Alumnus Oskar Kuijken is a freelance character artist. He started out working for Triumph Studios in the Netherlands, after which he moved to Stockholm to work on Gauntlet and Helldivers with Arrowhead GS. Last year he came back to Belgium to start a family and conquer the freelance world together with his brother in arms, Dimi Devos .
Both of them are working on Shardbound, currently still in development by Spiritwalk Games. Shardbound is a Tactical Collectible Card Game, a cosy mix between Final Fantasy Tactics and Hearthstone. The game has a big Twitch integration and allows streamers and their viewers exciting new ways to interact. Form a Noble House with your friends, and venture out to 'Shardfalls' to earn loot and rewards!
Oskar and Dimi were involved in Shardbound from the start of the production cycle..
Could you tell us a bit about the workflow?
We follow a pretty standard stylized PBR workflow. The character artists receive amazing concept art and translate it into a 3D model ready for Unreal Engine 4.
We start by blocking out the model in Zbrush or 3DsMax. Step by step we refine the shape and add detail. This detailing happens in Zbrush. When the high resolution version is finished, the model has to be retopologized and unwrapped, this is done in either 3dsMax or Topogun.
The creation of materials and texturing happens fully in Substance Painter. Substance Painter has a very easy to use workflow that enabled us to replace Photoshop almost entirely.
We hand over our finished models in a neat and clean manner to the animators and then the new units are implemented in UE4. Ready for the Early Access players to enjoy them immediately.
Shardbound has a massive amount of divers characters and each of the assignments has its own challenges. Combined with the beautiful stylized look of the 3D art, this is truly a dream to work on.
Shardharrier concept art by Nicholas Kole
Support Shardbound!
Want to support the making of Shardbound? You can actually back this project:
go to Shardbound Kickstarter.