This is Art Bully – the largest outsourcing studio in Serbia!

Art Bully Productions is a company of about 180 people that has been operating for more than 15 years on three continents: in Europe (Belgrade, Serbia), North America (Raleigh, North Carolina) and Asia (Mohali, India). It is an outsourcing studio that specializes in 3D art, with teams that specifically create characters, creatures, weapons, vehicles, concept art and complex props. There are also teams within the company that make 3D animation and are experts in rigging, skinning, keyframe animation and mocap cleanup.

They have contributed to over 45 published titles, and have worked with companies such as Epic Games, Activision, Bethesda Games, 2k Games, Sony, Crystal Dynamics, Obsidian Entertainment, Gearbox Software, Hi-Rez Studios and Frictional Games. Their portfolio shows that they are skilled in creating both photorealistic and highly stylized assets.

This team of artists is very flexible, and can work within an existing pipeline, but can also help you establish one. They will ensure that the quality and integrity of the art is maintained from concept to finalization.

In addition to art production, Art Bully also trains new artists within the Art Bully Training Center. It offers courses in 3D Art, Environment Art, Concept Art and 3D Animation, which are held live in Belgrade. An Unreal Engine course will also be available soon. As we wrote before, Art Bully has a frequent practice of employing participants of its courses, so the hard work really pays off in the end.

We are honored that this studio will represent Serbia with us at Gamescom for Business, under the slogan THE NEW FRONTIER OF EUROPEAN GAME DEV. This will be an opportunity for them to meet new clients and show their work to all interested parties.

We have used this occasion to speak with Ivan Janković, the director of Art Bully Productions, who together with the director of the Art Bully Training Center, Lazar Svrkot, will be at our stand at Gamescom happy to answer all your questions.

SGA: Can you tell us what Art Bully is and what separates you from the competition?

Ivan: What separates us from the competition is the exceptional communication we have with clients. A huge part of that is the abundant knowledge and experience in working on AAA projects gained over the past fifteen and a half years by collaborating on published games and projects at the highest possible level. When I say exceptional communication, I mean the way we can be helpful to our clients in all phases of their projects (pre-production, production and crunch/final/polish phase). We put the expertise, experience and comprehensive knowledge of AAA production at the disposal of clients and help them overcome complicated challenges and meet tight deadlines.

SGA: How do you cooperate with your studio’s branches in other countries? The co-founder of your company is a foreigner, right?

Ivan: The co-founder of Art Bully is Marcus Dublin from New York and he is currently based in North Carolina, where he runs the Art Bully studio in Raleigh. It is, in principle, the same company and the cooperation is fantastic because we are all part of one big team. The studio in India is run by our colleague Sanket Gupta, with whom we had a long-term cooperation even before Art Bully.

SGA: Many of the games you’ve worked on have been played by a huge number of people. How does it feel to know that your work is reaching all of them?

Ivan: It’s a great feeling and one of the main reasons why people work and stay at Art Bully for many years. We have a lot of veterans who have been with the company since the beginning. Being a part of legendary, blockbuster and cult productions is something that our artists proudly carry as a well-deserved reward for a lifetime!

SGA: If you were to single out some favorite projects you’ve worked on, which projects would they be and why?

Ivan: It’s hard to single out just a few titles because we’ve really been part of a lot of great projects. Due to time constraints, I will mention a few, but this in no way favors them, nor diminishes the importance and significance of the other projects we worked on. We have a great partnership with Epic Games studios and have been a part of Fortnite for over seven years. We’ve worked on hundreds of assets that players use in the game every day. Also, we have a great collaboration with Activision Studios, with whom we worked on ten Call of Duty titles. I would also like to mention the game Stray, which according to the budget belongs to smaller production projects, but was chosen for Game of the Year 2022, of what we are extremely proud. As all-around cat lovers, we had the pleasure of working on almost all the animations of the adorable four-legged friends that found their way into the game. I would also like to mention the Anne Frank House, an Oculus project, which uses VR technology to recreate the house where Anne hid and spent her last days. Such a project is invaluable to the cultural heritage of humanity and we are incredibly proud to have been a part of it.

SGA: In addition to production, you also educate new 3D Artists. Why is that important to you?

Ivan: Our clients are very demanding – when artists start working with us and have no experience with AAA games, they are always surprised when they see the level of detail the client expects. That’s why we opened the training center, to show the participants firsthand what awaits them in the industry and how to respond to the demands of AAA clients. Considering that Art Bully is constantly growing and is always looking for new artists, the best participants become part of our team.

SGA: We’ve heard you have some good news when it comes to the Art Bully Training Center.

Ivan: That’s right, due to the great interest in our courses outside of Belgrade and outside of Serbia, we have decided to create an online course as well. The program has been slightly changed and adapted to online classes, and participants will have daily contact with our employees if they need help or feedback. The course will be available in early fall.

SGA: We’re especially excited to go to Gamescom with you. What are your expectations from this fair? How important do you think it is that Serbia will become part of the world’s largest gaming fair this year?

Ivan: It is fantastic that we will represent Serbia and we will do our best to do it in as well as possible. We will have the opportunity to introduce Art Bully to the European public for the first time directly with the SGA. We have been part of numerous conferences, primarily the GDC in San Francisco and XDS in Vancouver, where we have been an independent exhibitor and sponsor for years. This time we are presenting ourselves to the European public through the SGA and that makes us very proud. Serbia has incredible potential and we are glad to be part of this growing industry.

SGA: Thank you very much for your answers, we wish you a successful search for clients and future artists at Gamescom!

Serbia’s appearance at Gamecom would not have been possible without the support of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The participation of the startup Phobos was supported by the Science and Technology Park Belgrade and the Government of Switzerland through the project Technopark Serbia 2 – encouraging exports through the development of technology parks, as alumni of the Raising Starts program.

Gamescom takes place from August 23rd to 27th in Cologne so if you’re available, be sure to stop by and get “bullied” by this company’s fantastic art!