These images and videos, showcase the approach I take with look development in asset and environment art. Here, you'll see images from my mentorship project, alongside a selection of earlier work.
Mentorship Project - Unreal 5 Render
For this project, I designed an environment to situate two concepts by Mads Chan: a shamanistic hut and a throne-like altar. Reference for the look development and texture work was inspired by Kena: Bridge of Spirits, World of Warcraft, and Disney’s Moana. Recent crossovers in stylization found within games and animation provided the base for the interpretation of Chan’s concept work into 3D.
After modeling the assets in Maya, I built the majority of the textures in Substance Designer. For speed, control, and versatility, props were textured in multiple ways using different aspects of the Substance suite. Fabric reference was primarily gathered from Moana, taking note of the recurring enlarged wave, fibers, and surface wear found in the stylization. The weave was generated in Sampler, then adjustments were made in Designer, before it was used as a base to add masked layers filled with colors, noises, and textures in Painter. Additional hight was painted in an iterative fashion, bringing it a semblance of belonging with the scene’s story.
The terrain makes use of Unreal’s capacity for layered landscape painting and world-aligned textures. Creating custom master materials for different use cases was an enjoyable experience. Curvature masks were baked for larger elements such as the stairs and the rocks, in order to anchor the world-aligned textures to the assets. Multiple textures could be vertex painted within engine, thereby giving one asset the ability to fill multiple use cases, adding variation and detail.
Reference Images
Weapon Smith - Unreal 5 Render
Andrew Porter has a distinct soft illustrative style, that I emulated by way of building textures in Designer, that are layered over with decals of varying opacity. Substance painter was only utilized for the signage and engravings. Slight hue shifts were obtained in specific areas by way of vertex painting. The smoke was created within Unreal’s Niagra system. For this project I had the privilege to work under, material artist, Johnny Malcom.
Reference Image
Stop Motion Style Book Prop
A prevalent style within animation and games mimics the tactile quality of stop motion, and this is the direction I went with this spell book. Having a well-planned reference board was essential when working towards this vision. All of the texturing was done within Substance Painter following a standard PBR workflow. The total development time for this prop was three weeks.
Pirate Ship - Maya V Ray Render
The final render is on the left, with the concept on the right. Rendering for this image was completed in V-Ray using a specular workflow. Freehand, layered linework and color blocking were done within Substance Painter. For precision, exact camera matching was completed in Maya and Painter. A subtly manipulated CC HDRI was used for the background. The water line was achieved using parallax, by parenting the water mesh position to the camera. Additional translucency for the water was completed in Photoshop.
Fine Art Painting
Over the years, my painting practice has shifted through different styles and mediums. My most recent body of work is painted with acrylic paint, as its quick drying allows for both a rapid layering process and fewer technical considerations, enabling me to focus on the work itself rather than get hung up on the material process. In the past, I have also worked with oil paint, watercolor, and airbrush in both figurative and surreal pieces.
Digital Painting
Only Monsters Here - Game Book
‘Only Monsters Here’ is a 228-page book from Chthonstone Games that includes over 100 of my color illustrations. I played an integral role in this collaborative project, contributing to creature concepting, map rendering, environment design, and world-building. Game design, writing, and layout were completed by Johnstone Metzger. Though I served as the Art Director, the IP’s personal nature required intensive collaboration. During production, decisions were consistently made to manage the differing color spaces between screen and print, anticipating the best possible final product.
Contact:
Please look around my site and feel free to check out more of my illustration and concept work on Art Station: https://www.artstation.com/nathanjonesstudio
“Tribal Culture” design by Mads Chan, “Weapon Smith” design by Andrew Porter, “Pol’s Kitchen” design by Paulo Galamgan, “Magic Book” design by Daria Bogdanova,”Pitate Ship” Property of Rainbow Animation.