Mika Harju
© Mika Harju

Mika Harju

I’m a 29 year old artist from Espoo, working in the games industry.

SOFTWARE

Photoshop

Modo

Blender

ZBrush

Substance Painter

Xnormal

Hansoft

Frozenbyte Game Editor

LANGUAGES

Finnish

English


AWARDS

  • Was chosen for the “Digitaalinen kuvataide Suomessa” – exhibition in Lasipalatsi (2015)


PAST WORK

— PROJECT NAME

- at BIT ODD


— ROLE

-


— DATE

2022 – Current

-




— PROJECT NAME

Unannounced Project

at Frozenbyte


— ROLE

Concept Artist


— DATE

2019 – 2022

I joined a new project as the preproduction was starting with a task of providing the rest of the team a solid plan on how the game was going to look like. I conceptualized characters, environments and cutscenes, and as the development has went on I have moved on to designing specific assets and making preliminary models to be taken further by 3d artists. I switch between 2D and 3D art depending on what is most favorable to the current task.

I work closely with the Art Director and other leads of the project to define the look of the game following the rough outline and instructions from them and rest of the team. I have also accompanied my conceptual work with written descriptions of the mood and environmental storytelling goals, which has proved to work as a good backbone for rest of the art to rely on.

My goal has been to stay a few steps ahead of the rest of the team so that they have a solid plan and references to work from.




— PROJECT NAME

Trine 4: Melody of Mystery

at Frozenbyte


— ROLE

Concept Artist


— DATE

2019

I joined the Trine team during the DLCs preproduction phase to help get it ready for full production quicker. I worked closely with the Art Director, designing and visualizing the level themes from general briefs and painting keyframes for the cutscenes.





— PROJECT NAME

Boreal Blade

at Frozenbyte


— ROLE

Art Director


— DATE

2016 – 2019

I worked as the Art director on the project, leading an art team of 3-5 people. I co-designed the art style of the game, and modeled characters, and some of the equipment and other assets. I lead and helped in creating the game’s levels. I painted hundreds of concepts and created the world the game is set in. 

In addition, due to the team lacking a dedicated designer, I had a major part in designing the combat system of the game, as well as other features. I also made most of the UI art. In addition I organized and lead weekly testing sessions.



— PROJECT NAME

Nine Parchments


— ROLE

3D Artist

— DATE

2016

I modeled one of the characters for the game during a brief in-between period.

— PROJECT NAME

Shadwen


— ROLE

3D Artist

2D Artist

Level Artist


— DATE

2015 – 2016

My task was to create one of the guard characters for the game, as well as various level art assets. I also did level art for various levels in the game. In addition I did some concept and cutscene work and designed some environmental storytelling-related elements of the setting.

— PROJECT NAME

Trine 3


— ROLE

3D artist


— DATE

2014 – 2015

I made various level art assets for the game.


— PROJECT NAME

Trine: Enchanted Edition

Splot


— ROLE

QA tester


— DATE

2014

I started working in the QA while learning necessary 3D art skills to transfer into the art team.



— ROLE

Freelance


— DATE

-2014

Various types of freelance work consisting of game assets, illustrations and other commission work.

Mika Harju

mikaharjuart@gmail.com