Return of the Obra Dinn.

During my experimentation with this character pipeline I've found that an important detail is to make sure to sculpt forms which complement the angular shapes of the drawn drop shadows. When the sculpted forms don't follow the inked lines, the piece ends up lacking coherence and can feel muddled and overly noisy. I've been using the ZBrush renderer to test shadow shapes during the sculpting phase, adjusting them to make sure that they will read well once textured.  

Above: examples of these shadow-shape renders and final textured results.  

Below: a short video showing hand-drawn texturing in progress.

I've also been working on a few assets for the game, where I've been finding new ways to adapt my skills in illustration for application in environment art. 

I really appreciate you taking the time to look through my submission (special thanks to anyone who delved into those Production Reports!) Would love to hear all feedback - good and bad - in the comments. Thank you!