Kem Yaralioglu’s Environments Bring Backgrounds into the Spotlight
A Spotlight on Attention to Detail and a Genuine Love for the Process of Creating a Memorable Scene
Daylight Savings Time is killing me again. I swear it never gets any easier to deal with. In the fall, I’m an invincible force to be reckoned with. In spring, I become a walking skeleton divested of all of my energy, lying in ruin, waiting for a crew of intrepid pirates to walk by so I can attack them for daring to set foot in my fort.
Good to see that my metaphors are as nonsensical as usual, and my segue skills only continue to grow more powerful.
Kem Yaralioglu is a Rare artist, indeed. No, for real, he’s a Senior Environmental Artist at Rare, working on games like Sea of Thieves and Everwild. Yaralioglu has a BA in Games Art and Design from the Norwich University of the Arts, and has been working in games art for years.
Yaralioglu’s portfolio is quite pretty to look at. There’s environments of all different kinds, from the spooky forts of Sea of Thieves, to more realistic projects. I really like the stylized environments that he participated in making for the game Kena: Bridge of Spirits. A lot of the images aren’t stills, but rather short video, and they really show off the ambiance of the scenes. They’re quite beautiful.
That said, I know that there’s at least one Game Textures employee who would be really sad I didn’t mention Yaralioglu’s participation in “Memoria Project:” a visual reimagining of a specific set piece and area from Final Fantasy IX. It’s a difficult task to faithfully recreate an environment where a lot of the decisions about the design were made with hardware limitations in mind. There’s a full upload of his presentation from Experience Points Expo, “Reimagining a Classic,” which is worth a watch for those interested in the challenges of updating older games, especially when the original assets occasionally obfuscate some of the details.
This week, I need to get some sleep before I turn myself into a skeleton. Skeleton, anatomy…anatomy practice? Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but I’ve noticed since I’ve been studying more shape and color as a focus lately, my line work has gotten pretty rusty. I’ll sleep on it.
Check out Kem Yaralioglu on Artstation!
Or, take a look at LinkedIn or the Final Fantasy Memoria Project Website!
