Spotlight: Anthony O’Donnell, Art Director
28th Jun 2022
How did you get your job at d3t?
In 2020 d3t began expanding its Art team. I was contacted by a d3t employee who I worked with in the past about the role of Art Director at d3t. After meeting Louise, the Head of Art at d3t, and hearing about the plans, vision, and direction that the studio was wanting to go in, it left me feeling extremely excited and interested by the opportunity.
Having only ever heard good things about d3t and given all of the above I was eager to join the team, and thankfully everything came together to make that happen. Two years have now passed since that point and it has been a blast working alongside a great team who continue to go from strength to strength, alongside our work collaborating with our equally great clients.
What do you do day-to-day?
My role varies a lot and primarily focuses on the quality of the art produced across the multiple ongoing projects that we have at d3t.
Depending on the type of co-development work that the teams are engaged in, my responsibilities can range from directing and producing concept art and reference boards to guide the artists, to co-ordinating and inputting on art pipelines between the client and our art teams at d3t. In addition to these I also undertake art reviews to ensure that we as a team are hitting the quality bar and style set for each project. Along with also ensuring that the art that we produce is well made technically.
Game art is often about problem solving whether it be a creative or technical issue, so most of my days also involve ad-hoc or scheduled meetings to talk through solutions. The best part of this is that it involves working alongside both our clients and our in-house teams across all departments at d3t. Meaning that my days are essentially full of talking and collaborating with passionate game developers from across the globe – something that you really can’t beat!
Do you have any tips for people looking to get into the games industry?
One of the most general and applicable bits of advice that I’ve learned during my time in the games industry for artists is that tools, software, and pipelines will constantly evolve and change. There’s no point trying to learn them all but instead you should focus on strengthening your knowledge of the fundamentals of art.
In addition to this, make sure that you refine your understanding on what makes good and efficient game art from a technical and productivity point of view, best practices for modelling, UV’s, texel density and shader authoring. This is key, because when you combine a good understanding of how to produce well-made game art alongside strong art fundamentals, then there is very little that you won’t be able to do!
But also, never forget the classic advice because this still applies – quality over quantity and of course practice, practice, PRACTICE! Art is a journey and you’ll always be improving and evolving as an artist so never stop.
We are hiring
Stay tuned for more spotlight features coming soon. In the meantime, if you’re feeling inspired and want to join our team, check out our vacancies page!