Robyn Kirk

I'm a 3D Environment Artist with a big love for stylised work who sometimes gets over excited about spreadsheets. Doing the exact same thing everyday is boring to me and I joined this industry because I thrive in how everything we make is always evolving, I'm excited to grow with it. I love helping get the job done and being able to lend a hand wherever needed. I hope that I can continue building on my skills in an environment team after graduating.

SCREENSHOTS

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GET TO KNOW ROBYN

What makes you unique?

I'd have to say my ability to turn things people might consider weaknesses into strengths. I'm good at understanding and flipping a bad situation into a good one. I've used a lot of challenges and hardships I've faced in life to build up an arsenal of skills to persevere, look outside the box and sprint across the finish lines I've needed to. Even if doing so needed me to hop over some obstacles off of the race track along the way, it's ultimately made me an efficient and resilient problem solver who can find solutions others might not have thought to explore.

If you were an animal, which one would you be and why?

The temptation to take the easy route and say Robin is a tough one to fight, but I'll hold off on the cop out and go with a tortoiseshell cat, inspired by my own two being described as cat-Robyn to me every time someone meets them. They're funny, love to pull some creative little pranks, like their personal space and are incredibly hardy, loyal kitties to those they're close to. They're the kind of cat that can push through hardships and grow stronger from them, a trait I aspire to embody.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Fostering some animals somewhere in the UK, probably still drinking too much chocolate Nesquik and playing some crazy character in DnD, making cool things with a cool team of people. I hope I'm working on some environments and making assets for some games that bring the players joy, and getting to spend my evenings seeing the online communities loving the projects I've gotten to be a part of. I want to be the kind of Environment Artist that has grown enough that new artists and players want to chat with about how I've made some awesome stuff, just like the artists I reach out to now with those very questions and conversations.

Tell us an achievement you're proud of.

I'm proud of becoming the first Escape Studios student to take on the President role of the student association for Pearson College London. I threw myself out of my comfort zone on all fronts, I didn't have a lot of experience in business, team leadership or working with different departments. I'm typically an introvert who picks a night in with my dog on my lap watching a film over a night out partying. I decided when coming to University that any opportunity I didn't go for would be a missed chance, and put myself out there for it as a way to learn and grow. And that I did. I got to see the full picture of what goes on behind the scenes of events, societies, finances, sports, student life etc and put my skills to the test in contributing to and leading that, all in the middle of a lockdown! I could not be prouder of what I managed to achieve with my team and loved getting to be a big part of so much for so many.

Would you rather be a wizard, jedi or superhero and why?

Easily a Wizard. Not just for the nostalgia of my first DnD character being an Elf Wizard, but because I think they are innately the most creative option. They can take a basic spell and apply it in 100 different ways to 1000 different scenarios, and that alone is a superpower. Not to mention they live by taking notes and keeping their spell book close by, and you won't find me without a notebook at my desk keeping track of all the new short cuts or tricks I've learnt. I'd just be trading my list of Zbrush shortcuts for a list of spells, both powerful assets to have.

Which game inspired you the most to choose this career path and why/how?

Sea of Thieves' has been the inspiration for the artist I've become. I come from an oil painting background and had originally never even considered stylised, I just thought me going into realism would be the most obvious route. Until we had our first 'pick your game style' project at Escape Studios, everyone around me immediately assumed I would be doing 'Sea of Thieves' thanks to my long play time in it. I thought 'yeah, why not?' and gave it a go. And long story short, I fell in love with hand painted styles. My years of oil painting suddenly didn't feel useless, there was an entire 3D art genre where those skills proved useful. Being able to work on a piece of art that didn't feel like a chore for some marks but actually felt fun again was a complete game changer for me. It brought me out of the mindset of grades are everything and back into the headspace of why I picked Game Art, because making my imagination a reality is fun.

What was your crowning moment of your time at Escape?

It's got to be my final group project, 'Flup's Fungus Pharmacy'. I had an amazing team, I got to put my all into helping, supporting and leading our group and we came out with a project we all feel so incredibly proud of. I can't imagine a better end to this chapter in my life and a better set up for the next one with everything I can take away from this experience.