Basia Ulczok

Wolverhampton School of Art / Student Case Studies / Basia Ulczok

Originally from Poland, Basia came to the University of Wolverhampton for a half a year Erasmus programme.

After studying in Wolves for half a year, she really wanted to stay on until the end... and she graduated in 2015. In 2016 she landed her first job as a Games Artist at a VR indie game studio. After that she was hired at a bigger game studio in Birmingham where I worked as a 3D Animator on AAA titles such as Sea of Thieves: The Arena and Crackdown 3: Wrecking Zone.

She moved down to Guildford has been working at London’s Big Pixel Studio animating Rick and Morty characters. Basia is in the process of transitioning from an animation to a concept art career so she's been working on her concept art in her own time, taking commissions for creating character concept art for games.

We caught up with Basia to discuss what she is up to now, her favourite aspect of the course and her advice to current students.

My name is Basia, I am a concept artist and animator passionate about character design and creating video games ever since I remember.

I am working as a 2D Games Artist for a London game studio, Talewind. My working day consists of designing UI and creating concept art of characters, props and environments. Because we're a small studio and we were just founded, I also help out with rigging and animating until we hire a 3D generalist.

I've worked on such AAA titles as Crackdown 3: Wrecking Zone and Sea of thieves: The Arena, I've also worked on an independent VR game and a mobile Rick and Morty title. Currently I work as a 2D Games Artist creating games for Roblox.

My favourite part of creating games regardless of size or budget is always the same though: collaborating with other talented people and creating something special. 

Studying animation here allowed me to experiment with different stages of production, take my time with them, get pretty good at all of them and choose my favourite one to master!

There's too many good memories to choose from! The whole course is one great trip, putting a smile on my face whenever I remember it. Emily and Sam were the best tutors ever! I could always talk to them about anything and get priceless advice. I made many friends that I still keep in touch with. Showcasing my final movie in the graduation year was a great summary of the hard work I've done and makes me proud till this day. Also, I found the whole course to be grounded in reality and thanks to studying it I realised I'd rather be designing than animating and work in the games industry.

The Animation course in Wolverhampton let me explore all the ins and outs of creating a visual story. Making my own 3D short film gave me the understanding of the pre-production, production, and post-production process of creating a narrative and after I had finished it, I could see clearly where I would fit in best as an artist. I always wanted to work in video games. Back in Poland it seemed just like a dream to me but having invested my time and resources and coming here to Wolverhampton, I then had the tools to realise that dream.

I am very happy with where I am career wise right now, hoping to advance to position of senior and then a lead concept artist in the years to come.

Website: www.basiaulczok.com | Twitter: @Baishare | Instagram: @basiaulczok