Art Direction - Concept Art - Illustration
USC GAMES: Try Again Art Direction (2022-2023)
USC GAMES: Skylost Concept Art (2021-2022)
USC MFA: Installation Wizard (2023 - )
USC GAMES: Werecleaner 2D + 3D (2023-)
Ferra Concept Project
Illustrations
VIVID IN VITRO Characters (Work in Progress!)
VIVID IN VITRO World (Work in Progress!)
About
Hiya, I'm Eggsy! I'm currently an undergrad at the University of Southern California, majoring in interactive entertainment and minoring in technical game art and visual narrative. I'm graduating in May 2024 and will be available for work after!I'm passionate about worldbuilding and creating meaningful stories. In my free time, I enjoy composing and learning about cool marine creatures -- big fan of hagfishes and cephalopods :)Interested in 2D art opportunities in games and parallel spacesEmail: eggsyzhang25@gmail.com
Try Again
I've had the amazing opportunity to art direct "Try Again", a USC Advanced Games Project and MFA Thesis! Try Again is a 3D "spectacle platformer" that features a game within a game, with a fixed camera and platforming challenges. We were nominated as a finalist for best student game at the Independent Games Festival!
My responsibilities:
1. Collaborated with designers and director to determine the overall style, mood and aesthetic
2. Gathered reference materials and created and iterated on style guide to better help artists envision the art direction
3. Painted scenes and environments to specify mood and feel of scenes and locations in the game
4. Standardized art pipeline and managed art team with the art producer, setting milestones for the art team to follow and splitting our 3D team in two groups for modeling and texture to keep style consistent
5. Gave feedback to an art team of 15+ to help set style and quality bar of the game
6. Painted over screenshots and models to help communicate how to fix and improve models and scenes
7. Created concept art, paintovers, and setdress passes in Unity to explore and help communicate how to fix and improve models and scenes
Check out our trailer below!
Key Art:
Core Concept Art:
Art workflow guidelines used by the art team
Screenshot Paintovers
Concepts
Pre-production concepts and paintovers based on old prototype pitch
Skylost
Skylost is an Advanced Games Project and a 3D first-person exploration crafting game where you wander in the wilderness in search of a loved one. I worked on the concept art, which includes tasks such as helping determine the general art style of the game and working with the team to design and create in-game assets!
Contributions:
1. Work with the art director Lyuying Guo to visualize the general style of Skylost during pre-production.
2. Design creature, character, and props, working closely with the art team to bring a concept to 3D.
3. Create 2D sprites and spot art.
Trailer:
General style and aesthetic explorations (w/ early character design to represent player size) during pre-production:
Screenshots of the final game:
Glider concepts:
Lure concepts -- originally, it started as a recorder, but we decided it was way too advanced as a machine and instead wanted something made of natural resources
Grappling hook concepts:
Final in-game tools
Flying beast enemy concepts:
Final in-game flying beast
Land beast enemy concepts:
Final in-game land beast
VIVID IN VITRO (Work in Progress)
An extensive personal project exploring a post-apocalyptic world where angels of a former god roam.A lot is still in progress, but I will update as I go!
PATH VEIN
Werecleaner
Role: 2D artist + 3D animator (2023 - present)
Washer + Ad concepts
Wolf Plush concept + model
Piece of fanart for our game!
General NPC Rig + Animation
Miscellaneous
Illustrations
Installation Wizard masters thesis character concepts (2023 - present)
Role: Character ArtistCharacter concepts + art made for the visual novel USC MFA masters thesis "Installation Wizard"!
Character Lineup (so far)
Sketches / concepts:
Ferra
An open world video game project taking place in the steampunk city Arxxon, where you play as the robot Ferra assisting their creator’s daughter Juno as they try to unravel the mystery behind her mother's disappearance.
Key Art:
Character Designs:
Interior shot of Juno's workshop/toy store, acting as a safe zone and upgrade area for Ferra
Night view of an Arxxon street, in a middle class area where Juno's shop is located
Storyboard of Juno meeting Ferra
Sketch concepts of Arxxon criminal family heads
World
Angels: the attempts of a god who is trying to reclaim their world through consuming that world
Pirate101 Fan Characters Concepts:
Character concepts based off my in-game characters + and how I'd imagine their companions!
