LogInRobert Rejmak, Expert Concept Artist at 11 bit studios, joined us to talk about his work on concept art for The Alters, showing the steps of his workflow in Blender, explaining how he created the modules for the game, and sharing tools that help him with development.
Introduction
Hello everyone! I'm Robert Rejmak, an Expert Concept Artist at 11 bit studios S.A., working on the game The Alters. I have been a concept artist for over eight years. Earlier in my career, I contributed to smaller indie titles such as ELDERBORN and POSTAL: Brain Damaged. I also occasionally take on freelance projects, primarily creating cover art and promotional key visuals for games.
I’ve been passionate about digital art ever since I was a kid. My parents recognized my artistic side early on and enrolled me in an art high school. After two years of exploring different paths, I discovered the world of concept art and immediately knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. It felt like love at first sight. Later, I went on to study painting at an art academy, but right from the start, I knew I wouldn’t complete the degree. My one clear goal was to work in video games, which meant far more to me than holding a fine arts diploma.
After two years of study, countless hours of practice, and many sleepless nights, I finally got the opportunity I had been working towards. It was a role in the industry, doing exactly what I had dreamed of. I took it without hesitation, and that’s how this wild journey began. That was eight years ago. Today, I have a wealth of experience and have designed two games from start to finish. Yet I still feel like I’m just getting started.
Although Photoshop is my primary tool, I owe a huge part of my workflow to Blender. It’s an incredible software that can fill in many gaps once you know how to use it well. With Blender, aspects such as perspective, composition, and lighting become genuinely enjoyable to explore. I would strongly encourage all concept artists to learn the basics of modelling, scene building, and materials. These are powerful tools that, when combined with a strong imagination, can lead to outstanding results.
The Alters
When I joined 11 bit studios in 2020, I had no idea what project I would be working on. Everything was still top secret, and nobody had heard of The Alters yet. To be honest, I never thought I would end up creating sci-fi worlds. I always thought I would end up working in the horror or fantasy genres. So finding out on my first day that it was a sci-fi project came as quite a shock and made me quite nervous. Feeling that I lacked experience in this style, I dedicated a lot of time to learning the fundamentals, studying countless works on ArtStation, and analysing how other artists approached the genre. This helped me to recognise common tropes, which I then tried to avoid or handle more thoughtfully.
Over time, I realised that I actually love sci-fi. Most of my personal work now has a futuristic feel. I am fascinated by the freedom to design absolutely everything from scratch. If you have a base where a crew lives, you get to create every detail, from the walls and tables to utensils, unusual dishes, distinctive chairs, and lighting, etc. It's that level of creative control that makes sci-fi so exciting for me. After years of working on The Alters, I am genuinely happy that things turned out this way. I could not have planned it better myself.
Today, as an Expert Concept Artist on The Alters, I define the key visuals and the overall artistic direction. My work serves as inspiration and a guide for the team. I focus on making sure the art supports the gameplay and stands out with its own unique character.
The Alters was launched in June and was warmly received. We received a lot of positive feedback, particularly regarding the visuals and design. Today, I would like to show you how we developed the concepts for the base module interiors and explain what the process looks like, from the initial brief to the final artwork. I will also demonstrate how this sometimes differs from what ends up in the game.
When we first started developing The Alters, our focus was on building a functional prototype. The style back then looked completely different: much more blocky and rough, and almost retro. Our main goal was to ensure that everything worked properly. We didn’t yet have the time to design things to a release-ready level. Our aim was to capture the game’s vibe and create modules that were fit for testing. Here are some examples of those early production modules:
Once the game had performed well in tests and we were happy with it, we realised that the base modules would not be visually appealing by the time of release. I started developing a new style, which we simply called V2, our second and improved version. We moved toward more modern shapes with smooth curves and strong color blocking. Our goal was to create a look that felt slightly futuristic yet still believable, a space base design that would not resemble anything from other games.
In the story, a corporation called AllyCorp sends the main character on the Dolly mission. We wanted to establish a clear visual language for AllyCorp, so we started thinking about how the aesthetic of a massive, powerful company might come across.
To refine our style, I started right from the fundamentals, quite literally from the ground up. I designed the metal panels that make up the floors, walls, and ceilings of the modules. Only once we had visually striking empty modules did we move on to defining the unique character of each room. Once I was satisfied with the initial panelling tests, I created a small 2D kitbashing sheet to enable me to swiftly copy components when designing the floors, walls, and ceilings.
I started by creating all the floors, walls, and ceilings in the game as flat textures. Later, our 3D artist transformed them into fully modular models. There were modules of various lengths and widths, and custom walls or floors were added wherever the design required it.
When I started working on a particular module, the main information I received was how many grid cells it would occupy. The base is constructed on a grid of rectangular cells, each measuring two metres by three metres and typically six metres deep. If you look closely at the floor designs, you will see a clear path intended for the player to follow. Sometimes this is a carpet, at other times a metal grate, and in the Infirmary it is linoleum. This helps to create a natural walkway through the space.
I want to walk you through how we created the Infirmary module, where the Alters are treated for injuries and radiation. The brief I received for the infirmary was as follows: it is a very wide module, spanning six cells, or twelve metres, with a standard depth and height. There should be two beds and a workstation for the doctor on the right. It needed to have a hospital feel and be full of equipment. That's usually the level of detail in a brief for each module; sometimes it's longer, and sometimes it's shorter. The process between me and the Art Director relied heavily on trust.
So, where did it start? I usually begin a project like this by choosing the flooring. In this case, I wanted to use panels configured as 1+3+2. The first step was to import the textures for the walls, floor, and ceiling as image planes into Blender. I set their roughness to 0.5 and added a single basic light, which gave me my starting point. Then I looked for references and started planning the next steps. I already knew how much space I had to work with. As it turned out, the Infirmary was meant to be twelve metres wide, six metres deep, and three metres high, made up of six segments on our building grid.
Next, I started planning how the room should be arranged. The brief called for beds for two patients, small chairs so visitors could sit next to them, details that add a lot of realism and support the storytelling, along with a doctor’s workstation. I also decided to include a large cabinet for samples and vials, some general props in the foreground, and a hanging AC unit. Right from the start, I began experimenting with lighting. I borrowed a lamp from another module that was already in the game, placing it above the doctor’s desk. I also added a light strip along the bottom of the wall and integrated some lights into the beds.
The team liked the concept, but felt that everything needed to be more clearly defined. They wanted a more interesting foreground, and the beds were supposed to resemble the design of our other module, 'The Womb', featuring screens on top and mounts for curtains. Everyone was now satisfied with the general layout, so I shifted my focus to the details and began designing the individual props.
Next, I designed some of the key props, such as the automated external defibrillator (AED) in the foreground, the medicine cabinet, the doctor’s desk, the microscope, the sample cabinet, and, of course, the beds themselves. I ensured that each object had a basic set of smart materials in Blender, primarily consisting of white, grey, dark orange, and blue-green metals.
Designing the unique props for each module is something I take very seriously. Every object that is not reused elsewhere and is specific to a particular module needs to be thoughtfully crafted. Usually, once I have a blockout of the module, I bring it into a separate Blender scene and spend a day or two refining it. I constantly check how it looks back in the main scene.
If everything works well, I finalize the details and then return to polishing the rest of the room to ensure everything feels cohesive. I create all assets from scratch except for text decals, which I design in Photoshop and add as alpha planes. I mainly use a non-destructive workflow with modifiers like booleans, solidify, and bevels. Although I am a concept artist, I still ensure that the mesh remains reasonably clean and intact, as I want the textures to display properly without shading artefacts.
Returning to the infirmary, I also needed to decide on a material for the main walking area. I chose cool green linoleum, as this reminded me of hospitals. We also received feedback suggesting that we should separate the doctor’s desk from the beds with a curtain to block the light from the lamp and keep the beds in shadow. This would allow patients to turn on their own light if needed.
Rendering
Once the design had been approved by the Art Director and the 3D Lead, they asked me to render it in Blender and then add the final touches in Photoshop. I usually create several separate renders and break them into layers by rendering the foreground, midground, and background individually. This helps me to keep the Photoshop file well organised. Blender has a very useful option called Indirect Only. When enabled for a group, that group will not appear in the render itself, but its shadows, reflections, and lighting will still be visible.
This is extremely helpful for rendering specific objects in the scene or for creating fake shadows and other effects. For more advanced setups, I also recommend exploring Light Linking in the latest versions of Blender. It's incredibly useful for fine-tuning lighting and is absolutely essential in my workflow. Here’s how to enable Indirect Only:
Here's an extra tip: if an object in the viewport is annoying you, try changing its 'Display As' setting to 'Wire'. This can save a lot of frustration, particularly when working with volumetric fog cubes or lots of flat image planes, such as clouds. Setting them to 'Wire' makes them much less distracting while you work.
When rendering, I usually work at a very high resolution, around 6 to 8k. I make sure to set the right number of light samples for each type of surface, often 12 or more, and keep the overall image at about 300 to 600 samples. As a concept artist, my main priority is to make the scene look as good as possible, even if the assets are created quickly and in a simplified way. I don't usually worry much about the mesh itself, as long as the result looks right. This is my typical setup:
This is common knowledge among intermediate Blender users who do concept art, but it’s worth mentioning. Always remember to unpack your textures so that they are not embedded in the file. Before sending or moving your project, repack it into the .blend file. This will really help with performance.
I also highly recommend using the paid add-on, ToOptimize Tools. It quickly reduces texture sizes, which is great since, for concept art, you rarely need anything larger than 1 or 2k. It also helps you to identify objects with denser meshes than the rest, enabling you to use the Decimate modifier and keep your scene running smoothly. I found out about this add-on thanks to Piotr Kryński’s excellent “Efficient Environment Design for Blender” tutorial.
On the subject of add-ons, I use MACHIN3 Tools for its pie menus for hard-surface design, Speedflow and Speedflow Companion for quick access to essential modifiers, HardOps for hard-surface modelling, and Light Manager, which is extremely useful when you have a lot of lights in your scene. It makes isolating and adjusting them much easier.
Between 2020 and 2022, while working on concepts for The Alters, I primarily performed post-processing in Photoshop, making use of adjustment layers such as Levels, Curves, and Color Balance. Nowadays, I usually use Blender's compositor instead. It’s very convenient because you can see the results instantly, and the colour grading is really easy to use and looks great. To enable compositing, simply switch it on in the Viewport Shading panel at the bottom.
My node setup typically includes glare for a subtle bloom effect, color balance for grading, RGB curves to tweak values, and lens distortion for a bit of chromatic aberration. I also sometimes overlay a noise texture to make it look more photographic and realistic. It also helps to plug in the alpha channel, as some effects can turn your background black if this option is not selected, particularly when rendering transparent elements such as characters with Indirect Only enabled.
I often render at a higher quality than is actually necessary, simply because I find it more comfortable. It’s easier to remove details later than add them. In Photoshop, I add finishing touches everywhere, such as screen textures, light adjustments, and effects like fog and lens flares. I also do more colour grading and sharpen the most important details. This is how I create the final image that the rest of the team then works with.
I also usually share my Blender scene with the team. It has all the working textures set up and the lighting in place, which is incredibly helpful for the 3D artists. They can see the exact proportions and base shapes straight away. Their job mostly involves replicating my model, adding extra detail, tweaking some objects if needed for the game, optimising the meshes, and creating new textures that work in the engine. Often, my concept art for a module ends up in the game almost exactly as I designed it. In this case, there were just a few minor changes, but, as you can see, it remained very close to my original concept.
Our Senior 3D Artist, Tomasz Lelek, brought the concept into the final 3D version, with our Art Lead, Tomasz Cygan, overseeing the work and handling the final lighting in UE5. The entire process was directed by our Game/Art Director, Tomasz Kisilewicz. I hope this gives you an insight into how the interior concept art for The Alters was created.
Conclusion
For me, the most important lesson was learning about dimensions. Initially, I didn’t pay much attention to realistic proportions. Over time, I had to learn the correct heights for desks, chairs, and so on, particularly when building them from scratch rather than relying on ready-made assets. The same applies to doors, beds, and all the other elements of a space. When designing spaces for people in a game, it is important to ensure that every size makes sense.
I would often review my blockouts with the rest of the art team and consult with 3D artists or animators to ensure that our characters would have sufficient space for sitting, standing, or eating animations. Taking this approach from the outset avoids many problems later in production. It was also important to me to send my scenes as FBX files to the game artists, so that they could see exactly what I had in mind. Because of that, the in-game assets often matched my vision perfectly.
The work I do on games is often very different from my personal art. I try to maintain a healthy balance. For instance, if I spend a month or two at work creating realistic characters, I'll focus on stylised environments or characters at home. I really enjoy making art, but working in just one style doesn't feel right to me. This is why most of my personal pieces are highly stylised and cartoonish, whereas professionally, I specialise in realism. If you are a professional artist who is worried about burnout or who is experiencing it right now, I recommend creating things that truly bring you joy. When you create art for yourself, you are your own art director.
If I could give beginners one piece of advice, it would be not to be afraid to experiment and try new things. Nobody becomes skilled at everything straight away. It often takes months or even years of practice and experience. I remember feeling completely hopeless when it came to working with 3D software back in 2017 and 2018. I just didn’t understand it and thought it wasn’t for me.
Years later, designing in 3D has become as natural and quick for me as drawing or painting. It's often my first choice. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. Learn in small steps. Although the number of resources available online can seem overwhelming, with the right mindset, anything is possible.