Mickael Balloul

Art director/Senior concept artist

Worked with:

I worked on project black as art director for 2 years before the project was cut due to Embracer restructuring program. During that time I was in charge of defining the visual style and mood of the project in accordance with game design requirements.

The art team size was about 30 people. The disciplines under the art department were composed of Concept art, Character art, Animation, Environment art, Tech art , VFX and lighting.

My main tasks were: Art style definition , creation of art guidelines and documentation ( art bible), Team feedback via overpaints, notes and meetings. Art team staffing, support Leads and producing with planning. Organizing peer reviews, holding one on ones and yearly appraisals, support training programs, communication with stakeholders and some concept art support.

ARCHITECTURE VISDEV

ART BIBLE EXCERPTS

At the beginning and throughout the length of the project I worked on an art bible to define the art style and guidelines of the game. Here is some excerpts of it.

ART STYLE MOODBOARD

This Moodboard encompasses some of the main influences for project Black. It goes from Arkane Studio (Dishonored franchise, or more recently Deathloop), Love Death and Robots Netflix show (Sonnie’s edge and the Witness), Sifu from Soclap, to the lastest serie animated show from Fortiche Prod and Riot: Arcane.

We are aiming at a semi realistic and painterly style that will depict a believable world and characters while being very graphing and seize the chance to stand out visually.

A FEW GUIDELINES EXAMPLES

We want to use an architectural style that exists in the real world and add a scifi spin to it. Then mix it with decorative elements and patterns to suggest a deeper cultural background.

For example, this principle has been used in Villeneuve’s movie Dune. The style of Arakeen palace mixes brutalist influences with medieval or Aztec patterns to suggest the cultural background of the planet’s habitants.

The Dishonored IP had a similar approach combining Victorian architecture with steampunk technology (Or Whalepunk to be more specific).

ARCHITECTURE VISDEV