My name is Anastasia Monako, and I am a graduate of the Game Design and Game Graphics program at the HSE Art and Design School.
My main focus is art direction and working through every stage of the game graphics development pipeline—from concept art to post-production. Currently, I am actively developing my skills in technical art (materials and lighting), level art (asset creation), and concept art. Stylized graphics are what most interest me.
A scene from the trailer for «The Harpy’s Song»
Software I use in my work:
- Blender;
- Autodesk Maya;
- Substance Painter;
- Unreal Engine 5;
- Adobe programs.
Below are my works involving both environments and characters, which have gone through the complete game graphics development pipeline: from concept to engine integration.
«Harpy’s Song» Walking Simulator
2024–2025
Concept art for «The Harpy’s Song.» The sleeping protagonist.
All that remained of humanity were the houses, upon which birds had built their monstrous nests, lending the post-apocalyptic city a new appearance. Harpy wanders among these ruins—the last creature that combines bird and human.
Sketches for one of the concept arts (left) and for the main character (right).
Concepts for «The Harpy’s Song.» Awakening, the lower city, the bridge, the upper city, and the Bird Temple.
Harpy — the player character. It was modeled and rigged independently in Blender, and the textures were created in Substance Painter.
The Harpy Concept and Model.
Implementation in Engine:
Screenshots from the Unreal Engine 5 project.
Screenshots from the Unreal Engine 5 project.
All assets used in the video were created in-house (with the exception of some birds). Substance Painter was used for texturing, as well as the Layer Materials system within the engine.
Video:
3D Adventure with Puzzle Elements
The volcanic winter lasted for four years and was beginning to subside. Eve, a researcher from the «Cinders» organization, arrived in her hometown to investigate its ruins and unravel the secret of Echo—anomalies that had appeared throughout the city.
Concept art of one of the city streets.
Exploring compositional and color solutions.
Concept art for the radio station (game hub), a general city view, and one of the streets.
Searching for the silhouettes of Eve (the main character) and Ren (the non-player character).
Concept art by Iv and Ren.
Characters in the Engine:
For the characters, I created the UV unwraps and fully rendered and set up the textures.
