Anthony O Donnell
Anthony O Donnell
Art Director @ d3t Ltd and Coconut Lizard
Warrington, United Kingdom

Summary

With a lifelong passion for the creative arts, particularly those focused on world-building and bringing stories to life such as movies, video games, and comic books, my passion for high-quality art production remains as strong today as when I started on my artist’s journey.
I find great fulfilment in collaborating with like-minded artists and witnessing their success, as well as guiding and supporting the development of other artists.

As a versatile artist with extensive experience in game art production and visual design, I continuously strive to enhance my skills in 2D and 3D art while staying abreast of new techniques and emerging software to optimize workflows. My robust technical knowledge in game art complements my grasp of traditional art fundamentals. As an Art Director it affords me the ability to balance the visual and technical requirements of projects to ensure a high quality and on time delivery.

Having been privileged to work in the games industry since 2007, I am more committed than ever to sharing my insights with aspiring artists seeking to enter the industry. This has led me to producing tutorials for online sharing and engaging with initiatives such as Grads in Games, Limit Break and discussing game art online and at events.

My game art portfolio site can be found here:

http://www.antodonnell.com/

Events / Speaking / Event Folio Reviews:

Develop Conference 2023 - Portfolio Reviews
Search for A Star / Rising Star Judge and / or Assessor - 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021
WA Games 2022 - Speaker - Concept Ideation Process
Grads in Games Event at Liverpool John Moores University - 2020 - Breaking in to Games (Art Focused)
Offset Dublin in 2019 - Art For Games Panel

Tutorial content and more will be available on my Artstation Store and Gumroad here:
https://app.gumroad.com/antodonnell
https://antodonnell.com/store

My work can be found across the internet:
https://www.instagram.com/nathdevlin2522/
https://cara.app/antodonnell
https://www.threads.net/@nathdevlin2522
https://bsky.app/profile/anthonyodonnell.bsky.social

PODCASTS
I've also joined some podcasts to discuss game dev and game art. If you're interested in listening check them out.
Game Art Talk with Christoph Redl – Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q923MorQUPo&t=1s
https://open.spotify.com/episode/536H4fYofcKr8Fw9bylero?si=8cf67009ca234079

Game Art Talk with Christoph Redl – Part 2
A second round in a Co-Op chat format with the talented Paula Sánchez-Ferrero Ruiz !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hyy4zIquJw

Evolution Exchange Gaming Podcast
https://open.spotify.com/episode/55aX8c4IBLeiUZabJ7Si6E?si=Dl1t_GXcSJmy7i3k8vfcUQ

Skills

Environment DesignEnvironment ModelingTexturingArtVisual DevelopmentLevel DesignWorld BuildingComic ArtPBR Texturingtechnical artPipelinesArt PipelinesConcept ArtArt Team Building3D Modeling

Software proficiency

Maya
Maya
3ds Max
3ds Max
Blender
Blender
ZBrush
ZBrush
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
CLIP STUDIO PAINT
CLIP STUDIO PAINT
Substance 3D Painter
Substance 3D Painter
Substance 3D Designer
Substance 3D Designer
Substance 3D Sampler
Substance 3D Sampler
Quixel Suite
Quixel Suite
3DCoat
3DCoat
TopoGun
TopoGun
3DF Zephyr
3DF Zephyr

Productions

    • Video Game
      Concord - Co-Development
    • Year
      2024
    • Role
      Support Role - Art Direction / Reviews / Support on work produced at d3t.
    • Company
      d3t Ltd - A Keywords Studio - Co-Development with Firewalk
    • Video Game
      Hogwarts Legacy - Co-Development
    • Year
      2023
    • Role
      Support Role - Art Direction / Reviews / Support on work produced at d3t.
    • Company
      d3t Ltd - A Keywords Studio - Co-Development with Avalanche Software
    • Video Game
      Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
    • Year
      2022
    • Role
      Senior Artist (Credited Additional Art) 8 Months
    • Company
      TT Games / WB Games
    • Video Game
      Alan Wake Remastered
    • Year
      2021
    • Role
      Remaster - Art Director
    • Company
      d3t Ltd - A Keywords Studio - Remedy - EPIC Games
    • Video Game
      Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2
    • Year
      2017
    • Role
      Senior Environment Artist
    • Company
      TT Games / WB Games
    • Video Game
      Lego Dimensions - Year 2 - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Story Pack
    • Year
      2016
    • Role
      Senior Environment Artist
    • Company
      TT Games / WB Games
    • Video Game
      Driveclub / Driveclub VR
    • Year
      2014
    • Role
      Senior Environment Artist / Location Lead
    • Company
      Evolution Studios / SCEE
    • Video Game
      Motorstorm RC
    • Year
      2012
    • Role
      Assistant Art Director
    • Company
      Evolution Studios / SCEE
    • Video Game
      Motorstorm : Apocalypse
    • Year
      2011
    • Role
      Environment Artist
    • Company
      Evolution Studios / SCEE
    • Video Game
      Motorstorm : Pacific Rift
    • Year
      2008
    • Role
      Environment Artist
    • Company
      Evolution Studios / SCEE

Experience

  • Art Director at D3t Ltd and Coconut Lizard - Keywords Studios
    June 2020 - Present

    As an Art Director at d3t and Coconut Lizard my main role is to maintain quality across all artwork produced for the many projects in development at the studio. Supporting and mentoring the internal art team and collaborating with clients to achieve the highest quality across all the projects from both a visual and technical aspect.

    In this role I've contributed to the development of many projects.

    Released Projects List:

    Alan Wake Remastered - Art Director - Responsible for the timely delivery and final quality of all art produced by artists who contributed to the project. This also included the creation of benchmarks and development of pipelines / workflows to balance quality and productivity.

    Hogwarts Legacy - Review and quality control of art produced internally at d3t alongside pipeline support.

    Exoborne - Sharkmob - TBA

    Concord - Firewalk - Reviewing of art assets and additional visual direction on the work produced at d3t for Concord.

    In Development Projects -

    Art Direction, quality control, defining technical quality and visual fidelity, pipeline development and support and assisting with visual direction on a range of current projects which are a mix of FPS and Third Person games.

  • Associate Art Director at Firesprite
    Liverpool, United Kingdom
    September 2019 - June 2020

    During my time as an Associate Art Director at Firesprite I worked on an unreleased New IP prototype VR game developed in UE4.

  • Lead Artist at Firesprite
    Liverpool, United Kingdom
    April 2018 - September 2019

    During my time as a Lead Artist at Firesprite I worked on an unreleased IP based VR Title developed in UE4.

  • Senior Environment Artist at WB Games / TT Games
    Knutsford, United Kingdom
    April 2016 - April 2018

    During my time at TT Games I worked on the Year 2 Lego Dimensions Packs which included Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them and PowerPuff Girls. I also contributed to Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 , primarily artwork in the Hub area which covered Xandar, Lemuria and some work on the 21st Century Manhattan area.

    I was also involved in pushing the visual quality during the initial first 8 months of Lego Star Wars: The Sky Walker Saga. This involved benchmark assets, defining pipelines and authoring shaders.

    As a Senior Environment Artist I was responsible for producing game content, optimisation, mentoring other artists and also shader/material authoring during my time there.

  • Senior Artist / Location Lead at Evolution Studios (Sony)
    Runcorn, United Kingdom
    February 2012 - April 2016

    Project: Driveclub

    Role: Location Lead

    During the production of Driveclub I was given the opportunity of taking ownership of the Scotland tracks after the initial blockout phase to progress the tracks through to GM. I was responsible for the overall aesthetics of the tracks which required me to compose assets within the tracks, sculpt / model the landscape, setup materials and create/edit textures. I was also required to address playability issues, optimisations and bug fixes.

  • Assistant Art Director at Evolution Studios (Sony)
    March 2011 - February 2012

    Motorstorm RC:

    I served as assistant art director on Motorstorm RC released on PSN and PlayStation Vita in February 2012

    Responsibilities included:

    - Working alongside the art director in defining the look of the environments.

    - Liaising regularly with designers and concept artists to discuss aspects of the game.

    - During the production I was responsible for managing the environment art team to deliver all environments on schedule and to quality on both platforms.

    - Lighting, bug killing and polish for the majority of the tracks. I've also contributed a full environment from design to completion called Roadblock.

    - Provision of various marketing assets was also needed. This included in-game screenshots and high quality renders of in-game assets.

  • Environment Artist at Evolution Studios (Sony)
    April 2009 - January 2011

    Motorstorm Apocalypse:

    On this project my main task was to design and produce the track called Interstate. There were four different variants created. I was responsible for producing artwork and working on the level design and dealing with outsource assets.

  • Environment Artist at Evolution Studios (Sony)
    October 2008 - March 2009

    Motorstorm Pacific Rift DLC:

    My contributions to the expansion pack entitled “SPEED” included the tracks Darkfire Swamp and Quicksands. I was responsible for designing and carrying out all the related tasks to bring both of these tracks through production.

  • Environment Artist at Evolution Studios (Sony)
    July 2007 - October 2008

    Motorstorm Pacific Rift:

    Staring as a prop artist I moved on to work as an environment artist. I was responsible for the track Sugar Rush ensuring the track was bug free, completed on time and to quality.

  • Junior Artist at Evolution Studios (Sony)
    May 2007 - July 2007

    Motorstorm DLC:

    In a junior artist role I was responsible for creating assets for two DLC tracks.