About

My name is Barbora Smirinova and I am a Falmouth University Game Art 2020 alumna. I am a game artist specializing in digital 2D art, however, I am able to work as an art generalist, and I am always excited to learn new skills!

I am passionate about storytelling, game theory, and research. Additionally, I have experience developing mobile and PC games in multi-disciplinary teams, as well as working as a freelance artist.

Main Skillset

Expert: Photoshop

Intermediate: Clip Studio Paint, Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Aesprite, Unity Engine

Beginner: Blender, Unreal Engine

Game Projects and Artwork

Rustbreaker

Rustbreaker is a Transfuzer 2020 winning game from the game studio Knights of Borria, who were my classmates at Falmouth University. I collaborated with the team for the Transfuzer 2020 competition, organized by the UK Games Fund. I worked as a UI artist, concept artist, illustrator, and branding researcher. I learned pixel art and animation basics as well as developed my concepting and illustration skills. My collaboration on this project lasted 4 months, from June 2020 to early September 2020.

Please, see a more detailed breakdown of my contributions to the game here, as I supplied a lot of 2D concepts for the game.

LU-N4

University game project I worked on in my 2nd year at Falmouth University in a team of 12 students. As an artist, my role was versatile, and I supplied: concept art, 3D models and textures, fog VFX, and project management for the game, and storyboards and audio mixing for the trailer. This project lasted from October 2018 until early May 2019. This game was developed and optimized for mobile phones.

A more detailed breakdown of my 3D assets can be found here. These assets were then optimized for android and used in LU-N4.

Here is a digital overpaint of the 3D assets I modeled and textured:

Trailer for LU-N4:

Minds and Monsters

During Jamfuser 2020, I worked as a UI and card artist in a team of four people on a game ‘Minds and Monsters’ which has placed 1st in the Commercial Potential rubric and placed 5th out of 27 entries overall in the competition. My work can be seen on the lower half of the screen. The project was completed in the span of 72 hours as it was a part of a game jam.

Play Minds and Monsters on itch.io!

Searching...

In my 3rd year, I was a part of a game development project in a team 'Jelly Turtle', where my role as an artist was to create concepts of house layouts, skyboxes, furniture, and interiors. I also worked on 3D models and textures as well as level dressing and project management. It was a massively collaborative work where artists, writers, and designers often collaborated with one another. The project lasted from October 2019 until April 2020.

Download our game on itch.io

Trailer for Searching...

Personal Work - Illustration and Concept Art

Here are showcased some of my pieces. Please visit my Home page for more examples.

A digital study of a personal friend from my own photograph:

Cardinal Richelieu (first image) and D'Artagnan loose character concept sheets for a futuristic take on The Three Musketeers:

Related Skills

Game Design - during the development of Searching..., I collaboratively worked on level design and in-game event timeline.
Branding - for Rustbreaker, I compiled branding researched to be used by the team at a later date for their social media branding.
Market Research - for Searching... , I helped prepare market research for our team presentation at the Falmouth University Game Expo.
Project Management - for Searching... and LU-N4, I was in charge of several administrative tasks related to weekly sprints, task control, talent management for Searching... and burndown charts for LU-N4.
C# - I am currently participating in LevelUp, a Slovak game education program, as a student of programming.

Team Work

During the second and third years of my Bachelor's Degree, I worked in teams of +/- 11 people on year-long game projects (LU-N4, Searching...). Additionally, I am now participating in the 1st Project Round of a LevelUp, organized by Hemisfera, as a programmer and I have previously collaborated with the aforementioned Knights of Borria. Furthermore, I have experience with working in teams from several Game Jams, such as Global Game Jam 2020, Jamfuser 2020, and Game Days Trnava Game Jam 2019.

Awards

Falmouth University Digital Games Expo 2020: 'Most Leftfield Game Award (?)' - a university award for the game Searching...

Transfuzer 2020 - Rustbreaker was selected as one of the winning entries and was awarded financial aid

Thank you for checking out my portfolio! You can find my full CV here.