John McKenna
Technical VFX
TGA Game Projects
Our project group was called Hade Haj Studios and we worked in an inhouse engine called One Engine created by the students in the Programming education.
Animation:
Tobias Hart
Sandra Anden
Fredrika Karlsson
Art:
William Harrysson
Joel Herslow
Thorbjörn Jensen
Gustav Larsson
Level Design:
Tim Andersson
Svante Liven
Axl Ahlkvist
Tobias Hart
Sandra Anden
Fredrika Karlsson
Art:
William Harrysson
Joel Herslow
Thorbjörn Jensen
Gustav Larsson
Level Design:
Tim Andersson
Svante Liven
Axl Ahlkvist
Programming:
Rasmus Ekelund
Christos Kalanidis
Fadi Makdes
Felix Dunmar
Remi Mrozek
Aron Johansson
Technical Art/VFX:
Axel Fransson
John McKenna
Music:
Kristian Lindberg
Rasmus Ekelund
Christos Kalanidis
Fadi Makdes
Felix Dunmar
Remi Mrozek
Aron Johansson
Technical Art/VFX:
Axel Fransson
John McKenna
Music:
Kristian Lindberg
Project #1: Sunborne
The game is a hack n slash based on Diablo III where our main character is a sacrificial victim who is reanimated by the gods to seek vengeance against a bloodthirsty cult. This project was 14 weeks (4hours/day).
My responsibilites during this project were environment shaders in HLSL, VFX, and creating SFX. For the first project that Technical Artists take part in, there is a learning curve getting aquainted with the inhouse engine created by the programming students, and learning the ins-and-outs of the pipeline between graphics, animation and level designer.
Horde Enemy Monkey Claw attack:
Bloodbomb attack:
My main learning during this project was the importance of communication and scope. Early on I took on the responsibility to create a river of blood that would flow in different directions around the world. I learned so much about shaders and HLSL during the development, and managed to create a vertex painted flowmap that flowed faster when vertical, unfortunately we had trouble implementing it into the game.
In hindsight I would have focused more time on prototyping many diverse types of shaders, vfx and particle systems for enemies.
In hindsight I would have focused more time on prototyping many diverse types of shaders, vfx and particle systems for enemies.
Project #2: Serpentine Estate
The second project took place over 14 weeks (4hours/day). The game is a Third Person Shooter based on Resident Evil 2, where you play as a journalist investigating the mysterious occurances at the Serpentine Estate. My responsibilities in this project were Shaders, VFX, Storyline, Voice Acting, and sound implementations.
Muzzleflash & Smoke VFX
Interactable Object Shader
In the beginning of this project I believed we had a moderate scope for all disciplines, but during the production it became clear we had created some challenges in scope and scale. I feel we were good at navigating this together, to find the relevant cuts and to refocus what we wanted to achieve individually and together.