Tanith Davies MA Games Art @tanith-davies - Tumblr Blog

FMP Post 2

FMP Post 1

Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 14

Time Management - Finishing Production Planning

Now that I have completed appropriate research to fully carry out my project, I am in a good position to divide up the time I have for this project, to give each part necessary resources to finish the project in time, while making significant use out of all the time available to me.

I created a Gantt Chart in Miro, documenting the entire production workflow, and noting time spent on blogging and other university written requirements. I have planned to work on my lighting for a very large proportion of the project, because it is very important to do alongside texture creation, so I don’t get any unwanted surprises from only implementing my character into the engine at the end of the deadline.

I have given myself time to rig and skin my characters into my Gantt chart to do as a stretch goal, but if I run late on my plan, this time can be utilised instead to finish up the base requirements.

I finished up my preproduction document, and ended up including most of it into my final presentation, due to the document being relatively condensed as it was. But I am excited to now get started on creating Wren, and I’m looking forward to the months ahead.

References

Miro (2026) Miro (Version not specified) [computer program]. Available at: https://miro.com (Accessed: 21 March 2026).

#preproduction document #creativeprojectdevelopment

Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 13

Industry News - Unreal Engine Capabilities

Regarding recent industry news, characters can now be created within Unreal Engine with Character Creator 5 - however this is currently primarily being used for more VFX and cinematic workflows, rather then game art. Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering, dynamic lighting and advanced character generation is transforming workflows across games and film.

While questioning what budget I should have for my character. Previous characters showcase low geometry and small texture sheets, so I’d like for this project to demonstrate high detail and complex characters, rather than restricting myself for performance that is becoming less needed. But I need to research what polycount a character can go up to while still remaining performative. Characters on Artstation and articles online can go well over 150k triangles, nearing 200k.

AAA characters rendered within Unreal Engine can be anywhere between 80-150k tris. Since my character is stylised, and so the smooth, simpler shapes won’t require as much geometry as more complicated ones, I’m budgeting the entire character at 125k. I do believe this is a very generous amount, which I likely won’t use at all, but it gives me the opportunity to really push up the quality of my final render, since Unreal Engine can handle this file size.

#preproduction document #creativeprojectdevelopment

Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 12

Industry News - Generative AI

Generative AI is increasingly being used within video game development across a wide range of production processes, raising concerns about job losses, low quality releases, and ethical issues regarding the tool’s training. AI has been used within development for a long time, for example NPC behaviour, but newer generative tools have been a hot topic in the industry.

AI generative content is not replacing humans yet, as the standard of quality still isn't there currently. But artists and other developers are using it as part of new tools to develop workflows. Article by Rashika Singh states that the gaming industry could unlock 22 billion dollars in profits from AI driven cost cuts, by utilising AI for generating art environments, dialogue and testing software. This is an enormous figure, potentially driven by budget pressure, as it will likely lead to a deterioration of quality, and reduction in creativity due to the lack of a human touch. According to Prince Addams, AI in the video games market is expected to reach 11.4 billion by 2032, due to growing popularity.

Currently, there is no reliable way to know if AI has been used within game development, as disclosure is only recently emerging and is not consistent across all platforms. Steam has taken a lead when it comes to disclosing the use of AI within games, requiring developers to disclose certain types of AI use, including generative AI. Because of this, as of 2025 - around 1 in every 5 new steam games have declared using AI in some form, which is a staggering amount for a new tool, up nearly 700 percent.

AI is facing strong backlash from the artist community in recent years, with some companies banning AI entirely, such as Playdate. Distaste is caused by concerns regarding the copyright issues of AI - with it stealing art for the training data, ultimately causing individuals to be out of jobs, and cheapening the overall art quality. Additionally there are environmental consequences, due to how much resources AI data centers use up, so it is a very controversial tool.

A report from Makuch, E, states that as of January 2025, 52% of developers work at companies using alternative AI, with 30% of developers believing that AI is harming the industry, due to issues including copyright and environmental impact. Within the game development roles, currently AI is being used more by business, marketing and leadership positions, rather than artists themselves, but the growing trend in recent years would suggest it's only a matter of time until it becomes more popular in the art field.

What are the main AI tools with 2025 Game Development?

Six of the top AI tools in 2025 include: Art Generation

Promethean AI - used to quickly build up detailed environments, 10x quicker than the average digital art production. This tool suggests, places and organizes assets within 3D scenes. It can be installed as a plugin for developers using Unity, and allows quick iterative indoor and outdoor environments. Playstation has publicly stated to be currently using this tool.

Rosebud.ai is a tool assisting the generation of visual content, including characters and environments by utilising prompts, quickly converting rough designs into working prototypes. It is currently being used by indie studios working on Roblox.

Scenario uses AI to generate game-ready art that matches the style of a prompt, creating images, videos, 3D characters, props and environments. This tool is great for scaling production, cutting out manual iteration.

Animation

DeepMotion turns videos into 3D animations, and it can be used by developers through most web browsers. This AI powered motion capture tool tracks bodies to create lifelike character animations, rapidly speeding up animation pipelines, allowing custom animations without the need of costly motion capture equipment.

Audio

Sononym 1.5 is an advanced AI audio tool, to find and organise sound effects and music samples. It can filter out crest factors, timbre etc to speed up sound design, and create better game audio.

Fish Audio is an AI voice cloning TTS platform built for character audios on a large scale. This S2 model clones any voice from a short sample, has cross-language support, and allocates emotional control tags for developers to produce more expressive NPC dialog without needing a recording studio.

What’s the future of AI development?

Smart technologies are continuing to bring new innovative changes to games development, speeding up processes and increasing the quality smaller studios can normally create on their budgets. The future is likely to show more AI-assisted storytelling and more procedural content, suggested by the rate of AI implementation.

References

Addams, P. (2025) Best AI tools for game development in 2025. Available at: https://gamedesigning.org/gaming/best-ai-tools-for-game-development-in-2025/ (Accessed: 22 April 2026).

Rashika, S. (2026) Gaming industry could unlock $22 billion in profits on AI-driven cost cuts, says Morgan Stanley. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/business/gaming-industry-could-unlock-22-billion-profits-ai-driven-cost-cuts-morgan-2026-04-22/ (Accessed: 22 April 2026).

Coghlan, S and Sparrow, L. (2025) Distrust in AI is on the rise – but along with healthy scepticism comes the risk of harm. Available at: https://theconversation.com/distrust-in-ai-is-on-the-rise-but-along-with-healthy-scepticism-comes-the-risk-of-harm-260189 (Accessed: 22 April 2026).

Byers, T and Nansen, B. (2026) Are video game developers using AI? Players want to know – but the rules are patchy. Available at: https://theconversation.com/are-video-game-developers-using-ai-players-want-to-know-but-the-rules-are-patchy-274850 (Accessed: 22 April 2026).

Warwick, S. (2025) 1 in 5 Steam games released in 2025 use generative AI, up nearly 700% year-on-year. Available at: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/1-in-5-steam-games-released-in-2025-use-generative-ai-up-nearly-700-percent-year-on-year-7-818-titles-disclose-genai-asset-usage-7-percent-of-entire-steam-library (Accessed: 22 April 2026).

#preproduction document #creativeprojectdevelopment

Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 11

Industry News - MetaHuman Updates

Meta humans have become a hugely central part of modern real-time character pipelines within Unreal Engine 5. As of 2025, Epic has now fully integrated the MetaHuman Creator within UE5, allowing artists to build, customise and animate these characters with staggering realism, without having to utilise external software, web or complicated tools.

Additionally the quality has been improved, with skin shaders, hair rendering and facial detail all getting updates, with a larger 3D scan database. Clothing now autofits different body types, and the parametric body system gives developers more control over an individual's shape.

MetaHuman Animator 2.0 is a huge upgrade as of last year, it now allows developers to animate these characters only using video from a phone. The lack of need for motion capture studios or suits massively reduces developers costs, while maintaining high quality results. Developers can transfer these animations seamlessly across all MetaHumans, and edit the characters without loss.

Meta humans are currently, primarily being used as a base mesh for further tweaks for AAA and AA games, due to the quality and efficiency. They are additionally especially effective for generating many realistic background characters/crowds, quickly - since unique details aren’t needed. Epic additionally has cross-platform and pipeline flexibility, allowing MetaHumans to be edited within Unity, Blender, Maya, Houdini etc. Proving to be a very modern, versatile tool.

As a Junior Character Artist, understanding the MetaHuman workflow is an important tool to learn. The success suggests that a developer's role will be changing in the upcoming years. This tool makes it easy to create high-quality characters quickly, which means there is less demand for basic character creation skills, and more demand for specializations. Typically, entry-level tasks for juniors are now being replaced by MetaHuman, by generating realistic faces and bodies instantly, while handling skin, shaders, and rigs.

Learning how to customize MetaHumans, and sculpt additional unique features on top, with custom clothing and props, will showcase I can work within Epic's MetaHuman workflow. Additionally showcasing more stylized work, that isn’t just mimicking what MetaHuman is already achieving will get me to stand out more in the battlefield of job hunters.

References

Epic Games (2025) All the big news and announcements from the State of Unreal 2025. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com/news/all-the-big-news-and-announcements-from-the-state-of-unreal-2025 (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

Tereshchuk , A. (2025) Top Unreal Engine features for game development. Available at: https://gamestudio.n-ix.com/top-unreal-engine-features-for-game-development/ (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

Unreal Engine (2025) MetaHuman Animate. Available at: https://www.metahuman.com/animate (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

#preproduction document #creativeprojectdevelopment

Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 10

Fabric Design

The concept demonstrates a complex pattern going round the base of Wren’s cloak. To comprehensively plan this project before I undertake it, I need to spend time deciding what the pattern on the fabric will look like. To start with, I drew out the two ends of his cloak that was visible, and tried to design the center of the cloak that best combined these ends together

However I wasn’t particularly satisfied with the results, it being overwhelming and not straightforward in the imagery or the symbolism, so more work here was needed. I gathered reference images of eastern fabric patterns that utilised cranes and some form of plants, and designed a selection of patterns that matched the theme of my first iteration, but I didn't limit myself to keeping the edges the same. I utilised the far left reference image very heavily for the shape, and wings of the cranes in my variation.

I felt that my last design was the most effective, so I drew it out neatly in vector/stamp form, to be able to print directly onto my texture sheet later.

I was very happy with my resulting design, and it will speed up the texturing workflow of my project.

References VintageHighStExtra (2025) Japanese fabric, cranes herons storks, metallic birds, blue gold, oriental chinese asian cotton, by the metre, fat quarter (image). Available at: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/813145631/japanese-fabric-cranes-herons-storks (Accessed: 29 March 2026). Spoonflower (n.d.) Japanese Cranes Fabric - Art Deco Feast by hnldesigns - Golden Sage Green Art Deco Art Nouveau Cranes Fabric by the Yard by Spoonflower. [image] Available at: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1344507784/japanese-cranes-fabric-art-deco-feast-by (Accessed: 30 March 2026). Floramoon (n.d.) Large scale dancing cranes statement wallpaper. Available at: https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/19286257-large-scale-dancing-cranes-statement-wallpaper-by-floramoon (Accessed: 31 March 2026). Kutskir, T (2025) Photopea. Available at: https://www.photopea.com/ (Accessed: 25 March 2026).

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 9

Marvelous Designer

Marvelous Designer is an essential tool to learn within the character artist’s field, so I want to utilize it within this project. I spent time getting familiar with Marvelous Designer, not having used it much before, and followed tutorials to create a base mesh for Wren’s trousers to familiarize myself with the software. I researched haram pants sewing patterns and copied the shapes within Marvelous to create a mesh I felt well matched the concept. I experimented with adding elastic to the edges, however ended up removing it, as most of Wren’s clothing appears to be simple draped fabric.

After this I made further edits with Marvelous, adjusting the fabric qualities and adding edge wear with tears and rips - which will need to be heightened further within Zbrush and the use of opacity maps on rendering. When I was happy with the fabric created by Marvelous designer, I moved the garment into the Zbrush to start blocking in more folds. The base model within Marvelous Designer doesn’t have the stance of my character, and so the way the trousers hang will be different, and I additionally want to demonstrate cloth sculpting within this project.

As just a quick concept and proof of workflow, I will spend more time refining the sculpt, and exporting a non-triangulated mesh from Marvelous Designer to utilize it better as a base mesh in my final project. Spending more time adding seams and stitching to the trousers within this software will demonstrate the skills required for a Junior Character Artist.

References

Conbry (2021) Marvelous Designer tutorial: Easy perfect topology, UVs, thickness, and details. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhBdZu9u4Qc (Accessed: 11 April 2026).

Dalidacoco (2024) Create with me: Harem Pants, Tie a Knot in Marvelous Designer/CLO3D tutorial with English narrator. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZuVayJJ8Gw (Accessed: 12 April 2026).

Wholesale Boho Clothing (n.d.) Retro print elastic waist wrap front detail bohemian harem winter pants. Available at: https://www.wholesalebohoclothing.com/retro-print-elastic-waist-wrap-front-detail-bohemian-harem-winter-pants (Accessed: 3 April 2026).CLO Virtual Fashion (2025) Marvelous Designer 2025.2 [Computer software]. Available at: https://www.marvelousdesigner.com (Accessed: 27 March 2026).

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 8

Texture research

To effectively create a character in the style of Arcane, the texturing is probably the most important part. To achieve this specific look while utilising industry workflows required some research and thought.

Firstly, I found that Airborne Studios utilised the Snap Art 4 Filter, which produces brush strokes on uploaded textures. They use this primarily on the world space normal map to achieve readable noise within a reproducible procedural workflow. Airborne Studios did not hand-paint their characters, but went down a procedural, non-destructive route, similar to Street Fighter V (which inspired their approach).

After creating several painterly normal maps, each with different sizes of brush strokes, they then utilized simple gradient maps for base colour values, and applied masks over the model to change the size of brush stroke for different areas of the model. Above showcases the 3 maps they created for one character, that they masked out for different areas, and smudged together to create a more natural look.

To explore and practice this workflow, I first sculpted a simple hand in the style of Arcane within Zbrush, retoping and bringing it into Substance Painter to bake. I referencing Arcane’s hand models and sculpts for anatomy reference (above), specifically referring to Powder’s size and shape, and utilising Milio for detail, having bonier fingers. I paid special attention to try and straighten my fingers out, not turning them into sausages this time.

I then downloaded Snap Art 4, took my world space normal map into this software and added a painterly filter to it to achieve large, broad, painterly brush strokes. I then took this map back into Substance Painter and applied a colour gradient to it, and further blurred it out with the Blur Slope filter.

By mimicking Airbourn’s workflow, I resulted in a procedurally generated, painterly hand. I found this approach very effective, and I will definitely utilise it on some of the larger aspects of the character. However I do feel it lacks the uniqueness of the ‘hand painted feel’ Fortiche archives by actually hand painting their assets. This could perhaps be utilised as a base though for further workflows, and the uniformness might apply better to the feathers on my birds.

Alternatively I tried a different texturing workflow on the same 3D asset and bake, documented by Ricardo Sanchez Moreira on 80 Lvl, a Character Artist at Fair Play Labs. He experimented with producing a game-ready character influenced by Arcane, and although I don’t think it looks believable within the Arcane world, it is a very effective and well accomplished character. Ricardo similarly uses a procedural base created within Substance Painter utilising AO and normal maps, with hand painted information on top to further define the stylized look.

I was much happier with this approach, hand painting the majority of my model, as it allowed me to define aspects of the hand not possible by using the world space normally alone, such as non sculpted skin folds, and hue shifts on the nails. For this approach I created a base by layering coloured AO and curvature maps, applied Substance Painter’s stylisation filter, and step blurred before painting over, and re-colouring.

Airborne studios further document’s how they created a furry feel to their clothing elements in addition to this procedural normal based texturing approach. This is a real-time workflow approach that is performative inside UE5 where I plan to render.

This method of shading breaks up the silhouette by spawning particles on the mesh, taking the normals, roughness, base colour and other values to add additional noise. The pixel depth offset is used to blend into the body. I’ll use this approach for breaking up the baby birds’ fluff, fur, and shorter feathers in my character. Most of Wren’s clothing is thin cotton fabrics, so additional silhouette deformation wouldn't be effective on most of his clothing.

An article from Yelzkizi documents the key artistic traits of Arcane, which is very helpful for me to diagnose what makes the style so recognisable. It also describes Fortiche’s workflow, and while I want to focus on mimicking the workflows and production of real-time studios, utilising similar tools as Fortiche to achieve the Arcane look is also helpful. The article notes that all of Arcane’s textures are purely hand painted, and not procedurally generated, and the light and shadows are painted into the textures.

Kindly, Fortiche have publicly stated the tools they use for creating Arcane. Most modeling was done in Zbrush and Maya, with texturing done in a combination of Photoshop and Substance Painter, which I have access to and am proficient in.

References

GDC Festival of Gaming (2017) The Art Direction of Street Fighter V: The Role of Art in Fighting Games. YouTube video, 9 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDlbJdmo7KE (Accessed: 20 April 2026).

The Airborn Studios Team (2022) Airborn: Creating characters for a stylized 3D animation. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/airborn-creating-characters-for-a-stylized-3d-animation (Accessed: 6 April 2026). Polycount (2022) Airborn discussion thread. Available at: https://polycount.com/discussion/62779/airborn#latest (Accessed: 7 April 2026).

Ricardo Sánchez (2026) Creating a game-ready character with an Arcane aesthetic. Available at: https://80.lv/articles/creating-a-game-ready-character-with-an-arcane-aesthetic (Accessed: 8 April 2026).

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 7

Plummage

The feathers of the birds, although similar to hair, need to be handled slightly differently. I’m most looking forward to the creation of Tristen, the main bird, as this is something entirely new I have not tackled before.

To start with, I will be sculpting out a base for all of the fur, feathers and fluff forms of the characters, drafting out a smooth, stylized shape that will have effective composition. Then, depending on the detail and the size, I will either utilise my stylized texturing workflow, or place feather cards.

For Tristen’s longer feathers, I will be placing hair cards, or feather cards, like the head of hair previously, created within Fiber Mesh. Depending on the texture I can create there, I may add additional hand painted strokes within photoshop.

I have a great reference for the quality of sculpt I should aim to achieve regarding the birds, by Delphine Jobin, before working on the groom and texturing stages. Additionally I read an informative article by Daniel Harris, which explores optimising a 3D parrot model, and the structure of meshes regarding individual feathers.

The quality of these two birds from Arcane are rich in colour and detail, and are my benchmark for quality.

Regarding the fluff on the inside of Wren’s cloak, I found Heimerdinger’s head design well matches the shape and colour, which will be my primary reference there. The process will be to sculpt out the base forms, then later replace, or complement with Haircards (for performance).

References

Harris, D. (2026) Optimizing a 3D parrot model for games and real-time rendering. Available at: https://www.coohom.com/article/optimizing-a-3d-parrot-model-for-games-and-real-time-rendering (Accessed: 5 April 2026)

Jobin, D. (2025) Artwork (ID: x32d8X). Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/x32d8X (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

#preproduction document #creativeprojectdevelopment

Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 6

Hair

Hair is an area I’ve done a significant amount of research into, since it’s a difficult skill - being a job in and of itself, and creating haircards is not something I’ve done much of before - potentially resulting in a weak area of the model if I don’t prepare appropriately.

From the get go we wanted to be able to depict all hair textures as artfully and faithfully as possible. The path is welltrodden for straig

To start with, I wanted to explore non hair card related approaches. Morgane Perrin documents the workflow Slocap uses on their character’s hair in Rematch, which creates hair using geometry cards with no opacity maps. To fully explore this workflow, I practically tested it out on a blockout of what my character’s hair will look like. I sculpted a rough face and hair volume within Zbrush, retoped, baked, and brought it into Substance Painter. This is only a test model, and the final one will have more care spent refining, but it works to test the workflow.

I unwrapped the hair into sections divided by the flow of clumps, and unwrapped my UVs all facing the same direction, to improve the ease of texturing.

To follow Slocap’s workflow, I first created a coloured mask for the end and the roots for variation through the hair. Then different values were given to each UV set - or in this case, clumps of hair. Through all of these stages I adjusted the opacity and blending options of the layers to make the changes subtle, but noticeable. Several stages of noise were then added to my model to break up the flat textures.

I believe that this technique works much better on Rematch’s character's hair due to the geometry of the groom adding more visual interest than my round, flat meshes. I did think the colouration and texture was effective at matching Arcane’s style, but it didn’t make up for a very simple mesh. So I will be utilising haircards for my final model’s hair for this project.

Through my research, I read an Arcane inspired hair tutorial, created within Blender,

https://80.lv/articles/create-arcane-style-hair-shader-in-blender-with-this-in-depth-tutorial , which appears to be very effective at creating the desired look. This approach utilises geometry with alpha masks to have a more procedural approach to the hair density, and doesn’t place haircards manually, which was interesting to read.

To begin my hair card learning, I downloaded Fibershop to create some hair cards inspired by the stylized thickness of Arcane hair. I referenced other haircard textures for a reference as to the variation of card thicknesses and lengths I should be creating for a complete variety of strands.

I then used these haircards to place them onto and around my sculpted base, to practice creating a more realistic looking hair style. To do this I followed tutorials by Hazel Brown, who uses the GS Curve Control tool within Maya to place her cards. This utilises splines to curve the cards around the head easily, and although it took a while to get used to, as it replaces most of the shortcuts within Maya I was used to with separate buttons, it was very effective to use, and I enjoyed getting the hang of it.

Progress of hair card placement within Maya

References

HazelBrownArt (2024) Realtime Hair Tutorial. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cDDq9PA7jk (Accessed: 22 April 2026).

Arcane (2021-2024) Series 1 & 2. Fortiche Productions and Riot Games. Available at: Netflix (Accessed: 20 March 2026).

CGPal (2026) FiberShop 3.1 (Computer program). Available at: https://cgpal.com/fibershop/ (Accessed: 26 March 2026).

Maxon (2025) ZBrush (Version 2025.1) [computer program]. Available at: https://www.maxon.net/en/zbrush (Accessed: 23 March 2026).

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Major Project Development, Post 5

Branding

To better present my pre-production document, I spent a good deal of time focusing on creating a brand. This included colour schemes, consistent thematics, and a title.

The bird theme is strong in the character’s design - Wren has a heron or crane on his cloak, wings on and round his neck, along with several pet birds. The prop he is holding seems like a messenger capsule for a letter inside, which would additionally go along with the theme of birds - herons being messengers, and postal pigeons.

When creating a title for this project, I explored a variety of bird and messenger themed names, and ended up going with ‘Wren’ for the boy. Although there are no Wrens in his design, it is a relatively popular genderneutral name, and although Wren is a boy, he does appear rather androgynous in his concept, so I felt it worked. Fledgling is a term for a young bird beginning to spread his wings and fly. Being a young boy who appears to have a profession, I assumed he was an apprentice of some sort, and fledgling can also refer to an individual who is young, new and inexperienced. Tying these themes together nicely.

I did some research into typography designs that related to birds, flight and feathers, keeping it light but modern, and experimented with a variety of designs for a title:

Then selecting number 8 as my favorite to brand the project

Regarding the colour schemes, I went with a pale orange and blue, complementing each other and used them throughout my preproduction document for defining my own practical work (orange) with reference images (blue), to make it always clear to the audience what is being inspired by what. These colours are additionally used in the background of my documentation, resourced from rawpixel.com.

Due to the crane fabric patterns on the back of Wren’s cloak, I incorporated a crane into the design of the document, since the species of bird on Wren’s shoulder and pockets are harder to distinguish.

References

rawpixel.com (n.d.) White Japanese crane with rosemallows pattern frame template. Available at: https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/white-japanese-crane-with-rosemallows-pattern-frame-template_16309699.htm (Accessed: 1 April 2026).

Pinterest (2026) Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/ (Accessed: 1 April 2026)

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 4

Industry News - MetaHuman Updates

References

Tereshchuk , A. (2025) Top Unreal Engine features for game development. Available at: https://gamestudio.n-ix.com/top-unreal-engine-features-for-game-development/ (Accessed: 5 April 2026).Unreal Engine (2025) MetaHuman Animate. Available at: https://www.metahuman.com/animate (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

#preproduction document #creativeprojectdevelopment

Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 3

Industry News - Layoffs

Within the Game’s Industry at the moment, there have been staggering numbers of layoffs. This is quite concerning regarding any prospects of finding a job at the end of University, and it means it’s even more crucial to stay focused on developing the right skills to stand out from the rest.

Last year (2025), there were just over 9,000 layoffs within the games industry (globally), but thankfully a reduction from the 15,600 jobs from 2024. This reduction trend is promising for 2026, however it is still a large figure, and a widespread ongoing issue across the industry. Surveys showed that 17% of developers lost their jobs in 2025.

What caused the mass layoffs?

Studies suggested that several issues caused the mass numbers of layoffs. Primarily, during Covid-19, the games industry boomed, having large grants funded by the government, and companies hiring. When the demand started to slow afterwards, many studios were overstaffed, and had to cut back down again.

There are additionally many rising developer costs, with new fees being put out by Unity (8% increase for Unity Pro, and 25% increase for Unity Enterprise, with costs expected to continue to rise). Some companies redirected budgets towards learning AI technologies, and made redundancies to make that happen.

What does this mean for Junior Developers?

There will be a lot more competition for junior level roles, as many experienced developers are still in the job market trying to find a job, potentially willing to accept less pay for a stable position. Employers may then choose more experienced candidates for lower-level jobs, meaning my work has to be better than experienced developers to land an opportunity.

With studios dealing with uncertain trends, the majority of the jobs being advertised at the moment are aimed towards senior or lead artists. There are very few Junior/Entry Level positions available, as companies aren’t interested in currently training juniors.

Even if I do get a job, I need to be mindful that projects are likely to be canceled or restructured. My early careers won’t be as stable as it would have been 5 years ago.

References

Kerr, C. (2026) Survey: one in four developers laid off over the past two years. Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/survey-one-in-four-developers-laid-off-over-the-past-two-years (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

Takahashi, D. (2026) Gaming layoffs slowed from 15,631 in 2024 to 9,053 in 2025 | Amir Satvat. Available at: https://gamesbeat.com/gaming-layoffs-slowed-from-15631-in-2024-to-9053-in-2025-amir-satvat/ (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

Thacker, J. (2024) Unity scraps controversial Runtime Fee but raises prices. Available at: https://www.cgchannel.com/2024/09/unity-scraps-controversial-runtime-fee-but-raises-prices (Accessed: 5 April 2026).

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Major Project Development, Post 2

Industry Job Advert - Requirements Of A Character Artist

To ensure I am covering all the skills I will need as a Character Artist, I explored some job adverts for Graduate and Junior Character Artists, to see what the current industry requirement is, and ensure I am showcasing all of those skills in my project.

Apply today for the Graduate Character Artist 2025 with Frontier Developments. And find the best graduate job opportunities on Bright Networ

Above is the job advert for a Graduate Character Artist at Frontier Developments, who have made numerous stylized games such as Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo, which would be an amazing opportunity to work on. Below is the list of their main artistic requirements in the advert, and what I am going to do to showcase these skills within my project:

Creating game-ready 3D models and textures using Maya, ZBrush and Substance Painter.

I shall utilize all the software Frontier requires within my workflow, to demonstrate I am proficient in them.

Ability to work collaboratively and take on feedback and guidance from the rest of the team.

I will seek feedback throughout the process through 3DHit, Polycount, and sharing my work online with other industry professionals, and apply their feedback to my work.

Experience with translating 2D concepts or references into 3D Character models. Making artistic decisions to troubleshoot the transformative process and refine the final 3D design.

I am utilising an external 2D concept design and will translate it into a 3D Character model, demonstrating my ability to think critically and make informed decisions based on someone else's 2D work.

An ability to work within an established art style.

I will be using Arcane by Fortiche and Riot as an already established artstyle to work in, to demonstrate I can work to a predesigned visual language, and hopefully show I am not a one trick pony.

Proven ability across all aspects of character modelling, including anatomical, cloth and hard-surface modelling.

I will spend a conscious amount of time practicing my anatomy on this character, especially around the hands and the forearms, which are noticeably weak on my other models. I’ll be utilising some anatomy books, Anatomy for the 3D Artists and Anatomy for Sculptures - Understanding the Human Form, to ensure I nail the muscles this time. Regarding the cloth definition, I’ll use Marvelous Designer for the base, but spend time focusing on creating the precise folds within Zbrush, and try to get them really clean. I don’t have any hard-surface modeling within my portfolio currently, so spending some extra time and love on the prop, to additionally render separately, will be a nice addition to my work.

Familiarity with the entire real-time character pipeline from high-poly sculpting, retopology, UV mapping, baking, texture creation and ending in the set up and exporting of assets to game.

This project will showcase all of the above skills, and I will set up my character in Unreal Engine 5, demonstrating an entire pipeline workflow.

An awareness of the importance of efficient UV layouts and mesh topology, to ensure that character models deform well when animated.

I will create animation suitable topology and efficient UV maps, and hopefully at the end of my project, animate Wren as well - showcasing the clean topology clearly. To do this I will be referencing topology from game ready characters, and especially craft clean forms around folds of fabric, and joints.

Additionally, another UK based studio, Roarty Digital, lists the skills they look out for when hiring, specifically regarding Stylized Character Artists. https://www.roartydigital.com/whatwelookfor

Additionally to the above, they want to see clean examples of UV packing, strong topology and pixel ratio on UVs. Presenting my character clearly with breakdowns of maps will make it easy for them to see this criteria. I’ve noticed in other artist’s work, the squareness of their UVs, meaning less pixel bleed, I’d like to achieve that straightness of UVs in this project. The number one skill Roarty Digital looks out for is cloth sculpting, which I do believe is another weak area of mine, and this character project doesn’t utilise overly complicated fabric, so nailing the few folds present is very important to note.

Understanding what companies look for in applicants helps me to focus on developing the skills that are important for getting hired.

References

Frontier Developments (2025) Graduate Character Artist 2025. Available at: https://www.brightnetwork.co.uk/graduate-jobs/frontier-developments/graduate-character-artist-2025 (Accessed: 4 April 2026).

Roarty Digital (n.d.) WHAT DO WE LOOK FOR IN A CANDIDATE?. Available at: https://www.roartydigital.com/whatwelookfor (Accessed: 10 April 2026).

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Pre-Production Document, Post 1

Brief - Getting Started

After finishing up my character for the live brief, I was very excited to get started with this next project. I know I want to specialise in stylised 3D characters, but it took me a while to find a concept I want to take to 3D over 3 months.

I settled on a work by 恰丸吉, titled, 练习2 (Practice 2), which appeals to me both from a personal perspective, as well as being complex enough to be challenging and interesting.

I sought to pick a character with a small creature companion, and a prop, as this would allow me to practice my hard surface skills and creature modeling - expanding my skill set and (hopefully), making me more employable. Picking a concept that would utilize haircards, and marvelous designers was also an appealing learning opportunity for me, to further expand on requirements for Junior Character Artists.

Once I finalised choosing this character, I first of all broke the design down into key areas for me to focus on my learning. Areas of note included the character's hair, variety of hard and soft surface materials, fabric patterns, long flowing fabric, animal anatomy, feathers, fluff and other miscellaneous hairs.

This character is relatively complex with all the various surfaces and details that I’ll need to create successfully, for the final result to be accomplished. Picking a specific artstyle to create him in was relatively easy for me, as I wanted to go for something hand painted, being an area of art that continues to inspire me, which thankfully limited my choices. I chose to create him in the style of Fortiche’s Arcane. There are relatively few works of the style of Arcane in a real-time workflow, so this is a topic I’m excited to research into, and hopefully get my work to stand out.

In terms of matching my workflow to industry standard, I will be using Airborne Studios as my main reference point, mimicking their workflow used in their ‘Airborn UE5 Showcase’, which they have included a detailed document on, in an 80Lv article: https://80.lv/articles/airborn-creating-characters-for-a-stylized-3d-animation. Mimicking this workflow will allow me to more seamlessly fit into a production workflow after university. Throughout this project, I will additionally research other artist’s and studio’s techniques and processes, to further enhance my work and understanding.

References

Polycount (n.d.) Airborn discussion thread. Available at: https://polycount.com/discussion/62779/airborn#latest (Accessed: 7 April 2026).

Arcane (2021-2024) Series 1 & 2. Fortiche Productions and Riot Games. Available at: Netflix (Accessed: 26 March 2026).

恰丸吉 (2020) 练习2. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4bKyBk (Accessed: 1 April 2026).

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Practice 2: Creative Project Development, Live Professional Brief, Post 11

Final Renders

My final rendered images for Jane, with new and (and hopefully improved) improved lighting, and character mesh:

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Tanith Davies MA Games Art