SPINDLE

Personal Project

TimelineToolsMy ContributionContributors
Nov - Dec 2023ProcreateAllN/A
Notes
I started SPINDLE as a small project to practice completely fleshing out a character design for production. In particular, I wanted to create turnarounds, skin designs, VFX concepts, and try to find creative ways to format my work for display.
They began as a long-held desire to design a character with a yo-yo weapon AND a sewing themed character! The more I thought about it, the two ideas went hand in hand and so Spindle was born! I played around with the idea of yo-yo's originating from the Philippines for Spindle's nationality and the zipper motif (to go along with the sound that a speedy yo-yo might make).

Star Guard

Personal ProjectAfter discovering a sword powered by an unsanctioned star fragment, René searches for a wishing well to use the star fragment and make a wish. René must keep the sword hidden while evading/fighting off creatures that feed off stars.


Re:Fresh

A cozy 3D exploration platformer with solarpunk aesthetics

Re:Fresh Launch Trailer

TimelineToolsMy ContributionContributors
Sep 2022 - Dec 2022
Jan 2023 - Apr 2023
Procreate
Blender
Photoshop
Unity
Lead Artist
(Concept Art,
Character and Environment Art,
Rigging, Animation, Lighting,
VFX, Art Implementation,
Art Scripting, Merch/Promotional Art)
Will Sords: Audio Designer
Ethan Godwin: Lead Level Designer
Connor Blankenship: Systems Designer & Gameplay Programmer
Joseph Horak: Systems Designer & Narrative Scripter
Melody Geiger: Producer & Setdresser

Grant Ross: QA & Music Composition
Jasper Murphy: Music Arrangement & Composition
Katherine Creevy: Trailer Director/Editor
Notes
Working in a team of 6, I was the sole artist on this 7 month project! One of the biggest lessons I faced during this project was knowing what I COULDN'T do. The sheer amount of work I had as the only artist meant that I had to learn where to cut corners (for example, forgoing UVs/texturing for using materials) and when to use third party asset packs. As somebody who tends to overestimate the amount of work I can do, it took some time for me to know my limits and communicate that with my team.

Work on this project was divided into two phases (for each semester of our senior courses). Our first semester we finished with our Early Access version of the game, with the general flow and structure of the game complete and fully playable. Our second semester was focused on polish, getting the game on Steam, as well as organizing on our own accord to showcase our game at many different events including the 2023 Game Developer’s Conference, 2023 Develop:Brighton, 2023 Houston Games Expo, and Austin’s local indie meetup, Games Y’all.

We're currently in the process of porting Re:Fresh to the Nintendo Switch, in collaboration with Negative Karma!

Re:Fresh is currently available on Steam!

The rig used for all characters, in Blender! You can see the tail bones for the animal NPCs on the back side. In hindsight, it would have been useful to have IK on the arms, but I was still able to make do without.

The character animations in engine! For the special animations and the emotes, I used animation events to change the face textures or to activate props and VFX


Merch and Promotional Art

Through the hard work of our Producer, Melody Geiger, and Assistant Producer/Sound Designer Will Sords, we had the amazing opportunity to showcase our game at the 2023 Game Developer’s Conference at a GDC Play booth.One of the ways we raised money for GDC was by selling Re:Fresh shirts! I had originally designed and created apparel for the Re:Fresh development team in fall 2022 as a fun silkscreen printing project for myself. I was able to rework the design as an easily marketable shirt to sell as part of our fundraiser.

After we finished development, we continued our fundraising efforts by printing these posters! I started from a high resolution screenshot from Unity and did a paintover for the final result.

I've done a few drawings things here and there for our social media, but I particularly like this animation I made to announce that our shirts have been shipped!


Tech Art

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Shaders

Notes    
goop shaderbubble shaderchannel packerno cell zone for refreshhologram for refresh


VFX

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Notes
Taking inspiration from the
petra vfx -- slash?


Rigging

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BTS's "Dynamite" Animated Music Video

Had the absolute honor to work on the animated music video for BTS's "Dynamite" for the 2022 VMAs!

TimelineToolsMy ContributionContributors
May 2022 - Aug 2022Procreate
After Effects
Co-Director, AnimatorHari Jeung: Co-Director, Animator, Compositor
Elena Liem: Background Artist/Colorist
Other Colorists: Jake Nguyen,
Robin Guan, Alex Huang, Valeria Treviño,
Esther Yeum

Here's a quick process breakdown of one my scenes


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3D Animation

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Bubble Punks [ Early Development ]

A 3D action platformer with giant bubble wands and an impactful climate narrativeCurrently in development!

Gameplay of the vertical slice

TimelineToolsMy ContributionContributors
Concepting Phase:
    Sep 2023 - Dec 2023
Production Phase:
    Jan 2024 - Present
Procreate
Blender
Unity
Art Director/Art LeadMelody Geiger: Producer
Will Sords: Audio Director
Joseph Horak: Narrative Director
Ethan Godwin: Design Director
Connor Blankenship:
Adhan Razzaque: Engineer
Alex Hanlin: Engineer
Sean O'Connor: Engineer
Noah Kuhn: Engineer
Arthur Dale: Designer/Player Animator
Kelly Shen: Concept/2D Artist
Notes
If you'd like to read through a longer write-up of my work on the Bubble Punks vertical slice, you can find it here!



Character Art




Environment Art




VFX




Shaders




Art Direction




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My ContributionContributors
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Mega Micro

A 2D WarioWare-like game jam, hosted by students for students

Mega Micro Gameplay, with win and lose screens

TimelineToolsMy ContributionContributors
Nov 2021 - Jan 2022Procreate
Photoshop
Unity
Lead Artist on Base Game
(Concept Art, Character and Background Art, Animation, VFX, UI)
Matthew Zhang: Programming, Compiling, Music
Rodrigo Okamoto: Programming, Compiling
Grant Ross: Design, Programming
Notes
Taking inspiration from the WarioWare series, the Mega Micro Game is composed of many different micro games (spanning from about 3-6 seconds) created by UT Austin’s game dev club (EGaDS!) members during our Mega Micro Game Jam. Us EGaDS! officers then compile the micro games into a larger framework, which I created the artwork for. I created the animations that are seen in between microgames, the timer during each microgame, the title screen, lose and win screens, and the concepts for everything! I also implemented the artwork into Unity. I experimented a lot with colors and textures for these animations: I wanted to give it the playful look that WarioWare has but give it a cute and energetic spin. This was also an exercise in working within restrictions, as the time between each microgame was limited and based off of 140 bpm music.

Mini Boss

Aside from the base game, I also worked on the mini boss for the project!

My ContributionContributors
Art, AnimationRobin Guan: Programming, Design
Jake Nguyen: Programming, Design, Mini Boss Rig
Matt Zhang: Music
Ali Kedwaii: SFX

Game Jams

Ever since my first game jam in 2019, I've done over 2 dozen game jams in my free time! These are just a few of them, but you can find more on my itch.io page


About

Hi! I’m Karina and I’m a concept artist and game art generalist.With experience in over 2 dozen game projects, I'm fueled by my love for working with passionate people. Recently, my project Re:Fresh has been nominated for Best Student Game for IGF 2024 and the 15th Unity Awards.The team of Re:Fresh has since gone on to start our own studio, Merge Conflict Studio, where I'm the Co-Founder and Art Director!When I’m not drawing or working on game projects, you can find me cooking, printmaking, reading, or attempting to make plushies! I've participated in and helped run my fair share of game jams, including the Global Game Jam Austin site for 2020-2022.I’ll be graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in May 2024 with a triple major in Arts and Entertainment Technologies (BS), Studio Art (BA), and Plan II Honors (BA).I'm always interested in new opportunities! Reach out to karina.teruya@gmail.com