Hey, hi, I'm John O'Really!
I'm a Technical Artist, specialising in real time look development, shaders, VFX, procedural generation, stylisation, postprocessing, rendering optimisation, mocap, and more!
The best place to view all my professional experience is on LinkedIn.
However if you're here to check out my previous work, have a gander at my Blog Posts, Artwork, and Games!
Games
Cult of the Lamb - Woolhaven
Winter descends, and a long-silenced deity stirs beneath the snow.Technical Artist for Cult of the Lamb, working on the Woolhaven expansion and various game improvements.Responsible for creating interactive shaders, real time VFX, post processing effects, new rendering tools and gameplay visuals. Also painting textures, generating masks, and optimising art assets.Specific improvements include camera tracked render texture system, Tile/Warped Camera weather particles, sprite/character shader look dev.Woolhaven Steam Page • Cult of the Lamb Website
Vampire Survivors - Emergency Meeting
Gather your most trusted Crewmates, prepare to eject the Impostors, and try to survive while mowing down thousands of extra-terrestrial foes in this expansion for Vampire Survivors.Lead Technical Artist/Art Director at Poncle, working on Vampire Survivors and the Among Us “Emergency
Warning” DLC, including Polus Replica map and various weapon/attack sprites. Managed a small team of contractors in producing new pixel art assets for Vampire Survivors DLC and updates. Responsible for art production plans, conducting artist feedback sessions and providing art direction notes.
Being a hybrid role, I also author shaders, create pixel art animations, sprites, marketing assets and visual effects.Emergency Meeting Steam page
Game Jam Archive
The following is an archive of game jam projects I worked on during my studies and early career.
Space Puck!
Date June 2018
Made in: 13 Days
Team Size: 5
A Battle to the Death, In Space!Space Puck started as a 5 day game jam, but after the first week we wanted to keep improving it.For this project I was responsible for the art direction, UI, 2D Artwork, shaders and some 3D assets. The project was made with Unity, Photoshop, 3dsMax, and XNormal.Gameplay Video • Itch.io Download Page • Goal Shader Code
bbq daddy
Date November 2018
Made in: 3 days
Team Size: 2
Impress the other dads at your bbq, don't take your eye off the grill or your spatula will be forfeit!
bbq daddy was made in 2 days by myself and Lewis Jordan as part of a weekend game jam in the Unity Brighton offices.
For this project I was responsible for the 3D Art, shaders, VFX, UI, and game design.Itch.io Download Page • Gameplay Video
I'm Gonna Blow: The Nuke Seduction Game
Date June 2018
Made in: 30 Hours
Team Size: 4
There's only one way to save the world from a nuclear destruction; seduction!I'm Gonna Blow is a Mobile VR dating-sim created in 30 hours for Portsmouth Game Jam 2018. As a government intelligent it is your duty to disarm a devastating warhead with your natural charm. For this project I was responsible for some 3D art, level building, UI and game design.Itch.io Download Page • Gameplay Video
This Sucks!
Date January 2019
Made in: 2 days
Team Size: 3
After hours of cleaning up mess, you (a robot vacuum cleaner) have had enough! To enact your revenge you charge around the house, destroying everything in your path.
This Sucks!" was made in 2 days in anticipation of Global Game Jam in the Unity Brighton Offices. The purpose of the game jam was to demonstrate how to quickly make a game in Unity.
For this project I was responsible for the environment assets, shaders, and level design.Itch.io Download Page • Gameplay and Devlog Video
Kablooey Blobbers
Kablooey Blobbers was my entry to /r/GameMaker's GM48 game jam. The project was made in GameMaker Studio, with all image assets created in Photoshop. I was responsible for the art, sound, game design and additional programming.Game Download • Dev Log Playlist
The Adventures of Zach:
The Monkey with a Pig on His Back
Date July 2018
Made in: 12 Hours
Team Size: 8
The Adventures of Zack was created in 12 hours as part of a game jam for Playingfield, a charity that helps disadvantaged kids experience game development.The game idea was entirely concieved by a 7 year old child, and it was our job to make it come to life.As the sole artist for this project I was responsible for the environment artwork, UI design and level design.BitBucket Repo • Gameplay Video
Bone Zone
The Bone Zone is an A-symetrical multiplayer game made in Unreal Engine 4. The project was made for a three day game jam. I was responsible for the modelling, texturing and implementation of a modular tomb level, as well as FX and additional props.Quick Tools and Art Breakdown
Artwork
To view my most recent work, please get in contact via my email or LinkedIn.
Look dev prototype based on an illustration from Thomke Meyer - Breakdown thread on Twitter
Procedural stylised folliage system - Headspace VR
Liquid in bottle Shader - Gorillaz Listening Party
Stylised Lighting VFX - Personal Project
Fire VFX for The Carrier
Houseboat - Personal Project
Shader Graph Island Scene - Example Project for the Unity Blog
Illustration Style Custom Passes - Personal Project
Real-time Interactive Hologram - Personal Project
Blogs
Art That Moves:
Creating Animated Materials with Shader Graph
In this blog post from 2018 I demonstrate the power of vertex shaders, and how to build them using Unity's Shader Graph tool. In order to demonstrate common shader animations I designed and modeled a tropical island scene. The scene does not use any textures or animation assets; everything you see is colored and animated using Shader Graph. The entire project is free to download for reuse in your own projects.
Link to the post on the Unity blog
Creating explosive visuals with the Visual Effect Graph
In this blogpost I introduce and explain the features, and functions of Unity's Visual Effect Graph tool. The blog post covers adding the tool to your project, navigating the UI, addional resources, and tips and tricks of using the feature.
Archive of the Blogpost
Curriculum Vitae
Skills
● Unity & Unreal Engine
● RT Look Development
● Substance Painter
● Substance Designer
● Hard Surface Modelling
● Motion Capture Recording
● Adobe Photoshop
● Adobe XD/Figma
● RenderDoc
● Git Source Control
● Perforce
● Pixologic ZBrush
Employment History
| Years | Role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2024 - Present | Massive Monster, Technical Artist, Cult of the Lamb | Technical Artist for Cult of the Lamb, working on the Woolhaven DLC expansion and various game improvements. Creating interactive shaders, real time VFX, post processing effects, new rendering toolsand gameplay visuals. Also painting textures, generating masks, and optimising art assets. Specific improvements include camera tracked render texture system, custom Tile/Warped Camera weather particles, character shader look dev. |
| Aug 2024 | IntoGames, Technical Art Instructor | Wrote and delivered a 3 week post-graduate course titled “Technical Art: Bring your 3D Art to life with John O'Really”, giving students from working class backgrounds an introduction to technical art inside Unreal Engine. Archive of the IntoGames course page |
| Mar 2023 - Jan 2024 | Poncle, Lead Technical Artist/Art Director, Vampire Survivors | Lead Technical Artist/Art Director at Poncle, working on Vampire Survivors. Manage a small team of contractors in producing new pixel art assets for Vampire Survivors DLC and updates. Responsible for art production plans, conducting artist feedback sessions and providing art direction notes. Being a hybrid role, I also author shaders, create pixel art animations, sprites, marketing assets and visual effects. |
| Jan 2020 - Mar 2023 | Nexus Studios, Technical Artist, Various Projects | Technical artist for various Interactive and animated projects at Nexus Studios, including AR apps & Installations, VR prototypes, and real time animated films. Typical responsibilities include Shaders, FX, Pipeline, Optimisation, Tools, Look Dev, Modeling and Texturing. A full breakdown of these projects can be found on my LinkedIn. |
| May 2021 - Mar 2022 | Tribute Brand, Lead Technical Artist, YCY AR App | Lead Technical Artist for Tribute Brand, working on YCY, an Digital Fashion marketplace for real time augmented reality fashion. Responsible for various improvements to digital garments, including shading, visual effects, physics animations, human occlusion, and more. Notable garments include the Caroline Herrera collaboration, worn by Charlie XCX. |
| Aug 2018 | Oxford Brookes University, Associate Lecturer, Interactive Media | Responsible for writing and delivering a 12 week post graduate module in Interactive Media, for MSc Digital Media Production. Over the course of 12 weeks student will learn to indentify and develop different forms of Interactive Media, including Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, games, educational apps, and more. In groups of three the students will design and develop their own ideas, using the Unity engine/platform. |
| Jul 2019 - Nov 2019 | IV Studios, Technical Artist for Real time Animation | Responsible for designing and implementing the realtime animation pipeline in Unity. Additional responsibilities include deploying and managing Perforce version control, project debugging and optimisation, creating shaders and visual effects, and on boarding team members into the realtime development pipeline. |
| Aug 2018 | University of Oxford, Virtual Reality Lecturer, | Taught Virtual Reality development at the University of Oxford's Immersive Technology Summer School. Responsibilities include writing and delivering a 5 day crash course, guiding students through the development of their own VR and AR idea in Unity. |
| Jun 2018 - Jul 2019 | Unity Technologies, Art Evangelist Intern | In my role as an Art Evangelist I am responsible for teaching Unity to new and existing customers. I specifically focus on the tech-art side of things, such as Shaders, Realtime Visual Effects, Render Pipelines, Art Pipeline, and Post Processing. After researching features internally, I then share my knowledge through a variety of mediums: Talks and workshops for events, videos for the official Unity YouTube channel, Blog posts for the Unity Blog, and Demo Projects for conferences. |
| Sep 2017 - April 2018 | Solent University, VR Exhibitioner | Representative for Southampton Solent University at a number of outward facing PR events, including UCAS fairs and open days. Responsibilities included meeting and discussing the university's game courses with applicants, and demonstrating VR HMDs to interested parties. |
| Sep 2017 - April 2018 | Solent University, Social Media Team | Responsibilities included managing and developing content for official university social media outreach channels, including Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. |
Education
Southampton Solent University - BA Hons Computer Games (Art)
2016 - 2020South Essex College, Southend - Creative Media Production (Games Development)
2014 - 2016