Petlab
RELEASE: April 20, 2018
PLATFORM: Gear VR, Oculus Go
FUNCTION: Lead Artist
Petlab is a whimsical VR experience for Gear VR and Oculus Go that invites players to create, train, and customize magical creatures in their own shop. Serving as the Lead Artist, I spearheaded the 3D production and technical implementation of the game’s visuals. While the Art Director focused on concept development, I was responsible for translating those high-level designs into performant, “furry and friendly” 3D assets that defined the final look and feel of the mobile VR experience.
AVERAGE TEAM SIZE: ~50 total, ~14 Artists
ENGINE: Unreal 4
MY CONTRIBUTIONS:
- Art Pipeline Development: Designed and documented the 3D art pipelines, establishing technical standards for asset creation and engine integration to ensure high-end visuals remained stable on mobile VR hardware.
- UI & Interaction Direction: Directed the art style and execution of the interactive “Book UI,” as well as the design of ingredients and potions, ensuring these tactile elements felt intuitive and grounded in the VR space.
- Environmental & Lighting Direction: Provided art direction for the lighting and mood across all environments, working with the team to achieve a vibrant, stylized look that performed well within mobile draw-call limits.
- Technical Creature Oversight: Guided the 3D modeling and animation workflows, specifically managing the testing and implementation of the modular customization system (adornments, scaling, and color variations).
- Operational Leadership: Accountable for the day-to-day coordination of the art team. I managed task prioritization, planning, and distribution to ensure the project met its production milestones.
- External Coordination: Managed the audio outsourcing pipeline, ensuring the playful soundscape was tightly integrated with the visual style.
INTERESTS & CHALLENGES:
Petlab holds a special place in my career because it felt like solving a giant creative puzzle. Our goal was to deliver high-fidelity, stylized visuals on extremely limited mobile hardware, which required us to be very strategic about where we spent our budget. The project presented several unique challenges:
- Modular Complexity: To support a wide variety of creature shapes within a limited timeline, we utilized a single universal rig. Coordinating a pipeline where diverse creature designs and modular adornments functioned seamlessly on a shared skeleton was a necessary strategic move to stay within our performance budgets and project schedule.
- Visual Budget Prioritization: We opted for a stylized environment specifically to minimize the performance overhead of realistic aesthetics. This allowed us to allocate computing power toward the creatures, ensuring they received the attention they deserved, including the “furry” look, while remaining strictly within mobile budgets for draw calls and polygons.