The transition of various teams and professionals from other related industries to gaming is no longer news, but it still doesn’t happen too often. That’s why we decided to talk to Ivan Vasiljević, the founder of the Digital Asset Tailors studio, who is the CEO of the team and who has navigated their pivot into gaming.
The team started with the idea of being there for other major studios in the field of asset creation, but over time it developed into a “full post-production facility” primarily in the field of premium advertising, then film and – more recently – gaming cinematics.
They must be doing well because this eight-member team from Belgrade has recently won an award for one of the cinematics they worked on. Read what that experience was like, what tools they use, and what they think of the gaming industry so far.
SGA: Why did you decide to start working with clients from the gaming industry, too?
Ivan: Actually, our clients started working with clients from the gaming industry, so that immediately reflected on the additional type of projects we were working on. Of course, we are levitating towards it ourselves and it is still an ongoing process for us.
The reason for it is a more positive experience compared to the traditional marketing approach on the advertising projects we work on. The more direct the connection between the gaming company and the 3D vendor, the easier and better the communication. There is direct communication between the problem presented by the gaming house and the solution to the problem offered by the 3D vendor, who we are in this instance. This is also the case in advertising but in gaming, the deadlines are somehow more flexible, what we do doesn’t go on TV, we don’t use the term “set in stone” as much, which can often open up space for better quality content.
I would also add that gaming is already a 3D profession in itself, so a large amount of understanding is there from the start, which is great.
SGA: What was your first project in this field and what were your initial impressions from that collaboration?
Ivan: The first real project we were lucky enough to work on was Cricket Manager, through our friends at Woodblock who had a direct connection to the client, so that was the first time we felt what a direct client–studio relationship was like and, I have to say, we loved the experience.
Right there we had a case where the owner of the company was actually a total 3D geek who understood the entire process. The comments coming from him were like when a VFX supervisor commented on something, which was amazing. Much simpler to interpret and saves a ton of time in the process.
SGA: Now you have another interesting collaboration, which even ended with a prestigious award. What was the game in question?
Ivan: NARAKA: BLADEPOINT is a multiplayer action/adventure game developed by 24 Entertainment and published by NetEase Montreal. A battle royale type of video game, where 60 players fight until only one is left.
SGA: Which studio did you work with on this?
Ivan: Our long-time client Sehsucht from Hamburg had the opportunity to work on a trailer for an international e-sports tournament. We were very excited when they turned to us to help them build their assets.
SGA: Part of the DAT team was in charge of the trailer assets. What roles worked on them and what tools did they use?
Ivan: The pool of our Asset Artists worked on this. In our studio, we try to educate people so that they have multi-role knowledge, as opposed to larger studios, where they divide roles into 3D Artists, Texture Artists, Shading Artists. With us, it’s all one role, the Asset Artist. Considering that we are a small studio, we think this is important and that it is also good for the development of one Artist from the junior to the senior level. As for tools, we used Maya, Zbrush and Arnold Renderer on this project.
SGA: Interestingly, the trailer ended up at an award show. What is it about and what award did the project receive?
Ivan: It’s the SHOTS award, the bronze award for 3D animation for the Asia Pacific region. SHOTS Creative has been a renowned brand in the creative world for a long time, as an online magazine and as a competition for creative works in various fields: advertising, VFX, 3D animation, and in three different regions – America, Asia-Pacific and Europe-Africa-Middle East.
SGA: There is more and more talk about blurring the lines between industries that use similar tools. Film, TV, advertising, gaming… Considering the complexity of projects and the increasing expectations of end users, how would you like to contribute to this?
Ivan: Yes, things are getting mixed up a lot these days, we witness it in various ways. I would like DAT to be a group that will not compromise quality for the sake of other things, like mass production of web3 application content, or similar stuff.
SGA: Where else are advertising and gaming complementary?
Ivan: If we’re talking from our content creation perspective, it’s the same, whether it’s an advertisement for a mobile phone, car, laundry detergent (God forbid), or a trailer for a game. I see that some new gaming-oriented agencies or productions are opening up now, so things don’t go through traditional agencies as much anymore and I would like my observation to be correct because there are a lot of shortcomings in traditional marketing, especially the way it works and how sometimes it grinds content creators. In gaming, it’s much better, at least that’s our experience.
SGA: And finally – what are your first impressions of the gaming industry here?
Ivan: GREAT! We have recently been to one SGA event (SGA Assemble) and I am positively surprised by the scene, the size of the community and the structural organization of SGA. You have interesting programs, Shift2Games especially caught my eye. 🙂
I would like gaming creators to turn to domestic studios when they need content, launch trailers and the like, and not to go to The Mill with their first million. 🙂
