Procedural Jellyfish
Sofia Sorace graduated from LCC GMD in 2022 with a First Class Honours. We caught up with her and asked about what she has been doing recently…
Since all of my projects focused on video games, I knew I wanted to keep learning about them, so I pursued a Masters in Computer Games Art and Design at Goldsmiths University. The course was very broad, giving me the chance to explore a bit of everything, and I discovered a surprising interest in technical art. For my final major project, I created a jellyfish customisation game that used sine equations to animate their movement, something that had never been done before. This project was highly commended by my professors and is now used as an example of effective programming techniques and creative thinking – the latter I developed at LCC. I graduated in 2024 with a Distinction.
What are you doing now?
Since then, I have been working freelance. I am currently working at Fire Without Smoke as a freelance Capture Assistant, contributing to promotional material for Dune: Awakening, as well as freelancing for several indie games companies. I mainly work in technical art, but I still regularly apply my graphic design skills and thinking.
Tell us more about the jellyfish!
In gaming, 3D character and creature models often focus on familiar archetypes like humanoids and dragons, leaving intriguing designs like jellyfish largely underrepresented. Their diverse textures and fluid, sine-wave movements make jellyfish ideal candidates for Procedural Content Generation (PCG).
The initial aim of this project was to create a jellyfish customisation game using UI sliders for real-time adjustments. As development progressed, the project evolved to include multiple updates that enhance technical efficiency, such as an API for streamlined asset management and an array of jellyfish clones to populate the environment. These features not only optimise performance but also enable a rich variety of jellyfish while minimising file size and resource usage, showcasing the powerful capabilities of PCG in game development.”
Gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s03iVL0zItw&
Full portfolio project showcase: https://sofia.sorace.co.uk/projects/procedural-jellyfish/
