Background

About Me

On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer; but in my heart, I am a gamer.

• Satoru Iwata, former Nintendo CEO

Video games as a whole have been a part of my life ever since I have use of reason. I've grown surrounded and inspired by the works of many great designers, programmers and artists from the industry such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and even Yoko Taro to mention a few. These names are what made me decide at the age of 14 to work all my way towards learning at the bachelor's degree in Video Game Development and Design at CITM UPC, as I wanted to become like these people.

One of the many troubles I had at by the time I was beginning in the degree was about whether or not I was going to be able to live up to the expectations I had put in myself, based on my idols in the industry. That was until one of the many talks that the university organized during the first year of the degree, in which the guest uttered a simple yet empowering sentence I will never forget:

You can not become the next "Kojima" or "Yoko Taro", but you can become the next "Yourself".

• Miquel Ángel Garcías, Technical Manager at Omnidrone

That's when it clicked. In that moment, I discovered how I wanted my future to be, trying up several different roles throughout the degree that shaped me into who I am today as a game developer.

Project III has become one of the most illuminating yet intense projects I've experienced so far. In taking the role of Lead Artist, I've worked on many of my existing skills as well as new ones I didn't know I would need on beforehand. As such, I think, while mentally taxing, it has been necessary in order to ensure what place in the industry do I belong.

Hard Skills

Leaving behind my role as a lead, as an artist, I would consider myself as a 3D generalist and musician. I have experience in creating 3D character models and environment props with the usage of several 2D and 3D software, including but not limited to:

• 3DStudio Max
• Maya
• Blender
• Zbrush
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Substance 3D Painter

I also have a certain expertise in music composition and editing. I've composed my own songs in my spare time and used several audio editing tools like:

• FL Studio
• Audacity
• Adobe Audition

Soft Skills

• Organization
• People & Assets Management
• Creativity
• Cooperation
• Motivation
• Flexibility
• Empathy

Contribution

Project Overview

For this project, I had the role of Lead Artist. My job was to be in charge of the entire art department's management, organization and major decisive force in basically how the game's assets looked, felt and coexisted with one another.

Main Tasks

Team Management & Logistical Support

Like my other lead colleagues, I have been in charge of the organization of the members' weekly tasks, scrum team check-ups and problem solving. I've also been the main spokesperson & representative during the daily administrative meetings in which we were checking on their progress, weekly organization & adaptation to the circumstances.

My personal objective regarding how I would tackle this task was to not become the department's "boss" if the situation did not require it. While I had a major part in all artistic related decisions of the project, I wanted to take into account all of my peers' opinions & ideas to create something that we are proud to call our own.

I also wanted to provide a comfortable workplace in this incredibly demanding and ambitious project, always open to new techniques, software & plans provided by every source I could take and trying to take on tasks in my own hands, as the relatively small amount of members in our department meant that the tasks were more challenging and demanding for each and everyone of us.

Assets & Document Organization

One of the most prominent tasks during the entirety of the project was to compile, organize & distribute the assets for all members of the project. As I had to be informed everyday of the progress of everyone, I was the one in the team in charge of knowing where each asset was, what corrections did they need and ensuring that the level of quality was up to standards to the vision and direction of the project, etc.

To ensure this, during the first weeks of the project, we created several templates, assets & materials that we would use throughout the project to keep a certain cohesion with one another, which we also compiled with references in an Art Bible, which I kept updated during the first weeks of the project.

2D & 3D Generalist Work

As mentioned before, I had to take up some of the tasks that other members of the team were unable to partake at that time. As such, here's a compilation of the most prevalent assets produced by yours truly:

Sardaukar

Rabban Animation Reel

Environmental Props

Concept Art

Particle Alphas

Logo Design

Character Portraits (Unused)

Secondary Tasks

Level 3 Layout & Decoration

Using the designers' blockout as reference, I replaced the assets with the ones created by the art department.

Lighting Definition

With the help of Albert Espinosa, I created the lighting effects that give to each of the levels its unique coloration, with which we wanted to replicate the original movie's general color direction.

Rendering

As with other images throughout the project, I learned & helped in making some of the renders seen throughout the project's development, specially with the ones seen in the game's trailer.

Asset Bugfixing & QA

To ensure the assets could work inside our engine, I had to investigate & modify several of the assets in terms of layout, export methods and other technical shenanigans.

Projects

Finally, here are some of the artistic projects I have partaken related with art throughout the degree, both inside and outside.

3D Scenario: Dojo Raid

The Dojo Raid is a project created with the help of Arnau Lucena and Sergi Colomer in which we had to create a 3D playable environment using Unreal Engine. The main focus was rather the artistic aspect of it, as we had to create all the assets & the layout of the level itself. It's one of the projects I'm most proud of from the entire degree.

If you want to check our development document, click here to see it.

Shujan

Shujan is the title of a project created way back during the first year of the degree, in the Concept Art subject. The objective of this project was to create a ficticious movie script (with a proper throughout analysis) and create 4 concept art drawings of 4 of the characters appearing in the story as well as 4 scenes created as matte paintings. It's one of the best 2D projects I have created, so that's why it's included here.

If you want to access the original script, you can click here to see the full PDF.

Artemis 21

Artemis 21 was a platformer game created with the help of Sergi Colomer, Abraham David Díaz,Aram Galarza & Arnau Lucena for the Gran CITM Game Jam for the ODS, celebrated during the 4th and the 5th of February 2021 in which you investigate an unknown planet in search for wildlife. It's a simple project in which I was in complete charge of the artistic aspects of it all; but it was the first Game Jam I've participated in, and one of the many projects I helped under the name of Bruhmentium INC. (the name we used to have for our group in these projects).

If you want to check it out for yourself, you can find it published in itch.io.