Senior Character Artist
@PlayOverwatch
- I do (infrequent) art things & play a LOT of games | dumb as they might be, my opinions & posts are my own. he/himโ๏ธ๐น๏ธ
Not much new here, just tossing Catra over to Marmoset to play around with future lighting/rendering options. Looking purrdy so far. Hair & tail is up next.
To celebrate
@OverwatchLeague
wrapping up a fantastic first season I decided to give the Overwatch treatment to everyoneโs favorite host and commentator!
@Soembie
even if you didnโt end up as hero 28, there's always 29. Looking forward to your positivity & enthusiasm next season!
"...simply put, we have too many things underway. Some of the significant investments weโve made arenโt paying off the way we expected them to."
Fine.
Then resign.
People losing their jobs because leadership made bad calls? Get all the way outta here.
Heh, oh boy...
Dunkey, it's really okay if you're not a fan of Overwatch, but I wish you'd avoid the "lazy devs" commentary that I'm sure you know isn't true.
Still wish you luck in your game dev adventures all the same tho. I look forward to some cool titles out of BigMode. ๐
After today, my confidence in leadership now only extends to Team 4 and no further. What an absolute mess of a week. ๐
We just wanna make cool games man...why does it matter where we do that from?
@FRANA_OW
Hi,
You don't know me, but I work on the OW character team and I *also* do not like NFT's. There's a whole host of reason artists should and will stay away from them (not the least of which is the staggering amount of fraud, art theft, and speculative posturing).
A few more renders and a little portrait bonus! She was such a fun subject to sculpt and I loved the challenge of capturing both her likeness and the OW style in one piece. Definitely tackling another full character for my next project.
Season 10: Venture Forth is going to ROCK ๐ชจโจ
โ๏ธ New Hero: Venture (Unlocked for all!)
๐ Mirror Universe themed Battle Pass
๐ฅ Unlock Select Previous Mythic Skins
โ๏ธ Clash Game Mode Trial
Dig into all these and more when Season 10 launches April 16 ๐ฅ
Oooh boy!
I am overjoyed to announce I will be joining up & riding into battle alongside the amazing team over at
@Blizzard_Ent
! Iโll be signing on with an unannounced project as a 3D Character Artist and I am beyond excited for this new adventure. Here's to the new
#blizzlife
!
Art depts quietly hard carry a huge portion of the industry & it goes largely underappreciated. I've lost count of how often I've seen unsuccessful or highly criticized games end up with the commentary of "The game looks beautiful, but the core systems/design/gameplay is bad."
Yeah uh...
I'm not gonna take the word of the dude who tanked his own studio and hasn't been relevant in the game industry for over a decade.
Kern is a terminally-online troll and this is pure culture war grifting-for-engagement all the way down.
Gamergate 2 is underway.
Former game executive and develop at Blizzard Mark Kern
@Grummz
: "The way games are funded you don't use your own money. Even EA, it's games are hugely expensive to make they're they're upwards of you know 250 sometimes 600 million dollars it's for
Bad-faith assumptions about the work of genuinely excited creatives is such an exhausting part of game dev. Team 4 is finally able to talk about new lore and characters that've been WIP for years, only to be immediately accused of covering up controversy.
Great.
Cool.
Thanks. ๐
The wizards on Warcraft shipped a whole game WFH!
Our Overwatch team shipped while WFH!
The Diablo crew is about to do the same!
Does it really matter where our collective butts are physically located in time and space if we're able to do all that? ๐ซค
Despite some rough news for a *certain* game recently, it's honestly just really exciting to see all the stuff our team has coming. It's easy to get lost in negative sentiment, but I am genuinely stoked for some upcoming tasks and I'm blown away every day by my colleagues' work.
@FRANA_OW
I'm also not super thrilled that Arne has taken up that hustle as it's effectively a money-making scheme only available to already high-earners, but that's his choice to make. While you obviously don't deserved to be harassed, there are valid reasons to steer clear of that swamp.
Project Complete!
The
#ArtWar2
battle rages no more and I'm left with a super cute demon at the end. What a fantastic ride all the way - thank you all so much for the support and encouragement.
#Cubebrush
#polycount
Go live your dreams, little Ezri. ๐
Out of curiosity, what might Overwatch's LGBTQ+ fans like to see in the future? ๐
It's kinda heads-down-working at the moment, but I'd still love to hear some creative/cool suggestions. Striking that balance so it's not just performative can be tricky.
Generally?
Because we still WANT to work on Overwatch. I adore the world & characters crafted for this vision of an optimistic future and our team.
Is that desire to work on a beloved game kinda turned against us when dumb decisions/policies get made? Sure, but...we still here.
@chronofloss
Why not convince some of your colleagues to jointly leave? Gabe Newell left an established and well paid job at Microsoft to make a startup (Valve). Worked out pretty well for him. Or even just another studio that isn't plagued with as many issues on the executive branch.
I generally enjoy his content.
I do get the joke: he's not taking himself or his critique overly serious. Cool.
But the resulting trolling of fans & devs (who are just trying to enjoy something) from the large audience he's cultivated is...somewhat irresponsible at this point.
This is really fascinating!
My guess would be it's more likely just an interesting example of "parallel innovation/ideation" as new hero development for any game takes ages and the Paladins team puts out cool stuff on the regular anyway.
@OverwatchLeague
with a fantastic event to finish out the
#OWL2018
season! Those Widowmaker Battles and Talent Match games were so much fun to watch!
@Soembie
MVP!!! ๐๐
@FRANA_OW
Heck I was even kinda intrigued by the NFT scene when it first started makin waves....and then got to watch helplessly as friends and colleagues got their work stolen, ripped, and cynically reposted to help random crypto-bros sell a number in a mathematical queue. It's not great.
Kind of a throwback post, but I was just thinking about this little project again and wow...time flies. This was just before joining Blizz and now I'm even on Team 4 too, how cool is that?!
What do you think
@Soembie
, is it time for that jacket to make a comeback?๐
To celebrate
@OverwatchLeague
wrapping up a fantastic first season I decided to give the Overwatch treatment to everyoneโs favorite host and commentator!
@Soembie
even if you didnโt end up as hero 28, there's always 29. Looking forward to your positivity & enthusiasm next season!
@FRANA_OW
So while yes, a lot of folks are either uninformed (or even misinformed) in either direction, please believe there are plenty of artists like myself and others that do actually have a fairly strong grasp of the technology and even we are SUPER skeptical.
I've been feeling incredibly inspired by the bonkers amount of talent on our OW character team lately, so it's time to dust off a few projects and and get some actual personal art done
Catra, you're up first! ๐พ
Bruh...take an internet break.
The overwhelming majority of the time, it's some instance of an artist walking over to an animator:
"Hey, I just made a cute dog, can you hook something up so I can pet the good boy?"
"Fk yeah I can!"
And then both 'convince' a tech artist to help.
i get actively mad when i can pet a dog in a video game now. it only reads to me as either the dev being cynical and doing it for meme marketing or theyre reddit. thats how terrible it is out here
'Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara' Moriah fanart ๐ฅท
I *will* circle back to this little Thief someday, if only because those pants are too cool not to finish. She needs lots of work tho.
@ArtStationHQ
Dude...
Artstation is failing an open-notes test here. The art community that originally uplifted the entire site is TELLING you to just dump AI "art" and they'll gladly return. The massive copyright infringement alone is a ToS minefield, so make it make sense!
@CorridorDigital
Huh.
Well thatโs a bit embarrassing.
Iโd say maybe stick to vfx instead of satire, butโฆit kinda seems like youโd rather an algorithm eventually do that for you too, soโฆ ๐คทโโ๏ธ
@FromHappyRock
Whenever I see conversations like this, I immediately feel bad for the artists who out there who now can't make anything without inevitably being accused of making AI art...because they literally had their style stolen out from under them. ๐
Ya'll
there's room for both queens in this world!๐
I love me some OW, but APEX def has truly fabulous characters (and artists) too! Just this last weekend I was mentioning to a friend how rad the VO banter is between Legends. In this house we hype our colleague's work. ๐--->๐งก
Overwatch 2 Hero Junker Queen Plagiarism ๐ค
Some communities say she's similar in concept to Mad Maggie. Do you know that? Junker Queen basic concept was unveiled in 2017.
I hope they don't say nonsense like "Blizzard copied the FFXIV cutscene to make a Dragonflight trailer".
@deerlordhunter
There's even some folks who are *concerned* that Tifa won't have her "iconic bust size"...
Nevermind wondering if gameplay will live up to expectations or potential narrative design changes...nah, they're worried about Tifa's rack.
The modern gaming audience can be weird, man.
It's...difficult to truly describe what seeing these
#Overwatch2
credits means to me. ๐ฅน
I've had the privilege to be a part of two amazing projects at Blizzard and I'm beyond excited for the future. The world could always use more heroes and I can't wait to help craft them. ๐งก
Then why did someone write in the original blog post (and effectively misrepresent to gaming media, from GamesRadar to Kotaku) that this tool was *actively* being used by game teams?! The Overwatch CHARACTER team had never heard of this tool till yesterday!๐ตโ๐ซ
We recently shared a blog post that raised questions about how we approach diversity in our games. While the prototype tool has been tested internally, it is not in active use. Our dev teams have always and will continue to drive in-game content. (1/2)
@ArtStationHQ
"The works on your portfolio should be work that you created and we encourage you to be transparent in the process. Please only publish work that either you own or that you have permission to publish."
...sure.
So we should start mass-reporting every AI-prompter on the platform?
Hi! ๐
Game dev here who has worked on a couple of free-to-play titles across a few teams. Overwhelmingly the consensus has always been in trying to get away with making it as free and fun as possible, but inevitably obligated to monetize somewhere to literally make a salary.
@EZE3D
"no dev says how can we make this a worse experience"
Freemium mobile game devs do when they're working out what to lock behind microtransactions in order to make the game just-barely-fun.
Can't have it be too fun or people won't pay.
A few additional renders to show a bit more of Moriah's progress. From here, I'll need to finish up her scarf/mantle, jewelry, hair, and a few key anatomy adjustments.
...so this is gonna be a busy weekend.๐
@GeorgeCrudo
Ha ha, weโll yeah, ANY art style is โeasyโ when youโre entire engagement with its replication is just typing โblizzard art styleโ into a prompt.
AlsoโฆBlizz has multiple, very different IPโs at this point. Iโd love for them to describe which is supposedly *THE* Blizzard style.
Still jamming on our sneaky little Dungeons & Dragons thief for
#Retrogasm
. Should wrap up her
#zbrush
sculpt by this next weekend and get moving on retopo. I'll try and get a few more renders up soon too.
I wish game leaks were treated the same way as movie/show leaks. People get upset when a movie or show is spoiled for them, but with games...it's like people want to ruin it for themselves.๐
Yes, we're aware of the lawsuits.
Some of our own colleagues & peers have directly suffered from that history of abuse and have even left the industry entirely. Thank you for the constant reminder every time we want to celebrate the our games and the work of those who have left.
@Iron_Stylus
Hah!
I'm getting some serious deja vu from being a Warhammer 40K fan too. That game goes even further to EXPLICITLY say that no one, including Humanity, are the good guys in that verse and yet there's still some absolute troglodytes who will call it "anti-woke" or some nonsense.
@_mlktea
@FRANA_OW
โ๏ธ
Big agree!
It's difficult to describe just how scummy and buzzwordy those recruitment offers can be. NFT's might be a seemingly exciting/novel concept to internet randos, but a lot of us can assure you it's a pre-regulation gold rush with 'snake oil salesmen' all the way down.
@FranklyGaming
@echochlo
@GameOverGreggy
lol it's always the blue checks that just have the silliest, verbose, pro-exploitation takes.
Is it the current, awful status quo?
Sure, but damn dude...dream bigger, my guy.
@itsmarksopp
Every one of our game teams (and our games!) deserves better than what we're being handed. Both 2 & 4 shipped a whole-ass game with WFH and Team 3 is about to do the same!
I rly do not understand the mentality or assumption that all games are basically just evolving toward the digital mess of Ready Player Oneโs OASIS gameworld where EVERYTHING is a part of everything, creative integrity or consistency be damned. That sounds both bleak & depressing.
@lucyxbreeze
@Baj_Singh
While sexualization for its own sake can be a little silly sometimes, this is a personal art piece. It wasn't made for a commercial product/game and thus not really subject to the personal preferences or standards of an audience other than that of the individual artist's.
Wow...
'Across the Spiderverse'?
Sort of just blew my mind.
I don't usually jump onto fanart hype trends, but...now I'm kinda wanting to redo my
#spidergwen
from ages ago. Been a fan since her comic first dropped in 2015 and both she & Miles are incredible in this franchise.
Like critique the content of the lore/updates all you want! Thats totally cool. I personally think Sojo's origin video just doesn't have enough meat to it (...yet ๐). But man...miss me with that "covering up" goof - I've been staring at patch release dates in stand-up for weeks.
Happy Day-After
#PortfolioDay
!
Hello all!
I'm Bryan, a 3D character artist working in the game industry.
I love making stylized characters of all kinds (especially cool gals ๐). I haven't really updated my portfolio properly in years, but I'm hoping to overhaul it Soonโข.
@shadmbrooks
This is nonsense, truly. It's about not shortcutting human creativity for instant results.
Meet Francis Tsai. He's practically a legend in concept art circles. He was robbed of all muscle control by ALS and *still* found a way to create until his passing.
Likely the last update on my
#ArtWar2
entry until the final - I am beyond excited now with her so close to done. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the other finished projects too! ๐๐
#gameart
#wip
#polycount
#Cubebrush
One of the truly bonkers things I've learned from game dev over the years (especially at a very large studio, but it applies to indie too) is there will just always be a portion of the gaming audience that is resolutely, viscerally hoping for your project and enthusiasm to fail.
Hooray, I finally got Soe up on Artstation!
Lots of higher rez pictures. Thank you all again so much for your support - I've been absolutely blown away by everyone's positive response. Time to give her a rest now and move on to the next project!
I'm noodling way too much on what was originally supposed to be just a "quick sculpt", but I love the Mass Effect series so much I can't resist. ๐
Going to try and wrap Shepard up shortly and stick with just a bust for now. Maybe a full character sometime later.
@skiesti_
Interestingly enough, a good number of her skins also have floating wings. You can kind hand-wave it as โsci-fi techโ, but practically speaking it makes for an easier time modeling them and a slightly simpler animation rig. Her wings are pretty complicated as it is.
@BroYouWack
What if I told youโฆproduct development decisions are commonly driven by player purchasing behavior.
So our favorite?
โฆor ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ favorite? ๐๐
@LittleMissLokii
There is a LOT about the tech & games industries that make zero sense. ๐๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ from a labor perspective.
@nickjcal
I've worked with some of the devs who would have been his direct colleagues during the WoW/SC days. The few times he got mentioned, they'd shake their head and laugh sadly. Weirdly no one who's worked with him want anything to do with him afterward. Go figure.
@Dekren
Aye, cultivating creative self-confidence can be rough. I do really dig your work tho man. You have a fantastic grasp of your own shape language and stylization.๐
Been meaning to hop back on this project, but I was really enjoying this piece from one of J.Polidora's concepts.
@GavinEtc
Noooo, Gavin!
Iโm so sorry man, you and your team did such incredible work with us. Thank you for always being kind and fielding the silly lore questions we would bug you guys with. You take care of yourself brother!
We aren't actively antagonistic or in even in constant competition with game devs from other studios like gamers (and even journos) seem to think we are. The business side sure, but we're all colleagues in a tough industry - we love to celebrate each other's successes and games.
There's a story here:
Previous gig working on Titanfall IP, a studio exec HATED bananas. Didn't want to see, smell, or exist anywhere in the building. I legit had to walk outside for a breakfast banan.
So naturally I started hiding them in-game.
Long live the resistance! โ๐
You wanna know one of the stranger parts of game dev? Itโs the weird behind-the-scenes info on other active projects across the industry. It's basically second-hand intel (via friends & colleagues) of just how much of a trash fire the dev environment of an upcoming game might be.
@Niandra_
Ooooh noooes! Def don't want to see people tearing others down over something that's supposed to be fun! ๐
I adored working on Talon Mercy, but it would have been just as exciting to make something angelic, cute, or girlypop too. I hope we can fill that niche in the future.
@ZenofyMedia
You do you, my man.
This is some insanely cool work and nothing the internet can say will change that. Nothing but electro-flavored W's here. ๐๐
The very specific emotional damage of burning hours making models/materials look just right and then watching streamers or creators drop their graphics settings down to Low and just...miss all of it for an extra 8 FPS.
hidethepain_final01.fbx ๐ญ๐
@ZenofyMedia
I love me some TF2 back in the day, but one of the funniest takes on this I saw was someone bragging about how "TF2 outlasted OW1 while getting no updates!"
...bruh
that ain't the flex you think it is.
Some folks unfortunately do not have the same flexibility or circumstance to endure though and ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ move on from a game they otherwise love. Some just don't want to deal with the nonsense. And some...might just need a break from a project they've spent years of their life on.
@FromHappyRock
This discussion is really intriguing from the other side of the creative field. Most of us who are production artists are in no way tied to metrics, followship, or engagement for our livelihood. There's some overlap, but our measures of success are almost entirely different.
@yort25_
Aye, In my experience it's almost never "lazy".
Things can go awry because of corporate weirdness. But even regular devs can make mistakes. A lot of game dev (esp early) is trying to essentially predict the future & make decisions accordingly...and sometimes it doesn't work out.
Okay, so...next project!
I'll be tackling one of the concepts from the Overwatch artbook. There's a ton of amazing work in there, but this caught my eye. It's a neat early hybrid between what later became Mercy and Symmetra. Got her rolling a while ago, now time to focus!
#wip
Posting this to remind future me that game dev is tough, expectations can let you down, and it's not always gonna be sunshine & daisies, but at the end of the day it's about working with cool people, on cool things, as a cool way to earn a living.
Now I'mma go play videogames.
I truly do not understand where the sentiment of devs being "jealous" of another game's success came from.
Do those folks even hear themselves?
What do you think we do with our off time?
We play (love) competing games! This might come as a shock, but most of us...๐๐ง๐ gamers.
But I promise you...a lot of issues that ABK is very publicly dealing with is not unique to just these few studios. You may not hear about them, but they're there. All studios, from AAA to indie, are a just collections of creative humans and humans...are kinda messy.
Fliping through old work and I still can't get over how much fun this
#SpiderGwen
was to make! Within the past two weeks I've had 6-7 different people ask about using her for rigging/animation. Perhaps it's time to revisit and look into getting her professionally rigged? ๐ท๏ธ๐ธ๏ธ