Come to the Dark Side. Behind the Scenes of Character Creation at AB Games.

What the talk is about

Anna Kolodeiska, a character team lead at AB Games, shows how the studio creates characters for a mobile project with over a million daily players. Everything starts with the pipeline and the narrative side: an artist must understand the character's role, technical needs, social ties and animation. Next come a mood board for atmosphere and a reference board for concrete decisions such as silhouette, palette and textures. The team shoots its own references: poses, hands, fabrics and folds, with colleagues posing. Color schemes and costume details signal to players who is positive and who is an antagonist. After sketches, design variants and layer splitting, the character is painted with attention to lighting and rim light. In the Q&A she covers working in Photoshop and preparing files for animation. Useful for character artists and concept artists.