Arnel Ramac

Fat Princess Adventures

PS4

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During my time on FPA, I managed up to 9 artists in the production. I mentored interns, junior artists, and aided in team development along with understanding and help improve pipeline workflows and best practices. I drove visual direction through environment modeling and lighting. I created a character pipeline that involved over 400 kit pieces and was responsible for the creation of over 40 enemy character types with a limited time schedule. I was responsible for managing milestones, schedules and creative vision with the art team while maintaining the high level goals for the IP. I worked with the engineering team in creating the lightmapping workflow and pipeline, while also collaborating closely with design to meet franchise needs. I assessed new tools created by engineering to ensure they were art friendly and worked with proprietary engine from inception to establish art pipelines.

Characters

Here are some samples of the models I created for Fat Princess Adventures. I spent roughly 1.5 days to model the highres, game res, and textures for each model. I created a pipeline that allowed me to generate multiple characters under a compressed schedule.

props

Sample of props I modeled and textured for Fat Princess Adventures. I spent around a half day to a day authoring the highres model, game res model, and shaders. 

PROCESS AND PIPELINE

My challenge was to update the look of a beloved style while maintaining the charm of the original franchise. The art team accomplished it with flying colors. I loved the original silhouettes and style of the first game and tried to keep as much of it intact as I could. I used the original assets as a starting point and took off from there. We used realistic simulations to figure out lighting solutions (global illumination, ambient occlusion, HDR ) that made our stylized models grounded in reality and help with the believability. The overall aesthetic lended itself to a unique and beautiful look. 

Visual style

Here are some sample pages from a style guide I developed to help and inspire the art team. It consists of original concept art from our concept team, as well as reference images from the internet to help lock down the look.

level process

We first start with a concept drawing based on the design document. The design team would then pass off a rough blocked out level for the art team. The art team would then begin to flush out more detail, while keeping the core layout intact.The level would change based off of feedback from playthroughs and design needs. Once the level is near final layout, lighting and shaders are polished out along with the props.