Nicolas' Illustration & Character Design Portfolio

NicolasRix

Hi Everyone,
I've been wanting to post of my art here quite some time. I don't have a ton of in game art but I am starting to produce some stuff and collaborating with a Unity developer soon. I've been involved with one or two games in the past. I did the UI and art assets for a Chevrolet Cricket game about 5 years ago but that's really not what I'm interested in doing.

My main focus has been character design, illustration, comic books and on the odd occasion - storyboards. I have a background in Web UI and App UI as that's been my main form of income (day job) for the last 15 years. My illustration and character design as always been in my own time and remains my true passion. Visual storytelling is where it is all at. Games epitomize visual storytelling.

In case these images aren't visible,
Website
Tumblr
Behance
Facebook
Instagram (Just Character Sketches and some cat photos)

I'm on that Twitter thing:
Twitter

Directly contactable via email: nicolasrix@gmail.com

Let's get to some pretty pictures.

CHARACTER DESIGN





























ILLUSTRATION















I'll be sure to add more relevant game type art soon.

francoisvn

Welcome to MGSA!

I think your work looks great! I'd be keen to hear more about the game you mentioned you're starting work on soon. Are you looking to get more into game dev, or just dabbling? I think the visual storytelling angle is really cool. Have you looked at using tools like Twine (http://twinery.org/) to put something together yourself?

If you're wanting to get a jump start with game dev, I highly recommend taking part in the next Ludum Dare (Aug 21 - 24). Basically, in a weekend you work to make a small game. It can be super fun, and the results are often really surprising. If you're in CT or Joburg areas, you should also definitely come to one of the monthly meetups.

NicolasRix

The game I'll be helping out on is a roguelike adventure game. Just doing sprites and texture tiles for the developers. I've always been keen to work on a game. I'm no developer, so I'd stick to the art, lighting, style and maybe how the UI can tie in with the games look. So more of an Art Direction role than designing how the game might work.

I'll hopefully go to the next CT meetup.

Elyaradine

Beautiful work! I love the character and stylisation. It's something I've struggled to nail in my own work.

francoisvn

@NicolasRix: I feel like UX and game design have so much to learn from each other and this is often neglected. I found this article a while back that nicely highlights some of the differences and similarities: http://www.raphkoster.com/2015/06/29/game-design-ux-design/

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, from someone that's just getting into game dev. Some of the work we do is in new UX research, so having a bit of knowledge about game design has given us some UX insights that have gone a long way.

Glad to hear you'll be at the CT meetup :)

NicolasRix

All I can really comment on regarding UX is on the UI part of things. An interfaces controls should feel cohesive and part of the game and never feel like they dont belong part of the game. They should provide tactile feedback to the user and never get the way of performing that difficult task that a gamer might to do over and over until they get it right. Basically it should be the easiest thing to use in the game. Additionally you might add UI elements to a game screen that are important to let the user/gamer know whats happening.

Like Link's life hearts in Legend of Zelda which is a simple yet very important part of that games ui and directly impact the ux side of things. The other thing is to of course know how much you can take away or hide but allow the gamer access to when they need it.

I hope I'm not rambling here :/ This is just what I understand about it all.

fjlaubscher

I like it :D

garethf

Fantastic work!

francoisvn

@NicolasRix: so I think I have a slightly different understanding of what UX entails. If it's something you're interested in, It would be great to chat a bit about it at the meetup, I don't want to derail your thread now :)

Jelligeth

Very cool! Nice consistent style. Do you do 2D animation? This seems like it would lend well to that.

BenJets

Lovely work! Looking forward to seeing how things come together with the game!

EvanGreenwood

@NicolasRix Your work is great! (A colleague of yours linked me to it a year or two back, glad to see you taking the plunge into MakeGamesSA)

I really want your art to be in some South African games.