My name is Shayleen and I’m a senior 3D Character artist in the UK with 10+ years specialising in creating stylised characters, animals and props, as well as Art Directing for Twin Swans’ newest project. I have extensive experience collaborating with neighbouring disciplines in a team for production in Unity and Unreal on mobile AA and AAA.
Some of my notable projects include:
- SUPERVIVE
- Lynked: Banner of the Spark
- Battle Shapers
- Wylde Flowers
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Borderlands 3
- Heroes of the Storm
Having worked in a range of aesthetics and genres with substantial experience in high to low modelling and optimisation pipelines for games; I have an in-depth knowledge of working with both PBR texturing pipelines and hand painted textures whilst being able to develop efficient pipelines to better streamline the workflow for flexibility and adaptability.
My strengths lie in effective communication and strong comprehension of the fundamentals and intricacies of art theory and stylisation, as well as a drive to collaborate with my clients and mentees in creating a product they can be proud of. Working on both bespoke hero designs and customisable character assets. I have a solid understanding of the needs of neighbouring disciplines in animation, engineering and production for testing and implementing the character models in-engine. I have also aided in developing and documenting pipelines for customisable character creators.
You can find more about my work and experience here:
https://shayleenhulbert.artstation.com/
https://shayleenhulbert.artstation.com/resume
If you are interested in working together, please don’t hesitate to email me at sh.designs@hotmail.co.uk
I’d love to hear from you!
Some brief testimonials from previous clients:
"She often brought creative suggestions to push the designs further and she always communicated clearly when something might cause issues down the line. That kind of awareness and professionalism is something we found really valuable."
“Her clear direction and well-crafted art bible ensured consistency and aligned perfectly with my artistic vision. Thanks to her expertise, the game's look improved significantly. I highly recommend Shayleen to anyone seeking skilled and strategic leadership for their art team.”
"She played a key role in developing the workflow of our characters bringing real value to the project, taking concepts and pushing them further, working diligently with tech animation, contributing many ideas and insights to the team. Would always be happy to have her working as part of my studio."
"Not only is she an exceptionally talented character artist, she brings an unparalleled level of quality and attention to detail that is such a rarity. An absolute delight to work & collaborate with."
"Shayleen is an exceptional character artist who consistently delivers outstanding work. She quickly adapted to our style and provided valuable creative additions, consistently exceeding expectations and delivering results that went beyond the concept."
"She has a great understanding of the technical side of building in-game models as well as when and how best to push stylization or realism, and her work was always high quality."
While collaborating closely with the outsourcing leads at Soulforge Studios, I was responsible for modelling skins and chromas for playable characters and props for Theorycraft Games’ newest release.
-Detailed box modelled blockouts that were animation ready for implementation tests
-Organically sculpted hair, cloth and anatomy
-Hard surface modelled armour and weapons
-Implemented assets into engine using in house tools
-Communicated between other outsource studios hired for the project to collaborate on animation pipelines
-Provided daily structured updates for the core client on Soulforge Studios behalf
-Utilized using a comprehensive high-to-low PBR pipeline for Unreal Engine
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I collaborated closely with the art and direction team to maintain visual consistency across all models while building a highly flexible and time efficient pipeline for creating vast amounts of skins for the player upon release.
-Organically sculpted hair and cloth
-Hard surface modelled armor and bespoke mecha characters
-Built highly customisable cosmetics, hair, costume and props that would be using tint masks and could morph depending on body type
-Utilized using a comprehensive high-to-low PBR pipeline for Unreal Engine
Collaborated with the technical animation team to help develop a customisable character creator that would allow for different head and body shapes to wear various items. I was responsible for onboarding the new character artists to be proficient with this tool.
-Collaborated with art direction, concept and animation teams on early development rapid character design exploration
-Created diverse cosmetic variations of bodies, costume and props using tint masks in Unity
-Created highly adaptable and optimised characters with LODs to allow for high levels of customisation for a 60 player game
I was tasked with creating models and textures for hand-painted farm animals and farmyard automatons. I utilized bakes from a sculpted mesh as a foundation to build a black and white base, using gradient maps to generate rapid and efficient color variations for each mesh. The software used included Maya, 3D Coat, Photoshop, and ZBrush. The characters were finally rendered in an unlit environment.
With Otherside Entertainment in association with Wizards of the Coast on an unnamed announced title; I was the sole character artist responsible for early visual exploration and defining technical workflows for the main cast of characters, character prop production and implementation of said characters in Unreal Engine.
Unable to give more details until release
Modelled and textured bespoke hard surface characters including the main character ‘Ada’, enemies with variations, level bosses and props for Battle Shapers.
-Worked closely with art direction, concept and animation to develop high quality bespoke hard surface characters
-Utilized a high to low modelling PBR pipeline for Unreal Engine
-Developed hard surface characters with high levels of animation requirements, eg: Volt Colossus and Ada’s Arm
I am currently volunteering as part of the core team for London's game industry community, Games Events London (twitter.com/GELondon2019). GEL was founded in 2019 and our mission has from the very beginning is focused on promoting diversity and inclusivity in the Games Industry of the Greater London Area. Our ethos is to nurture Diversity, Education and Community with a variety of topics, hosted by studios across London.
You can find out more about us here: https://www.gameseventslondon.com/
I am responsible for planning the overall structure of the evening. Communication and support for the speakers, delegating tasks to the support team on the night (who is checking tickets, who is laying out food and drink etc). General planning of the scope for the organisation, the calendar plans of what topics/fields to cover and general day to day support.
Asset creation for Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart on the villian, DR.Nefarious via OMNOM Workshop for Insomniac Games.
Responsible for the full PBR modelling pipeline including hard surface modelling, sculpting, game res topology with full PBR texture set. Primarily using Zbrush, Maya and Substance painter.
You can see a sneak peak of him here:
https://youtu.be/GffelVJeGws?t=109
Cancelled project - - Angry Birds Legends
I was responsible for creating models and textures for hand-painted playable characters that would form a custom team. I then utilized bakes from a sculpted mesh as a foundation to build a black and white base, using gradient maps to generate rapid and efficient color variations but with custom channel maps that made each character skin dynamically tintable. Each character could come in various colours and were also upgradable using mesh swaps. The software used included Maya, Substance Painter, Photoshop, and ZBrush.
Unable to give any details about the project or game itself.
I was commissioned to write and edit a 5 page spread workflow tutorial for issue 126 of 3DArtist, breaking down in detail my process for developing a stylised character using Sakura as an example. See the project used here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/PmaOE1
It is still available to purchase online in a PDF format!
I working as a 3D modeller texturing for The Google Assistant Ride, showcased at CES 2019. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvB-0DQB2YY I was responsible for modelling and texturing the traffic scene shown at 1:04 and the storm seen shown at 1:21 and assistance for work needed across the rest of the experience. The ride was prevised in unity for the executive and construction teams before being showcased.
I was the sole character artist for Variable State's new project for the term stated above. I was responsible for developing an artistic style and approach for quick efficient character creation that was incredibly expressive and taking the character bio's and briefs to design and create the main cast, side characters and crowds. Developing characters that needed to fit a shared rig and facial blends for quick generation of customizable models, crowd generation and bespoke main characters focusing on emotive and diverse designs.
A diverse cast was incredibly important to us, so I took photos from crowds in London to base the spectrum of people from all backgrounds on and worked together with design to develop the characters concept.
Using a metallic workflow in Unity engine, Zbrush, Marvelous Designer and Maya pipeline to efficiently develop a large varied cast.
See an early look at the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKhPE-SERK0
For the new Spyro Reignited trilogy The Red Lizard.
The character was created using the full high to low pipeline in Zbrush, may and substance painter.
You can see some gameplay here with them here: https://youtu.be/0Ab7ttfvEbM
I sculpted and retoped a skin for Cassia in the Lunar event2018 for Heroes of the storm. I worked with Omnom workshop to create this skin for Blizzard as Omnom workshop completed the textures. Using Zbrush and Maya.
Asset creation for Borderlands 3 developing wearable hats for one of the playable characters. More details on my portfolio!
Developed the two lead characters of Little Wolf's unannounced cancelled title.
One humanoid and one quadruped creature from provided concept art. Both using the PBR metallic workflow for Unreal Engine and a high to low modelling pipelines in Zbrush and Maya.
Working as a general artist for The Trail
My tasks ranged from concept art on characters/props/environments,
UI design, animation and implementation for the HUD and interactable items
Environmental FX
Marketing and branding design, designing the logo, marketing assets for steam, apple and socials,
Working alongside the programming team to develop and support minigame features by creating and implementing the art assets
Developing customisable character assets, clothes, hair, faces