Introduction

My name is Brian Poche, I am a 3D Character Artist working at Bioware in Austin, Texas. I grew up in Houston, Texas, and moved to Austin in 2008. There, I attended a specialized community college studying 3D Game Art and Design. After graduation, I have had the amazing opportunity to work on many different titles while working for an art outsourcing studio. Some of these titles include Darksiders 2 and 3, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, Shardbound, and many more.

The Role of Silhouette

To me, the most important thing in character art is a silhouette – not only in the outline of the character as a whole but inside the character as well. This includes such elements as layering armor, overlapping cloth, and mixing materials. Material definition and separating materials also make a huge difference. This could include separating your padded leather chest piece with metal bits or a cloth piece dangling. Separating your materials and not just having the same material definition throughout goes a long way.