Vu is a passionate and self-driven illustrator from San Francisco. He has 15 years of experience and a proven track record of delivering mood paintings, key-arts, illustrations, and high-quality art assets for console and mobile games. Some shipped titles include: Redacted, The Callisto Protocol, Empires & Allies, and The Sims: Medieval. He looks forward to sharing creative ideas, designing visually striking arts, and collaborating with other artists and developers while building the next hit title.

You can contact him at vumai128@yahoo.com

E X P E R I E N C E


SENIOR CONCEPT ARTIST April 2021 - March 2025

Striking Distance Studios - San Ramon, CA 

  • Supported the art director and production team in establishing art styles and shape languages for upcoming projects. This included producing original artworks and compiling reference boards in Miro and PureRef to define visual directions.

  • Designed environment concept art, paintovers, characters, and props for The Callisto Protocol and REDACTED. 

  • Created 2D arts that were implemented into Unreal Engine. These include graphic design assets such as posters and commercial signage for Callisto, as well as illustrations of key characters in REDACTED.

  • Designed art banners for Callisto Protocol: Helix Station, an audio series from the The Callisto Protocol universe.

  • Collaborated with game designers to develop key art for various project pitches. Each piece was completed within 3–5 days and used in weekly presentations to pitch game concepts to studio executives.


SENIOR CONCEPT ARTIST June 2020 - April 2021

Machine Zone (Applovin), Palo Alto, CA

  • Worked with art director and producers to redesign and update the backgrounds and city maps for Final Fantasy XV: New Empire and Final Fantasy XV: War of EOS. These are 2D assets that were repainted with higher level of fidelity; more details, visual interests, and story-telling elements. 

  • Designed buildings and architectures for Final Fantasy XV: New Empire, while staying within the constraints and footprints given by environment artists.


SENIOR MARKETING ARTIST January 2019 - June 2020

Machine Zone (Applovin) - Palo Alto, CA 

  • Worked with marketing art directors and product marketing managers to develop splash arts, key arts, and app store arts for mobile title Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate.

  • Supported cinematic team with matte paintings, mood pieces, and storyboards for video spots. These were delivered to outsourcing managers to be sent out to external vendors to generate CGI commercials.


SENIOR CONCEPT ARTIST August 2015 - October 2018

Disney Interactive - San Jose, CA

  • Helped art director and creative director research and define the look and feel of an unannounced Star Wars game title.

  • Compiled style guides during pre-production, including previs artwork, visual targets, and key art.

  • Worked with 3D art leads to create lighting studies by painting over proxy environments.

  • Translated Lucasfilm’s feedback from weekly review cycles into actionable items. Assigned these actionable items to fellow artists to be completed by the next meeting with Lucasfilm. This was regularly practiced in order to keep the art pipeline on brand, and true to the Star Wars universe.

CONCEPT ARTIST June 2014 - August 2015

Zynga - San Francisco, CA

  • Assisted art directors in establishing the visual language of various military factions for mobile title Empires & Allies. This included figuring out color palettes, iconographies, and flags that represent each of the groups in the game.

  • Created concepts of architectures, building upgrades, vehicles, and units. All visual stages of upgrade for these assets had to be designed to fit within the required footprints on the game map.


CONCEPT ARTIST August 2013 - May 2014

Disney Interactive - Palo Alto, CA

  • Illustrated battle scenes for an unannounced Star Wars mobile game title. All arts must be vetted and approved by Lucasfilm’s branding team in order to stay true to the franchise’s universe and timeline.

  • Painted backgrounds and environments to be used as in-game assets. These background paintings were done with the highest level of polish and rendering, as they were intended to appear in the game.


CONCEPT ARTIST March 2011 - July 2013

Kabam - San Francisco, CA

  • Painted backgrounds and mood pieces for various mobile and Facebook games (Global Warfare, Dark District). These arts served as loading screens, and as various banners for the games’ app stores and websites.

  • Designed vehicles, architecture, and props from thumbnail to final renderings. Developed upgrade progressions with visual lineups to communicate their evolution.


CONCEPT ARTIST May 2010 - March 2011

Electronic Arts - Redwood City, CA

  • Designed props, objects, and environments for PC title The Sims: Medieval.

  • Illustrated graphic novel-style cutscenes and narrative sequences, aligning with the lead artist’s inking style for visual consistency.

SHIPPED GAMES

REDACTED, The Callisto Protocol, The Callisto Protocol: Final Transmission, Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate, Final Fantasy XV: War of EOS, Final Fantasy XV: New Empire, Empires & Allies, Dark District, Global Warfare, The Sims: Medieval

E D U C A T I O N

BFA ANIMATION/ILLUSTRATION (August 2003 - May 2010)

San Jose State University - San Jose, CA

P R O F E S S I O N A L  SKILLS

  • Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Cinema 4D, Unreal Engine

  • Fluency in English & Vietnamese

  • Traditional mediums such as oil and acrylic. Some group shows include:

Delicious (07/05/2018 - 07/27/2018). Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA

CA: Landscapes & Still-life (08/16/2019) - 09/23/2019. The Arsenal, San Jose, CA

Tiny & Huge (11/07/2019 - 12/23/2019). Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Urban & Rural (04/22/2021 - 05/17/2021). Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA

City Streets (07/16/2023 - 07/24/2023). Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA

City Streets (05/02/2024 - 05/20/2024). Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Before the Light Changes (06/07/2025 - 06/29/2025). Parts Peculiar, San Francisco, CA