Meet the Team: Lucas Pandolfelli de Campos, Concept Artist
Have you ever wondered who is behind that absolutely breathtaking concept art in our various projects? Who breathes life into our characters and locations. Well, wonder no more!
Today on PlanetQuest’s Meet the Team, we sit down with Lucas, our incredible concept artist, to see what makes him tick.
Let’s get into it, shall we?
Thanks for taking the time out of your crazy schedule to sit down with us! Let’s start with an easy one — introduce yourself.
I’m Lucas, and I’m a concept artist from Brazil. I do all kinds of things on PlanetQuest — I create characters, spaceships, weapons, creatures, and even novel illustrations. If they ask me to do it, I try my best to produce something, even if I haven’t done it before.
Awesome! So, what’s your background, then? Did you always want to work on games?
I actually started working on games later in life. I’ve always loved art, so as a teenager, I started thinking about how to turn that passion into a profession. The only logical option for me was to study design, so that’s what I did, eventually becoming a product designer. After graduation, I focused on illustration, learning a whole lot in terms of what software to use and what techniques to apply.
I worked in small animation studios, advertising agencies, and the like, creating storyboards, concepts, and characters. After that, I moved to a production company, where I did similar work to what I do here, which is to say — a bit of everything. Around that time, I started working on my first games, just some freelance work, ultimately leading me to PQ.
How did that come about?
Well, I was freelance and looking for some jobs. I came across a post Jon made on LinkedIn. He was searching for a concept artist, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I sent my portfolio, we had a call, and we chatted for a bit about the project he was working on and some references. Within a week of completing my test submission, we were working together. It came about pretty quickly.
Very nice. So, what do you enjoy the most about working here?
I find it awesome that I’ve been here since the early days. Because of that, I’ve been able to help shape the visual identity of PlanetQuest, something that you can’t really do if you join a project at a later stage, at least not to the degree I’ve been able to.
I’ve been fortunate enough to help Jon develop the looks of the Factions, for example. It’s great to see your ideas being implemented. Heck, it’s great working with Jon, period. He’s an amazing artist, and he’s taught me so much. It mainly comes down to him knowing what he wants. I’ve worked with a lot of not-great art directors who can’t really make up their minds, but Jon has a vision, which makes my job that much easier. He’s also very, very willing to go over my work, offer me feedback, and give me more responsibility if he thinks I can handle it. For example, I started out as a character designer, so for the first 6 months I just created characters. Then Jon asked me to try creating some creatures, so I did that. We worked through the process, and I added that skill to my repertoire. I then started working with the narrative team, creating really cool pieces of concept art for them and, eventually, all the other cool projects we’re working on. The variety is so, so cool to me. How many other projects are there that let you branch out into this many different types of art? It’s definitely an amazing and unique experience.
We’re very glad you’ve had such a great time here! In the spirit of branching out, let’s cover some of your gaming history, shall we? What are your top 3 games?
See, this is an interesting question. I like the games, not necessarily because they’re really good, but because they, in my eyes, pushed the boundaries of what a game could look like. I grew up as games developed, so that’s why I’m like this [laughs]! I remember when Atari games were still coming out, so I have a unique perspective.
With all that explanation done, my first pick is Starfox. It was revolutionary at the time. The way the ship looked was mind-blowing back in 1993. I actually watched a documentary that went into detail on how they created the 3D ship and made it work on the SNES; really good stuff. The characters in the game “talking” was also a pretty cool feature. I still remember the iconic sounds they made; it actually gave them a lot of personality and made them stand out.
My second game is Mortal Kombat 2. Photorealism at a time when that was a novelty. It was crazy seeing what looked like a real person get destroyed in some crazy, creative ways. The fatalities were so cool, especially since this was before the Internet as we know it. It was this secret that people had to work to discover, which added to their mystique.
The third game is Far Cry 5. It’s a recent favorite, but it requires some context. I didn’t have much time to play games after I finished college. I actually didn’t have the time for a while, but I slowly started getting back into the hobby in recent years. Far Cry 5 was on sale; I got it and was immediately hooked. It was very immersive and incredibly fun. I had a lot of crazy things happen during my playtime; I enjoyed it a lot.
Those are some solid picks! In a similar vein — what is your favorite gaming memory?
It’s an interesting one. I was traveling by bus between cities once. Four, five hours there and the same amount back. To pass the time, I decided to play games on my phone. I downloaded an SNES emulator and started playing Super Metroid. It was a fantastic time, even though controlling Samus using a touch screen was very difficult. That experience led me to look up speedruns of the game, which opened my eyes to the whole speedrunning community. It’s interesting to see how people approach playing a game when they want to beat it as fast as possible. They can think of mechanics and techniques that even the developers haven’t thought of. I remember watching this one guy who had a strategy for every single room in the game. He was live on YouTube, and all these people were watching and cheering him on. It was awesome to see.
Pretty cool! Let’s go back to art for a minute — what are your art influences?
Okay, this is going to be a tough one. Well, first off, painters are a great inspiration to me. There are three in particular that I really like — John Singer Sargent, Zorn and Joaquín Sorolla.
Sargent worked with simple strokes but made things look very realistic. He’s often imitated but never duplicated. All three of them were alive during the same period, so they have similar styles. I often look to their works when I need to ignite that spark of creativity.
Then there’re filmmakers. Tarkovsky stands out to me. I feel like he created every single frame with great care. He thinks like a painter, and that’s fascinating.
Then there’s Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian architect who created much of our capital's modern look. It’s art by way of function. I can look at his works and get ideas from them.
Oh, I have to mention Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of Akira. His creative process is incredible. He made the manga and the movie at the same time, and they’re both amazing, which is rare.
Quite a diverse palette you have there! Well, that’s all the questions we had. Thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us.
Lucas is a rare breed, a multi-talented artist who just keeps getting better at what he does. We hope you enjoy his work in every corner of the PQ multiverse just as much as we enjoy working with him and enabling him to do what he does best.
Until next time, Explorers!
