GLITCHAOS

Glitchaos – Graduation Short Film | Art Direction & Texturing
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Glitchaos was one of my final 3D projects during graduation, and I had the incredible opportunity to pitch the concept and see it selected for production. I took on multiple roles throughout the project, serving as Art Director and Texturing Artist, in addition to contributing as a 3D Modeler, Lighting Artist, Compositor, and Editor.

This project was an intense learning experience, not just technically and artistically, but also in terms of collaboration, leadership, and creative problem-solving. I discovered how much I enjoy worldbuilding, visual storytelling, and developing cohesive art direction, especially within a small, passionate team.

The gallery here focuses on my work in texturing, material creation, and art direction. A key part of the process was researching and developing a unique visual style that matched the story’s themes while remaining achievable within a six month production timeline, with a core team of just four people. I was responsible for:

-Environment modeling and texturing
-Procedural and hand-painted material creation
-Set dressing and scene optimization
-Defining and guiding the visual style
-Coordinating with team members across departments
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For the visual language of Glitchaos, our texturing approach was heavily inspired by stylized animated films such as Arcane, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. We were particularly drawn to their painterly textures and stylized imperfections
With only a small team of four and a tight production window, we knew that achieving a fully hand-painted look wouldn’t be scalable. Instead, we developed a hybrid workflow that balanced procedural texturing techniques with a little artistic input.
We dove deep into Substance Designer, teaching ourselves the software essentially overnight. Our goal was to emulate the nuanced brushwork seen in 2D animation by building a procedural system that incorporated hand painted alpha maps, brushstroke patterns, and color variation nodes like color jitter, slope blur, and custom grunge maps. These elements allowed us to layer visual complexity and simulate painterly imperfections at scale.
To bring even more personality and storytelling into the assets, we layered additional detail through targeted hand painting passes in Substance Painter. This allowed us to push key areas further, highlighting material variation, edge wear, and narrative specific elements that helped elevate the overall visual fidelity of the environments. It was an invaluable learning experience in balancing visual ambition with technical efficiency, and it’s a workflow I’m excited to keep building on in future projects.
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Balancing creative vision with technical and time constraints was one of the biggest challenges, but also one of the most rewarding parts. While the final film doesn't fully capture everything I initially envisioned, I'm genuinely proud of what we created and grateful to have brought even a part of my concept to life.

This project reaffirmed my passion for 3D surfacing and art direction, and I'm excited to continue exploring storytelling through texture, color, and form in future projects.

Special thanks to my amazing teammates and everyone who contributed their time and talent across animation, texturing, marketing, and more.