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

Summary

All my life I’ve had a strong passion for the creative arts, especially those centered around creating worlds or bringing ideas to life such as movies, video – games and comic books. To this day my passion remains and my prime motivation is still to produce high quality art with a like-minded team. I enjoy working alongside other artists and seeing them succeed. Mentoring and helping other artists develop is an aspect of my job I’ve enjoyed over the years.

I’m a well-rounded artist with a lot of proven experience in game art production. Including visual design and direction. I continue to push my skillset in both 2d and 3d art alongside staying apprised of new techniques and software emerging to continually improve my workflows. My strong technical knowledge related to game art compliments my knowledge of traditional art fundamentals. Continual personal development is something I believe in no matter how much I think I may know there’s always more to learn.

After being fortunate enough to work in the games industry since 2007 I now more than ever try to share any wisdom I’ve gained thus far with aspiring artists who wish to enter the industry today. This has led me down the path of going back to producing tutorials to share online and getting involved with the Grads in Games – Search for a Star event as an assessor and Judge in 2019, 2020, 2021. More recently I've given a talk at DEVELOP '23 and am mentoring via Limit Break Mentorship during 2023.

Tutorial content and more will be available on my Artstation Store and Gumroad here:

https://app.gumroad.com/antodonnell

I've started an Instagram account to capture my sketchwork and WIP's

https://www.instagram.com/nathdevlin2522/

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q923MorQUPo&t=1s

https://open.spotify.com/episode/536H4fYofcKr8Fw9bylero?si=8cf67009ca234079

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

Resume PDF

View

Skills

Environment DesignEnvironment ModelingTexturingVisual DevelopmentLevel DesignComic ArtConcept ArtPBR Texturing3D 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
      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 studios. Supporting and mentoring the internal art team and collaborating with clients to achieve the highest quality across all the projects.

    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.

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

    Exoborne - Sharkmob - ...

    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.

    - Immersive FPS

    - Competitive FPS

    - Arena FPS

    All intentionally vague :P

  • 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.