WoU, Who?

This passion inspired his education first in school and then at the Babeș-Bolyai University. “I studied computer science and got a Master’s Degree in the field back in 2008, studying non-photorealistic rendering (NPR). My paper began with the premise that realistic rendering will someday reach a pinnacle—where everything looks perfectly real.” But Horea didn’t just write about this idea. To demonstrate the various ways we could create this realism digitally, he needed to show it. “As a practical example, I built an AR app which was barely running on my Symbian-based Nokia, that showed off some of these shaders in real time on a pre-iPhone mobile device.” Alongside studies, Horea turned to online tutorials to master 3D artistry and attended in person art classes to hone his 2D skills. “Getting access to these tutorials was really hard. We didn’t have access to the Internet at home in 1998. I went to my mom’s office and had to copy them over on 1.44 MB floppy disks.”

That’s right, floppy disks. But this effort for self-improvement was truly worth it. These foundational NPR techniques that Horea learned during this time and mastered since are being applied in the WoU Game we’re building today. 

So what is a Lead Technical Artist? “I am responsible for making sure that all the graphics look as good as they can—and work the best that they can on all sorts of game systems.” Since 1998, Horea has been working on games with a long-time friend, business partner and mentor, Cristian. “In the beginning just as amateurs of course, but later on we landed a job at a local company to work on an MMO RPG.” That’s a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game for those who aren’t familiar with the acronym. “That game never saw the light of day, but it was here that we connected with our other long time friend, business partner, and art director, Adrian.” In 2013, the team formed their ow...