Alex Figini is a game artist veteran who’s worked on Mass Effect 3, Motorstorm, and Anthem. We chat about career experiences, influences and what’s next in store.
Is art something you’ve always had your sights set on? How did you decide on becoming an artist?
I was interested in art even as a kid, primarily from comics, anime and all the games I’ve played. As far back as when I was 7 years old, I really enjoyed in particular the artistic aspect of those media. I’d see cool comic book covers and imitate them in sketches. This was earlier on before I even had access to the internet, around 1990-1991. So it was much harder to get exposure to foreign styles.
Around that time we went on vacation in France to see some family, and they just so happened to have Dragon Ball on. We never had it on back home. I was like My god! This is on a whole other level. It blew my mind. The next anime I saw was the original Vampire Hunter D, though I probably shouldn’t have seen that as a kid haha. It’s pretty violent, but I turned out alright. So from then on, when I was able to select my courses, I would choose art whenever I could. That’s when I really made the conscious decision to pursue it seriously and not just as a hobby. If I was going to do something for the rest of my life, I’d better enjoy it.
Later on, I actually left secondary school—similar to high school in the U.S.—to do a two year art and design course when I was 16. There I learned all my traditional foundations. I got a good taste of different mediums. Lots of life drawings…I even had to learn textiles at one point. (Sewing is hard!) From that course, I built up a portfolio so I could move on to University studying multimedia design. A few of the modules focused on game art, so I really honed in on that. After Uni I had enough material to piece together a game art portfolio. It was a really awful portfolio looking back on it. That was around 2003.
Tell us a bit about your early career.
After graduating University and months of applying, I was able to land a job at Evolution Studios. At the time, they were working on Motorstorm. It was a release title for PS3. That was my entry into the industry. I ended up staying there for 6 years and worked on the entire Motorstorm series. Sony had bought the studio, so I wound up working for them as well. I got to learn how games were made, how to interact with all the different departments. I learned what a concept artist really means in practice, and I made a lot of friends there.
After 6 years of working on racing games, I began to tire out a bit on the genre. I got an opportunity from a former colleague who had went over to Bioware Canada. He hit me up in 2011 and asked me if I would like to join them. I thought, if I don’t take the opportunity, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. So I took a leap of faith and moved to Canada. When I first arrived, they had just released Mass Effect 3. So I started working on the director’s cut which had additional content. I worked on a bunch of DLC like Leviathan and Citadel. Then we worked on a new IP which would later become Anthem.
What’s the Creative Process like working in a studio?
You work for the Art Director as a concept artist. It depends on the task, who’s giving it to you and at what stage of the project’s at. In the beginning, it’s usually exploratory work. You’re given some input that you’re able to steer. So in the beginning you have a lot of room for idea generation. It’s what we call the “Blue Sky” stage. Meaning if you could do whatever you want, what would it look like? Ignore all budget and time constraints. It’s just see what you can imagine—and worry about the details later. High level stuff. Or, the requester might have something clear in their mind for you to work on. Often times that’s the easiest situation because you have something specific to aim for. Often when it’s completely Blue Sky, it’s hard to hit the mark because you’re trying to please someone, but you don’t have the information to do that with any certainty. On the other hand, it can be really fun to take things in your own direction.
As the project moves forward, focus starts to tighten up. Briefs tend to be more concise and accurate. In terms of physical results, we start with a lot of sketches and as we start honing in, we move on to more advanced tools. You get feedback from clients, from the art director and working peers in the process. That’s how it works in-studio. As a freelancer, it’s a little different. You’re more likely to get a concise brief. Usually I want something pretty tight so we don’t waste each other’s time making something they don’t like in the end. The worst thing that a person can say is “like that, but different!” Unfortunately some people can be ambiguous at the start, then get very picky once it’s finished.
What advice do you have to aspiring concept artists?
It’s really a conversation to resolve. If it’s not clear for me I’ll ask questions. Someone will come to me and say, “We need a blue banana” and I ask like literally a fruit? Is it a 3D object, or a 2D image? After some digging, I find out that the original request is something completely different.
This happens often at big studios. It’s like a game of telephone where you only wind up getting a small remnant of what the original request was. So you have to play detective to get to the bottom of it.
That’s pretty incredible that you were able to get the position at Evolution right out of college.
Yeah, I lucked out to be honest. Looking back, I wouldn’t have hired me if I was in their shoes. I think the industry’s a bit different now. The bar’s been raised a lot for these entry level positions. Partly due to the abundance of information and tools available now. There’s Gumroad, Zbrush, Artstation, and just tons of online tutorials now. There’s way more skilled artists today than there was back then. It’s incredible. I almost hate to say it but, it’s so easy now. It lights a fire under you like “F**k, these new guys are really good, and they’re younger, and they’ve got more energy.” I think I’m lucky to be alive when this technology is available and the tools are still evolving. It’s more just about what you can dream up now.
Talk about your more recent influences
I’m a massive Ghost In The Shell fan. Masamune Shirow’s work is just incredible. He was the designer and creator of a ton of great stuff. I enjoyed his Appleseed series as well. He’s incredibly prolific and still a huge influence. Also, I’ve always loved martial arts films. When Ninja Scroll came out I was blown away. In terms of live action films, I really liked Shogun Assasin. It’s super bloody. It’s about this samuari and his son. It’s actually an edit of multiple Japanese films stitched together from another series to appeal to the American audience. It’s awesome, and it really opened my mind up to a violent aesthetic in media. Some other influences of mine are Fists of the North Star…Akira obviously. Cyber City Oedo 808 was about 3 main characters, very cyberpunk, and the episodes followed one character’s perspective. They were kind of like short stories in a way. That cyberpunk feel started to resonate with me back then. When I turned 15 or 16 with the internet, technology started to improve in tandem with all the cyberpunk themed anime. A new world of technology was opening up to me. Jin Roh is another good one, if you remember the hellghast from the game Killzone. These sort of “glowing eyed nazi soldiers” were heavily influenced by those in Jin Roh. It was unlike any anime I’ve seen before, it was very much a film and structured like a mature western narrative rather than a usual anime.
In my art I like to try and extrapolate where the future could be. Which, is really what cyberpunk is all about.
What’s common in a lot of anime is the atmospheric style that gives you the sense of a vast, living backdrop. Like when Kaneda’s bike gang crashes through a quiet restaurant, leaving you curious to see more. Do you try to reflect that in much of your art?
Exactly, that’s the trick. You’re creating an illusion. Real enough to be plausible but odd enough to be interesting. It’s surprising how well these old anime still hold up decades later. Like Akira still looks incredible. There’s a lot of stuff we can do with frame skipping now but still many are underwhelming these days. Unfortunately they tend to look cheap despite all the better animation tools. Yet I look back at the animation breakdowns for something like Akira and it’s still amazing. And to think, it was all pretty much done by hand. I really view the late 80’s and early 90’s as a golden age of anime.
One of the few studios that has held up over the years is Studio Ghibli. That’s definitely a good exception. Though I admit the style didn’t appeal to me at first because it seemed so “kiddie”. Spirited Away was the first Ghibli film I saw and it blew me away. Just how trippy it is and the depth in the story. It’s something that appeals to both adults and children. They’ve struck a chord that spans generations.
Why did you decide to freelance and do your own projects?
I was burnt out from working in the studio. I’d been doing it for 12 years. The last project I worked on for about 5 years so it was a bit taxing. We had gone through many ups and downs. It was basically half my career at that point, but the last game I worked on still wasn’t released! I thought, “I need to take a leap of faith and do my own thing, for my own well-being.” That was kind of scary because I’ve mainly worked in a studio and I have to support my family. Though it’s been going pretty well. I love the freedom I have not stuck to a 9-5. You really get out what you put in. I can dig in and grind. Or, I can choose to take a break and spend a nice evening with the wife or family. I’m really enjoying the freelance way. It took four or five months to get accustomed to it though, since work isn’t always consistent. It’s learning not to beat yourself up when you’re not super busy. Learning when to take breaks or when to turn up the throttle. It can be hard to separate yourself from the office, because it’s always there. I have my wife who reminds me to take a break now and then. I’m a big Resident Evil fan and I finally got the chance to play the new one recently. I thought “Wow I feel like a piece of crap for playing all day.” and she’s like, “stop beating yourself up and just enjoy it.” We’re actually due for a baby so I’m guessing there’s going to be a lot less time for video games going forward. I’ll just enjoy it while I can.
How has your experience working in-studio shaped your career now?
Understanding how the process of game making works, the discipline. I’ve got a lot of contacts from my past work that’s lead to projects I’m working on now. I also run a group of outsourced artists for big projects. I have about 9 guys & girls working for me at the moment. I get briefs from the client and assemble a group around it. I gather references, give feedback, do paint-overs and stuff like that. That’s been a big learning curve for me as it’s a little more managerial. It’s where I always wanted to progress towards. To more of a mentor-type role. It’s been awesome, the results have been really impressive. It’s something I hope I can apply in other projects going forward. Building relationships with artists, making sure they’re treated right, because I know clients can be terrible at times. Artists are often taken advantage of. Being an artist myself, I do my best to be a really good employer. Giving decent pay, making sure briefs are concise, and giving good feedback. I’m also working on a project that’s under NDA, so I can’t say much. Other than that, we’ll see what the future holds.
Could you tell us a bit about some mediums and tools you’ve worked with?
It’s interesting because I started out with traditional mediums—paint, pencil and paper, pens and markers—before I got into digital art. That teaches you patience and how to be meticulous in your approach, though it’s often less flexible in the creative process. Digital art now allows you to be so quick and iterative with your work. You can experiment and push things in a direction you would never think of otherwise. I was always a 2D artist up until 2013 when I started doing hard surface sculpts in Zbrush. Sometimes I’d mix in some 3d for environment stuff. But moving into Zbrush was amazing for my concept art. Specifically for characters, organic stuff or concepting creatures. It’s very much an artist’s tool and opened up my mind creatively. Now I love working in 3D, especially for film and gaming because essentially what you’re handing over in designs will ultimately be in 3D anyways. So there’s a clearer continuity. If you start with that 3rd dimension you can convey the form earlier, and it’s invaluable to the client to weigh in on. There’s a lot of work being taken off the artist now. I can iterate different designs without big set backs if it doesn’t fit. In my work that means I’m able to be more concerned with how different design elements work in concert. It’s a more holistic view of the project.
Do you think one day you’re going to be able to just write up a sketch and have an A.I. fill in all the details for you based on certain themes? Kind of like a remix button you can keep refreshing.
We’ve seen hints of that already. The ideal is that you can still retain your creative input. Not that the machine learning generates everything for you, but more of like an idea exploration tool. But yeah I can see that’s the future.
What’s interesting is that you’re going to see things that would never be thought up by a human alone. You’re going to see design trends will change when you introduce machine learning, because they’re going to take logical leaps that never would be thought up by humans. Kind of like how these A.I. play-throughs of video games wind up finding all these easter eggs and glitches that people would never think to do.
You have this rendering of this sniper with the camo cloak. How long does it take to make something like that?
That was a personal work where I was using Zbrush and marvelous designer. It’s like a clothing stroke fabric simulator. You can design clothing with it and simulate how it moves in different physics. I was just experimenting at the time, so I don’t remember how long it took me. The fabric part of it was relatively quick. If I didn’t have marvelous designer to make that cloak, it might take months. The whole figure took maybe 2 weeks working in the evenings. In total all the tools used were: Zbrush, Marvelous Designer, and Key Shop.
That guy with the rain jacket on and the radar array on his head was done in only a day’s work. That’s because it was reconstituted from other stuff that I’d built before. Previous models and previous design. The colloquial term is “kitbashing”—taking previous models and piecing them together to make something new. So it all depends on if you’re working with previous objects or starting a full blown model from scratch.
I might describe some of your character designs as cyborgs with a fashion sense.
I’ve been really looking into this juxtaposition of hard metal against soft, flowing forms like a jacket or a cloak. I find those two design elements really interesting. They compliment one another, and in my work you’ll find a lot of that.
This guy with the gold chain. He kind of gives you the impression of a bouncer or mafia member with the black striped jacket on. You can convey a lot of character to the audience that way to compliment the story or game.
That’s exactly what I had in mind. I’ve released an online course through a company called learnsquared. It covers the entire process if people would like to see more. It covers 2D sketch-work all the way through to modeling to marvelous designer to rendering.
Any other Hobbies?
I really like cars. Not a big petrol head, but I appreciate them a lot and treated myself to a new Audi last year. I really like unsuspecting cars that look like sleepers, but when you put your foot down it rips. Before this I had a golf GTI and it was so much fun driving. I love just spending time with my wife and my pet cats. Big hip hop fan. But none of this mumble rap. No mumble rap for me man.
Leave a Reply