I'm a concept artist based in the very north of Sweden, in a small town called Skellefteå. Currently I work at a company called SAMURAJ / Virtual Light VR. It's a company that creates high-end VR experiences in Unreal Engine, mostly for museums and exhibitions. We are also working on our own VR game, which is a pyrotechnics simulator called Pyro VR.
I've always dreamt about becoming a concept artist since I was young and got interested in games. Growing up where I did I never really thought it would be possible to make it as a career. So I decided to go more towards interactive design because at that time there was a local company that was world famous in that field, creating digital campaigns and multimedia productions. One of my best friends has a relative working there and used to tell me about the company and I thought it sounded like an exciting place to work. So I studied creative design at a trade school and had my internship at a famous digital production company called North Kingdom.
After my education I worked at a communications agency for a time as a graphic designer before the economy went down and I had to look for a new job. So I applied to another famous digital production company called B-Reel in Stockholm. I got a job there as a designer / Art Director Assistant. During my time at this company I got the opportunity to work with a really inspiring art director and we did some concept art work for a campaign we were working on. This really made me feel like I want to do this more no matter if it is my job or not. I think that's something all of us feel. It's a part of who we are.
I quit my job and moved back north and started to work at a communications agency again. In my free time I spend most of my time focusing on getting better. This was when gumroad became big and I got addicted to it, buying a lot of tutorials and studying a lot to improve on my own. There was also some design challenges on Facebook in the Brainstorm group which I think helped me a lot to develop and was great fun to do.
In my town there is a big gaming convention. As part of this convention there is always an art exhibition which I started to attend every year. One year a local newspaper wrote an article about my art and a time later I got contacted by my current employer, a VR company in a neighbouring town, that was looking for a concept artist for a big project they were working on.
I started working as a consultant for them on this big project, which was a time travel experience to celebrate the jubilee of world heritage site, Gammelstad. It was really fun, specially since I'm a history nerd. We did a lot of research and checked it with archeologists while combining it with our imagination and storytelling to create a good experience for the users. The work I did was to make key frames capturing the look and feel of the environment and also to create the look of the costumes of the characters. This was a big project that we worked on for a year.
Our most recent project, Operation Draken, is an experience for a military museum. During first world war the Swedish Army used a special kind of balloon for surveillance and to direct cannons to where to shoot. These were really dangerous to use and in this experience you can try one. It was a really fun experience to make because we integrated it with a rally simulator chair so you can really feel the movements of the balloon when it brings you up into the air.
Apart from working as a concept artist I've also done some teaching at some 3D and design programmes.
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/rthomasson
CGSociety: http://zunc.cgsociety.org/
Instagram: @rtconceptart
Facebook: @rtconceptart
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I've always dreamt about becoming a concept artist since I was young and got interested in games. Growing up where I did I never really thought it would be possible to make it as a career. So I decided to go more towards interactive design because at that time there was a local company that was world famous in that field, creating digital campaigns and multimedia productions. One of my best friends has a relative working there and used to tell me about the company and I thought it sounded like an exciting place to work. So I studied creative design at a trade school and had my internship at a famous digital production company called North Kingdom.
After my education I worked at a communications agency for a time as a graphic designer before the economy went down and I had to look for a new job. So I applied to another famous digital production company called B-Reel in Stockholm. I got a job there as a designer / Art Director Assistant. During my time at this company I got the opportunity to work with a really inspiring art director and we did some concept art work for a campaign we were working on. This really made me feel like I want to do this more no matter if it is my job or not. I think that's something all of us feel. It's a part of who we are.
I quit my job and moved back north and started to work at a communications agency again. In my free time I spend most of my time focusing on getting better. This was when gumroad became big and I got addicted to it, buying a lot of tutorials and studying a lot to improve on my own. There was also some design challenges on Facebook in the Brainstorm group which I think helped me a lot to develop and was great fun to do.
In my town there is a big gaming convention. As part of this convention there is always an art exhibition which I started to attend every year. One year a local newspaper wrote an article about my art and a time later I got contacted by my current employer, a VR company in a neighbouring town, that was looking for a concept artist for a big project they were working on.
I started working as a consultant for them on this big project, which was a time travel experience to celebrate the jubilee of world heritage site, Gammelstad. It was really fun, specially since I'm a history nerd. We did a lot of research and checked it with archeologists while combining it with our imagination and storytelling to create a good experience for the users. The work I did was to make key frames capturing the look and feel of the environment and also to create the look of the costumes of the characters. This was a big project that we worked on for a year.
Our most recent project, Operation Draken, is an experience for a military museum. During first world war the Swedish Army used a special kind of balloon for surveillance and to direct cannons to where to shoot. These were really dangerous to use and in this experience you can try one. It was a really fun experience to make because we integrated it with a rally simulator chair so you can really feel the movements of the balloon when it brings you up into the air.
Apart from working as a concept artist I've also done some teaching at some 3D and design programmes.
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/rthomasson
CGSociety: http://zunc.cgsociety.org/
Instagram: @rtconceptart
Facebook: @rtconceptart
Click to Post
