Journey to Foundation

Journey to Foundation is a AAA virtual reality title based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. As Art Director at Archiact, I directed ~80 creatives across Art, Tech Art, VFX, UI/UX and Production, with a total team of over 144, and was responsible for Technical Art, Characters & Props, UI/UX & Narration, and Platform Releases. The main goal was to rescope the project and bring the team back onto its timeline.

My first responsibilities were to:

• Lead my art teams through a structured rescope and develop stable, reliable art pipelines that coordinated with other departments.
• Grow and nurture our development relationship with Skydance, owners of the Foundation series IP.
• Maintain a visual identity consistent with, but distinct from, the Foundation Apple TV series.
• Lead and grow the art team with individual career paths and support.
• Coordinate with studio leadership so art production goals were met month over month.

Directing the art department

We worked in close partnership with Skydance and Sony to manage the Foundation IP. It was a privilege to be an Art Director on one of the most iconic stories in science fiction.

• 01

  Technical Art

  Game performance and technical standards. The team provided lighting and shader support to the environment and character teams.

• 02

  Characters & Props

  Design, creation and implementation of over 40 characters and hundreds of environment props.

• 03

  UI/UX & Narration

  Campaign and narrative UI/UX systems, including the Live Script System that connected game builds to live script changes.

• 04

  Multi-Platform Release

  A simultaneous launch on PSVR and Quest 2 + 3, working closely with partners and studio leadership to hit platform requirements.

The Art Codex

VR art direction is less about a single hero painting and more about performance and optimization. Frame rate requirements are hard limits, because low frame rates cause nausea. Pushing visual quality has to be balanced with clean art development that keeps dozens of artists, contractors and outsourcers working together.

I captured this in the Art Codex, the project’s art style guide, alongside technical targets for core maps and hands-on review of environment, prop and character passes. When work landed in engine, I pushed clarity through before-and-after notes so lighting, materials and composition read the way we intended at gameplay distance.

That loop of guide, target, review and refine is how we brought Journey to Foundation back on track for a clean simultaneous launch on both platforms.

Production polish

Before-and-after comparisons showing art direction notes applied to lighting and materials. The goal was to increase the atmosphere and contrast of our interiors to support the story.

Technical art

Building a VR game for both Quest and PlayStation came with significant challenges. With one camera for each eye, the rendering cost of any VR game doubles from the start. I was responsible for making sure we could push our visual targets within a realistic deliverable.

• Kept the tech art team organized and supplied with the information they needed.
• Held regular one-on-ones for career and skills development.
• Communicated delivery timelines with other department leaders and studio heads.
• Made sure every tech artist understood their goals and who they were working with.
• Supported the lighting artists with paintovers to maintain the Art Codex.

Characters & props

I managed all character and prop art development across in-house and outsourcing teams, including an outsourcing pipeline of over 80 outsourced artists across 3 teams: making sure the art teams had what they needed, relaying feedback from the Creative Director and studio leadership, directing art reviews on weapons, props and in-game screenshots before they shipped to players, improving workflows and unblocking technical issues.

UI/UX & narration

Journey to Foundation is a narrative-first game, and I was tasked with building a UI/UX system that connected directly to our narrative writing platform.

• Supported and coordinated a multi-disciplinary team of UI artists, engineers and tech artists.
• Developed and maintained a narrative system connecting voice lines, narrative and game events.
• Facilitated communication with Skydance, Sony and studio leadership.
• Adapted to script changes and coordinated teams to pivot accordingly.

Multi-platform release

Part of the studio’s commitment to Sony and Meta was a simultaneous release on PSVR and Meta Quest 2 + 3. We shipped both platforms on time and without issue.

• Created and implemented a development plan that met every platform and performance requirement.
• Communicated regularly with Sony and Meta partners and relayed notes back to the studio team.
• Translated studio leadership’s direction into actionable plans and timelines.
• Coordinated with the wider development team to hit partner milestone dates.