Studio AI-Native Production

2024Game case study

Gamma
Strain

I produced the full visual concept book for Gamma Minus: creatures, weapons, props, environments. I worked under a traditional art director. The 3D team then took the boards into production, and used the weapons in particular.

Client Gamma Minus Role Visual development Year 2024 Production 70+ hours
BriefA full visual concept book for a game world: creatures, weapons, props and environments, produced under the client’s art director.
ScopeFull visual concept book, 4 sections: Environment Weapon Props Creature
ConstraintsTraditional art director. I passed the art test, then he taught me the production codes.
Delivered14 numbered boards, A/B/C/D variant sheets, narrative environment briefs, cover visual, banner, process boards
What happened nextThe 3D team adopted the designs, the weapons in particular.

The test first. The job started like any traditional pipeline. I took an art test, a traditional art director judged it, then he walked me through the production codes of the craft. What came after is ordinary studio work. I numbered the boards and gave each one a title block. I sorted the creatures into classes by mutation stage, and grouped the weapons into families with their iteration sheets. I ran the props as variant series, and I wrote the brief straight onto the narrative environment boards. I delivered the cover visuals and the process boards with them.

The proof. The world is dead, so I kept it in necrotic greys and dark teal. I gave each family one luminous accent: gamma gold, visceral red, bio-cyan. The designs read clean and stay modelable. The 3D team adopted them and took them into production, the weapons in particular.

The book

Fourteen Numbered Boards

Wide black banner with the Gamma Strain wordmark and Gamma Minus logo over a collage of creature and environment art.
Gamma Strain — Title Banner
Design board showing two full-body views of a pale humanoid infected creature.
Class 1 Organism — Variants A/B
Design board with several views of a hunched four-limbed infected creature.
Class 2 Organism — Variants A/B
Design board of a spindly-legged creature carrying a bulbous yellow growth on its back.
Class 3 Organism — Unique Variant
Weapon design board presenting a compact assault rifle on a light background.
Assault Rifle — Variants A/B
Vertical board stacking three design iterations of the assault rifle.
Assault Rifle — Iterations
Weapon design board with three views of a compact submachine gun.
SMG — Variants A/B/C
Lineup of seven bioluminescent alien flora props on a dark background.
Environment Props — 7 Variants
Lineup of five glowing organic growth props on a dark background.
Environment Props — 5 Variants
Two stacked night scenes of an infested city street lit by yellow storefronts.
Environment — Night Mood
Two stacked scenes of organic growths spreading through urban stairways and alleys.
Environment — Virus Proliferation
Wide shot of a rooftop courtyard overtaken by pink organic growths.
Environment — Virus Propagation
Wide shot of an armed figure moving through an infested backstreet.
Environment — The Search
Wide shot of a survivor facing a glowing infection bloom in a ruined street.
Environment — Epicenter
Cover visual of two survivors advancing down a city street toward a towering infected growth.
Cover Visual — Team Up To Survive
Square title card with the Gamma Strain wordmark and Gamma Minus logo over a close-up of infected tissue.
Gamma Strain — Cover Card
Grid of generative anatomy, texture and color-scheme explorations for the infected creatures.
Pre-Processing — Anatomy Explorations I
Second grid of generative anatomy and silhouette explorations for the creatures.
Pre-Processing — Anatomy Explorations II
Grid of refined creature iterations exploring design, details and tweaks.
Post-Processing — Design Tweaks I
Second grid of refined creature iterations and pose studies.
Post-Processing — Design Tweaks II
Process board with a full-body render and detail crops of creature variant A.
Class 1 Organism — Variant A Board
Process board with a full-body render and detail crops of creature variant B.
Class 1 Organism — Variant B Board
Process board with a full-body render of creature variant C with hooked limbs.
Class 1 Organism — Variant C Board
Detail board of the hooked, bladed limbs of creature variant C.
Variant C — Limb Details
Clean full-body render of the variant C creature on a dark background.
Variant C — Final Render
Square title card with the Gamma Strain wordmark over the final variant C creature render.
Gamma Strain — Closing Card