I'm a character artist, creating characters and creatures. If it moves and breathes, I can make it. My focus in my work is in anatomy, attention to detail, and making the character function in game engines while still maximizing the quality of the character.
As a character artist, my main goal is to make the character feel REAL. By real I don't mean realistic, I mean plausible; I can work realistically but even in stylized pieces, the characters need to feel like they could be real and walk among us. This is accomplished by a good understanding of anatomy in humans and creatures so you can apply those same principles to what you’re creating. It allows for the audience to view the character or creature and, despite knowing it isn’t real, accept it as plausible which can play to their suspension of disbelief.
For me, characters are the most memorable part of any game; while a game can have beautiful environments and iconic props, I find myself always drawn to the complexity of the characters of the story. Especially viewing the events of the game through their lens, it can drastically affect how you view the same events. That’s what drew me to being a part of the process of creating characters in the first place.
My favorite types of characters are the ones that you can tell everything you need to know about them just by looking at them. If you can look at a villain and feel intimidated before they’ve even said a word, or look at a tragic character and feel sad or look at a joyful character and feel happy, then I think it’s a successful design. This doesn’t just apply to stylized characters but realistic ones too. A perfect example of this is the Yakuza series that has intimidating yakuza clan leaders that send shivers up your spine. They accomplish this by making these villains chiseled and battle hardened men with scars and wrinkles to show their experience. It’s so successful that even when as a gamer you’ve faced massive beasts in Elden Ring and Dark Souls, still dealing with these human men feels as intimidating of a task.
Where does this character fit into the story? What emotion is the audience supposed to feel when they see this character? These two questions are the most important questions to me as a character artist. Every couple minutes as I’m sculpting a character I’ll look at them and make sure that my character is accomplishing the goals they’re meant to. Those questions are also the first things I’ll ask someone when they come to me with a character to sculpt.
I think the small details added to a character to make sure they’re successful in their goals in the story is what makes me a successful character artist. I make characters that will have an impact.