SPINDLE
Star Guard
Re:Fresh
Garuda
SPINDLE
Personal Project
| Timeline | Tools | My Contribution | Contributors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov - Dec 2023 | Procreate | All | N/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
| Timeline | Tools | My Contribution | Contributors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
Final Poster Design
In-Engine Screenshot, Before Paintover
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!
Garuda
Personal ProjectA world of eagle hunters and bird spirits
Early Sketches
Tech Art
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Shaders
| Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| goop shader | bubble shader | channel packer | no cell zone for refresh | hologram for refresh |
Goop shader
Hand Painted Normal Texture
VFX
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| Notes |
|---|
| Taking inspiration from the |
| petra vfx -- slash? |
Animation before each micro game
Rigging
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Animation before each micro game
3D Modeling
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Shaders
Goop shader
Animation
2D Animation
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!
| Timeline | Tools | My Contribution | Contributors |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2022 - Aug 2022 | Procreate After Effects | Co-Director, Animator | Hari 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
A 3D action platformer with giant bubble wands and an impactful climate narrativeCurrently in development!
Gameplay of the vertical slice
| Timeline | Tools | My Contribution | Contributors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concepting Phase: Sep 2023 - Dec 2023 Production Phase: Jan 2024 - Present | Procreate Blender Unity | Art Director/Art Lead | Melody 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 |
|---|
| --- |
Mini Boss
Aside from the base game, I also worked on the mini boss for the project!
| My Contribution | Contributors |
|---|---|
| Art, Animation | Robin Guan: Programming, Design Jake Nguyen: Programming, Design, Mini Boss Rig Matt Zhang: Music Ali Kedwaii: SFX |
Mega Micro
A 2D WarioWare-like game jam, hosted by students for students
Mega Micro Gameplay, with win and lose screens
| Timeline | Tools | My Contribution | Contributors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2021 - Jan 2022 | Procreate 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. |
Animation before each micro game
Timer animation during each microgame
Animation after winning a micro game
Animation after losing a micro game
Animation after losing all three lives, a game over
Initial Concepts
Initial Concepts
Initial Concepts
Mini Boss
Aside from the base game, I also worked on the mini boss for the project!
| My Contribution | Contributors |
|---|---|
| Art, Animation | Robin Guan: Programming, Design Jake Nguyen: Programming, Design, Mini Boss Rig Matt Zhang: Music Ali Kedwaii: SFX |
Mini Boss Gameplay
Player Animations
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
A safe place
Solo Dev
Round up materials to make cute items!
2D Animator, UI
Top 20 of 5.5k+ entries | GMTK 2021 Game Jam
3D Hack-n-slash in the sea!
Concept Art, 3D Modeling, Animaton, Rigging
Explore crypts and map your journey
3D Art
The third EGaDS! Mega Micro-Jam!
2D Artist/Animator for Base Game
Solve puzzles and reunite the burger buddies!
2D Animator, UI
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
