Summary

I lead the Graphics Tech Art team which focused on shaders, performance, procedural art pipelines, and problem-solving. I also lead the Pipeline Tech Art team which specialized in DCC tooling, from animation and rigging to texture and model export, as well as continuous integration systems that supported art pipelines for ~200 artists and animators.

Duration

~6 years (Sep 2018-Jun 2024)

Work

Amplified the work of my team and created a supportive work environment with high growth potential
Anticipated future roadblocks and needs for my team and other disciplines
Drove initiatives and created systems of support for content and engineering teams
Created tools, shaders, and solutions for artists
Interfaced with artists and engineers to improve game features and performance
Empowered artists by provided graphics knowledge, tooling options, and general troubleshooting

Titles

I worked on the Diablo IV base game, Seasons 1-6, and the Vessel of Hatred expansion.

Quicklinks

Awards

Diablo IV won best Online Game from DICE

Nominated for best Multiplayer Game and Artistic Achievement by BAFTA

Nominated for best Multiplayer and Innovation in Accesibility by The Game Awards

and more!

Vessel of Hatred Expansion

Part the Waters (Ahe Orohoh)

Click images for video clips!

In addition to my regular lead duties, I ran the multi-disciplinary strike team dedicated to shipping this spectacle moment for the expansion. I contributed all of the shader work for the water, as well as art directing the sequence and problem-solving technical challenges.

To see more campaign gameplay (where the above video was clipped from), check out the MKFireAndIce Playthrough or click any of the images below to check out the full ArtStation Post.

Seasons / ProcGen

Seasonal work involved a variety of assets, from store content to monsters. Many monsters, from Season 1 all the way to the expansion utilized ProcGen (Procedural Generation) to augment play experiences with art made in a procedural, though tailored, manor. I helped to facilitate this work through communication with art leads, discussion with design, planning, and tech discussion/requests with engineering, but here’s a video of the practical work done by Daniel Maendel and Skye Yin.

GDC 2024

I had the privilege to speak at the Technical Artist Summit during the 2024 Game Developers Conference. You can acces the [POWERPOINT] and [NOTES]. [GDC Vault] recording is also available.

H2O in H3LL: The Various Forms of Water in ‘Diablo IV’

From oceans, rivers and puddles, to ice, snow and fog, water in the open world of Diablo IV’s Sanctuary takes many forms and has even more challenges to solve. In this talk, Aaron talks about the pixel and vertex shader techniques employed to create convincing shorelines, dynamically accumulating puddles, snow-topped rocks, ominous Helltide rivers, icy caves, and more. Maintaining performance across platforms is, as always, of paramount importance. Water requires many elements to work in concert, from lighting and rendering tech, to textures and material parameters, all the way to level art. Study the technical details and artistry behind how Diablo IV achieves believable water within performance constraints.

Context

Below you can see some images I contributed to. I’m responsible for the majority of environment related shaders - their functionality, performance, and look - as well as specialized shaders for effects like water, snow, ice, fog, clouds, skin, blood, cloth, rocks, terrain, etc. That said, everything you see is the work of a host of extremely talented people, from concept, environment, lighting, character, rigging, and vfx teams all the way to engineering.

Art Blast

Here you can find a link to my [Art Station Art Blast] or you can view the whole [Art Blast]

Coasts represent some of my favorite ambient graphics tech in the game. Terrain sculpting, flow-map painting, foam layer painting, and a number of material parameters helped us to give dynamism to the water.

These techniques had to serve a variety of view distances.

Shores not only have a water line for terrain and rocks, but also puddles from the rain.

Puddles and dynamic wetness are a big part of the more rainy areas of the game.

Clifftops can show the features of the water below and the blending shader functionality used to meld actors with terrain. Foliage shaders were also an important part of my work across the game.

Rivers are another aspect of the game that was a ton of fun to work on.

River shaders center around flow and foam layers, but also do some tricks to create foam based upon flow speed and vert normal.

Helltide affects the saturation and brightness of environment art as well as turning rivers and coasts bloody, with the main objective being mood and low shader complexity.

Puddles also change their color, roughness, and spec.

Here you can see prop, ice, and terrain shaders with various snow effects and some parallaxed textures, all blending together via shader functionality.