We’ve just wrapped up with our recent Artist in Residency. This time – Artist(S) in Residency: Recent game art environment graduates from the UK, Lucy Burbidge and Chris Lonsdale decided to tag team on a fantastic project for us, “Graveyard Diorama”.
https://sketchfab.com/models/d4235b1e14c44eeebd3147e89b3cbcfd
Lucy and Chris have proven to be a true success story, having completed the Game Art Design program at DeMontford University in Leicestershire, England, following their residency with us, they’re both off to work at Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland at the end of the month – home of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
During their residency they were wonderfully transparent about their workflow. Their forum thread has proven to be a great resource to see behind-the-scenes and learn how talented artists create quality work.
The duo shared everything from “Photobashing” their concept:
To setting up the final lighting:
Since completing the final diorama, we got a chance to ask Lucy and Chris their thoughts on Sketchfab and their time in residency:
Paul (Sketchfab): This was your first time using Sketchfab. What have been your impressions? How did you integrate it into your workflow?
Lucy: I’ve actually used Sketchfab a little bit before, but only to really look at old university projects. That was just over a year ago so a lot has changed since then! I’ve loved using Sketchfab for this project. I’ve never really used 3D viewers much, I tend to render my work in either UE4 or Marmoset and leave it at that. Using Sketchfab for this project has definitely changed my view on that though – I feel more inclined to showcase my work in 3D viewers in the future to give a sense of immersion to the piece. I also love the annotations! They make storytelling that little bit more interesting!
In regards to how I integrated it into my workflow, I was constantly putting models into Sketchfab and Marmoset to get a feel for the scene and to see how the materials looked. I usually do all of this in Marmoset/UE4, so the switch wasn’t too difficult.
Paul: What’s next for you guys? Any big plans of projects coming up?
Chris: We’re working on a horror game actually, just in our spare time. We’re not programmers so we’ll see if it makes it onto Steam haha. Other than that we’ve been picked up by Rockstar North which is pretty ridiculous. It’s not really sunk in yet. But we’ll be there by February. It’s pretty exciting.
Lucy: We worked on the horror project a few months back. You can see screenshots here.
Lucy and Chris’s upcoming Horror Game
Paul: How do you foresee using Sketchfab in the future?
Lucy: I’ll definitely be using it in the future! I love the feedback from the community, so that’s a big yes to me using it more often. As I mentioned before, I’ll be posting some models and hopefully creating a new post on the forum to get feedback for the current project!
Chris: I create most environments in engine. But if I ever want to showcase some of the assets from an environment, I know where to go!
We wish Lucy and Chris the very best of luck with their exciting new adventure at Rockstar and the launch of their horror game. Make sure you catch up with their residency over at our forum.
https://sketchfab.com/models/96176f755a6d4f2eae23d38c1c1607ad
About the author
Paul Chambers
Artist Evangelist & Community outreach at Sketchfab, freelance CG Generalist, render-farm tinkerer. Zelda worshipper.
