Territory & Environment
Overall identity, environmental contrast, biome hierarchy, landmarks, regional differentiation, composition and player-facing visual readability.
Case study · AAA Art Direction
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Wrath of the Druids
Full visual leadership of the expansion at Ubisoft Bordeaux, setting the visual framework, aligning Content and Narrative Direction with discipline leads around a shared target, stepping into focused artist reviews when fine tuning was needed, and carrying the direction through final implementation and the worldwide marketing key art developed with Ubisoft Montreal.
The mandate
Own the visual identity from concept to campaign.
My responsibility was not limited to environment supervision or final visual approval. I owned the artistic direction of the expansion as a whole: defining the identity of Ireland, translating that identity into executable direction for each department, and protecting the direction through final delivery. A large part of that work was collaborative: I worked closely with the Content Director and Narrative Director on world-building and on the visual development of main and secondary narrative characters, aligned discipline leads around a common visual target, resolved cross-discipline decisions with production and technical direction, and stepped into direct artist reviews when fine tuning was needed.
The central challenge was to create a territory that felt immediately new and memorable while remaining fully credible inside Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Every discipline had to contribute to the same world: landscape, architecture, materials, characters, lighting, atmosphere, VFX, technical solutions and marketing representation.
Confidentiality
Internal art-direction decks, benchmarks, review packs, production notes, paintovers and iteration documents remain confidential and are not displayed. This page describes their function, the leadership process and the public result without reproducing proprietary material.
Art-direction scope
A unified vision across every department.
I converted the creative ambition into a shared visual system, then worked with the Content Director, Narrative Director and discipline leads to translate that direction into clear decisions for the world, characters and each art department.
Architecture & Materials
Historical coherence, settlement language, structural families, material contrast, surface vocabulary and consistency between buildings and landscape.
Characters, Factions & Narrative World
Visual development of main and secondary narrative characters, faction identity, silhouette, cultural readability and alignment between narrative intent, world-building and final design, in close collaboration with Content and Narrative Direction.
Lighting & VFX
Mood, time-of-day identity, visual focus, weather, ritual atmosphere, supernatural restraint and clarity during gameplay and cinematics.
Level, Terrain & Technical Art
Artistic intent translated into playable locations, terrain structure, asset reuse, technical constraints, performance considerations and scalable solutions.
Direction Documents & Reviews
Department-specific direction packs, references, benchmarks, paintovers, comparisons, briefs and daily review material used to turn intent into actionable decisions.
Leadership & core partnerships
Art direction through alignment, delegation and focused intervention.
My role was to set the visual target, keep every discipline aligned, and make the cross-department decisions that protected the identity of the expansion. Day-to-day execution was carried by discipline leads and their teams, while I worked continuously with the Content Director, Narrative Director, production and technical direction to align world-building, narrative characters, priorities, milestones and cross-discipline decisions. I stepped directly into artist reviews when a specific visual issue needed fine tuning. Philippe Trarieux “Bob” was my daily technical partner, helping translate the artistic direction into robust in-engine implementation.
Leadership Structure
Art DirectionDavid Pellet, overall visual direction and cross-discipline alignment.
Lead ArtistAlexandre Lutz, supporting day-to-day art execution and coordination across the team.
Creative PartnersContent Director and Narrative Director, close collaboration on world-building and the visual development of main and secondary narrative characters.
Discipline LeadsDay-to-day ownership of execution within each art discipline, aligned around the shared visual target.
Focused InterventionDirect artist reviews when fine tuning, difficult visual decisions or final quality alignment required it.
Core Production & Technical Partnerships
Graphic Technical DirectorPhilippe Trarieux “Bob”, daily partner for translating the artistic vision into the game engine and helping establish practical technical solutions for implementation.
ProductionOlivia Forni, Nicolas Freeman
Working modelContinuous collaboration on artistic intent, engine implementation, technical feasibility, priorities, dependencies, milestones, quality targets and delivery risk.
Art / Production balanceProtect the artistic ambition while ensuring that decisions remained executable within schedule, technology and resource constraints.
Leadership outcomeA common visual target shared across departments rather than a collection of independently successful assets.
Art direction operated as orchestration: setting a clear visual target, aligning Content and Narrative Direction with discipline leads, reviewing work in context, making decisions across disciplines, and stepping into direct artist feedback when fine tuning or a difficult visual problem required it.
Public shipped work
The visible result of a shared direction.
These public images demonstrate different parts of the finished visual identity. They are team-produced work shown here as evidence of the direction, not as claims of individual asset authorship.
Marketing Art Direction
Extending the game’s identity into a global campaign.
I completely directed the final marketing visuals in direct collaboration with the Ubisoft Montreal team. My role was to ensure that the campaign did not become a generic fantasy image, but remained a concentrated, immediately readable expression of the expansion’s actual visual identity.
I guided the composition, character staging, environment, monumentality, atmosphere, lighting, narrative clarity, visual hierarchy and the controlled suggestion of the supernatural. I then supervised the adaptation of the final composition across landscape, square and vertical formats.
PlaceMake Ireland visually present through landscape, vegetation, moisture, scale and color.
ThreatCommunicate the Children of Danu as a ritual and cultural danger, not generic enemies.
MonumentalityUse ancient structures and environmental scale to imply history, mystery and weight.
RestraintTease the fantastic without explaining or revealing everything in a single image.
Project credits
A collaborative production under a unified art direction.
Final assets were created collaboratively. The credits below distinguish overall art direction, the contributing art disciplines and artists, and the core production and technical partnerships.
Art Direction
David Pellet
Cinematic Director
Olivier Fleurette
Lead Artist
Alexandre Lutz
Concept Art
Arnaud Kleindienst, Lucas Leger, Quentin Gillet
Level Art
Corentin Marquet, Nicolas Gorszczyk, Natanael Millet, Raphael Thiessard, Anthony Lemetayer, Jerome Rajcek, Quentin Donnaint, Cristel Mrowka
Lighting Art
Laurent Harduin, Ines Helmer
Technical Art
Joao Pereira Lemos Costa, Gery Arduino
Terrain Art
Robert Farrand
VFX Art
Hugo Marouzé, Anaïs Riff
Material Art
Ludovic Petiot
Lead Character Artist
Eric Moreno
Character Art
Loïc Sprimont, Arthur Gatineau, Romain Truchard, Mike-Amir El Frangi, Jason De Loos, Ye Wen Xiang
Character Rig / Technical Art
Thomas Vialetto
Graphic Technical Director
Philippe Trarieux “Bob”, David Pellet’s daily technical partner for in-engine implementation of the art direction.
Production
Olivia Forni, Nicolas Freeman
Marketing Collaboration
Ubisoft Montreal team, final key-art production under David Pellet’s direct visual supervision.