art&design Archives | Page 3 of 5

Speed Sketch! Plants

When developing custom learning games for clients, artists like myself are sometimes given the direction to make art that “looks like all the other Filament games.” While some of our past games share similar styles and visual characteristics, the truth is there is no one “Filament style” that is common across all our previous games…

March 21, 2018 // Roma Jenson

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Speed Sketch! Character Redesign Challenge

Art RPGs can create some weird critters. The below creature is called an ‘Esk,’ created by artist Witherlings over at DeviantArt. Their relatively new ARPG “Those Who Went Missing” has skyrocketed in popularity, garnering over 1,000 new members in a mere nine months. Esk are furry creatures with four legs, long flowing tails, and a distinct…

February 19, 2018 // Natasha Soglin

How to Get Hired at a Game Studio: Art Edition

As the Game Art Team Lead, one of my key responsibilities is hiring and onboarding new game artists when open positions become available. I am often the first person to review incoming job applications, tasked with sifting through portfolio after portfolio in order to determine which candidates are most qualified to move forward in the…

December 13, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

Speed Sketch! Halloween 2.0

Happy Halloween everyone! For this year’s Halloween Speed Sketch, Game Art Lead Natasha Soglin takes us on a hike through a colorful autumn forest scene. Natasha used both Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint for this sketch, so pay close attention to see if you can spot when she switches. It won’t be long until the…

October 30, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Speed Sketch! Character Concept – Hot Dog Hawk

Character concepting is always a fun exercise – whether your character is serious, silly, or something in between, bringing a new character to life is a thought-provoking endeavor with lots of little details to consider. We wanted to unpack this process, so Game Art Team Lead Natasha Soglin crafted the speed sketch below, in which…

August 22, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

Five Years of Game Art

When I was hired here at Filament five years ago, I had a lot to learn. Back then, the first tool I learned was Flash. You remember Adobe Flash, right? In recent times it has put on a new logo and has been masquerading around as “Animate CC” but lo, it is the exact same…

August 9, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

Highlights from a Decade of Learning Games

What does a decade of learning games look like? Filament Games has been around making learning games and taking names since 2005, which was so long ago that smartphones weren’t even a thing at the time. A lot has changed about the world since then, and correspondingly, a lot has changed about how we design…

July 31, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Speed Sketch! Styles for All Ages

Filament Games’ library of educational tools and learning experiences is constantly expanding. With the exception of the Filament-made iCivics line, no two games look the same. If I told you Filament only has four game artists (one of which is actually a 3D generalist), you may be so inclined as to squint dubiously. So how do…

July 24, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

Art Hacks: Line Art from Pencil to Screen

As a 14-year-old sprouting digital artist in the mid-00s, the best way I learned how to create digital art was from my peers. Not the peers I saw daily in Ms. Taylor’s 9th grade English class, mind you; I’m talking about the ever-expanding online communities of teenagers just finding out that there’s more to life…

June 28, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

Speed Sketch! Sennett Middle School

Earlier this year, Filament Games adopted Sennett Middle School, and it’s hard to believe it, but the first school year of our adoption is already over! We’ve already had a ton of amazing experiences with our friends at Sennett, and we can’t wait to see what the next school year brings. Until then, enjoy this…

June 19, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

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