What are you working on?
What stage of the dev cycle are you in? I've worked with enough studios to know what you're dealing with. Let me try a cold read.
You have a team or studio with a cool project and you're looking for all-star players to amplify your organization.
Whether you're in the early ideation phase trying to make sense of chaos, toiling on that vertical slice, deep in production crushing those milestones or about to cross the finish line-
I've been there one way or another.
I'm the experienced senior who's already seen your exact situation.
You delegate, and I deliver great work on schedule along with pipeline docs your whole team can use.
Shipped Games I contributed to:
Void Future - Technical Art Director
Trinity Fusion - Lead Environment Artist
Brawlout - Senior 3D Artist
AVP Evo - 2D/ 3D Artist
The indie arena challenged me to cultivate a very deep versatility and self-reliance. It made me build a wide palette of skills, from sketching ideas to modeling/ texturing/ shading, to packing assets in-engine.
There was no stage where I couldn't contribute.
If I can imagine it, I can take it to engine in a competent fashion, simple as that.
It's a very liberating and powerful place to be, not to mention anti-fragile with the quick tech changes nowadays.
Here's what you're getting:
A seasoned game artist who can operate as a senior across
multiple disciplines AND understands how they all connect.
Problems I Solve
How I Integrate
I'm bringin'
Availability & Terms
My objective is to bring creativity, rich ideas, bold visuals and intellectual capital that bolster your company.
The high-octane senior-level game development chops and meticulous 2D/ 3D work is the bonus.
Hello, I'm Daniel, and I'm a Technical Art Director.
Before going digital I drew, painted, etched, engraved, press-printed, modeled, sculpted, cast plaster, set mosaic, developed photos. Explored media from the most natural to the most technical.
Then in 2006 I tried a 3D program. I didn't understand it at all.
Took a break. Kept trying. 2010, I got paid to work on games.
Full disclosure: I loved it. Still do. What do I do for a living?
I make & I manage game art. 15 Years and counting.
Organizing comes naturally to me (and I make diagrams n' spreadsheets for fun).
I build systems that facilitate making great-lookin' great-runnin' art. I develop documentation, establish workflows and pipelines, solve technical challenges, and hitch that beautiful creative vision with the hairy technical implementation.
This is me displaying my best eastern-european smile, ear to ear.
I'm all about capturing rich and creative ideas with solid craftsmanship and execution.
I love to work on creative projects that need fresh ideas as much as they need good art.
Hot take: game graphics don't matter.
Scandalous, right?
Disclaimer: I geek out about billion-polygon meshes and 16k textures and 64x Temporal Antialiasing and HDR Bloom as much as the next person, but I'm afraid memorable games need a little bit more than that to look visually gripping.
It's that stuff that the engine can't provide... bit of style, flavor... and with the risk of sounding pretentious... art.
Art requires taste, craftsmanship, personality and guts.
Think of the titles that we fondly remember, or even the top selling games of all time.
What do they have in common? Nope, not high fidelity graphics. They have style.
Graphics impress, but art moves.
We've seen enough demo-vs-retail debacles to know that chasing fidelity alone is a risky (and often losing) game.
Untold hours sunk into meticulous details that get cut out, compressed into nothing or washed away by a Motion Blur.
Way too much effort invested into something that will look dated by next year's tech. Graphics age like milk, art ages like wine.
But why does stuff merely "looking fantastic" not seem to hold attention any more?
I'll venture to say it's because sheer tech firepower can't replace a cultivated and decisive human touch.
At the end of the day it's people we're making games for, and real recognize real, right?
If that rings true for you, then you're in the right place.
What do you value?
Select the traits that matter to you
I work as a contractor
Employees are loyal and embedded. Freelancers are efficient.
Contractors bring the best of both worlds, without HR headaches.
You only pay for results
You pay for work that you can use, not for time.
Full responsibility
Should anything fall short, I'll make it right by you. I'll smooth out conflicts, I'll overtime to fix the work.
Skin in the game
Self-Managed
Time flies, but not on my watch.
Self-sufficient
Owner-Operator
We can talk business as owners and talk work as peers.
NO. BENCHING.
no worries if you don't have anything for me for a time,
it's not a problem if we have to take a break or disconnect.
Operational benefits
No taxes or hidden fees
I handle all my accounting and operational costs.
Pricing
I don't do "Quotes" since I can't prescribe without diagnosing. Each project comes with its own complexity.
For peace of mind and mutual respect, I practice Fixed Pricing- no unexpected charges, no haggling, no bull.
NONE of this is my jam. NONE.
Value-based investment
You're paying for results & expertise, not time logged.
Fair, upfront, transparent trade.
NO surprises, NO invoice-anxiety.
If it doesn't show on an invoice, you don't have to pay it. If you didn't agree to it, it won't show on an invoice.
I work Business-to-Business to make it frictionless for you - no HR drama, no sticky work permit situations, no hidden taxes or charges, just a trade of results for money.
One-time gigs are fine, but I favor long term relationships that grow, consolidate and compound over time.
Goes without saying, what's included-
"I make my living on repeat business. When you need what I'm offering, you know where to find me."
-Lawson, Better Call Saul
How I handle remote work 🛰
I can easily integrate with whatever you're using.
No framework yet? Here's the one I use privately:
Project Management
Meetings ⏲
It's ✨Free and Open Source✨, has great latency,
resolution, and most of all- prioritised privacy.
• I set a timer to make sure we don't ramble indefinitely.
• We hit all the points in the agenda together.
• We clarify next actions.
• We shoot the shit.
Live Sync 🟢
If async communication is sufficient, that's fine too.
Files 🖿
I'll easily adapt to whatever framework you've got going.
Living in Romania also gives me an cool perk: blazing fast internet.
Speaking of tools! -
Current toolbox 🛠
I've deliberately picked the cream of the crop in terms of what's on the market today.
I love finding and learning new software and I'm very intentional with what I use.
2D Software
Design/ Photo/ Video
Paintstorm Studio
Affinity Photo
Affinity Designer
DaVinci Resolve
3D Software
Model/ Texture/ Render
Blender
Plasticity
Maxon Zbrush
Marmoset Toolbag
Unity
Project tools
Keeping it all together
Getting Things Done® for time management.
Google Sheets for spreadsheets.
Basecamp for my own projects.
Pureref for ref boards.
Notion for bookmarks.
Obsidian for notes.
Industry Standard Pipeline
Before the tools above stole the show with their shiny features,
I had already built my expertise with the tried-and-true classics:
Autodesk 3dsMax (superseded & outclassed by Blender)
Adobe Photoshop (superseded by Affinity Photo)
Adobe Substance Painter (superseded by Marmoset Toolbag)
Adobe Premiere Pro (superseded by DaVinci Resolve)
Adobe After Effects (superseded by DaVinci Resolve)
Currently learning
Unreal Engine (porting Unity knowledge to it)
3D Coat (as lightweight alternative to Zbrush)
Resourceful & Versatile
Do you have a quirky in-house engine?
Do you use some obscure middleware that's barely holding together? Can't wait to see it!
I'm fascinated with rough and experimental software and the constraints it brings. I really nerd out about self-made tools.
I frequently re-evaluate my tools and try not to succumb to the Sunk Cost Fallacy.
I've been using computers since I was 8, so learning to use new programs is not a factor for me.
Software comes and goes. nDo, Xnormal, Crazybump, hell, even Blender before it was cool.
I care more about what it can do and how I can put it to good use than prestige and what's trendy.
I'm really into early-adopting stuff, I get a kick from learning and playing around in crude interfaces.
How I handle projects
If you're just starting out and you haven't had contractors in, here's how I work:
❶ Diagnosing
at best it burns time & cash, at worst it foreshadows disaster.
❷ Delivering
❸ Change Requests
❹ Deadlines
❺ Review
Success AND failure.
All surfaced and analyzed.
I proactively make the effort to integrate both in your work groove and your team's culture.
If you have a workflow, I integrate into it from day one. If you don't, I'll bring one.
FAQ
Are you likely to "go dark" on me?
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
When life happens and I might have to put out fires, I'll announce it well ahead of time and enact contingency plans so that you're minimally affected.
Are you AI-compatible/ AI-savvy?
Yes, and dare I say I'm good with it.
But to be clear, generation is NOT creativity.
"Can you match our art style?"
Absolutely, here's my attack plan.
A Pilot project is a rubber-meets-the-road test run- a slice of real, useful work that's hefty enough to show you how I tackle problems, think, create, execute and deliver, and most of all, how I relate to you and yours.
This is not a flimsy art test fraught with uncertainty, vague hopes, poor communication and hit-or-miss deliverables. Anyone can bullshit though an interview.
Once we agree on the scope and the price, I'll diagnose the situation, offer solutions and get to work implementing them.
By the end you'll have solid proof of how I operate, what I bring to the table, what my skills are like and how my expertise fares in a real use case- not to mention some tangible results to boot!
If it works out, we've got a great partnership going.
At that point you'll have a clear reference point from which to decide if you'd like to keep working with me or find someone else. Interviews are so 2000s!
