David Ardinaryas Lojaya, an Artist and character designer for Disney and Dreamworks, shed some light on his way to CG and what it’s like to work on characters for Playkot’s recently launched Spring Valley: Farm Adventures.

David, your style is quite distinctive and unique, no doubt liked by many people. How did you come to it? Was it an easy ride?

Thank you so much! I’m glad to hear that, finding my own style wasn’t that hard but it is a long game. Every artist has their own different journey and from my own experience, it’s just flowing as I draw, but it took me years to define the art style that I have today. And I believe that a style is not a constant thing but rather a developing skill depending on what I get inspired from.

You have quite a few Disney and Final Fantasy characters in your portfolio—how (or why) do they inspire you? Why do you like them so much?

I remember my earliest memory of my childhood was just watching my first Disney film which is The Little Mermaid on VHS. I was so mesmerized by the beauty of the underwater scenery of the film, and from that I began to draw seaweed and fishes. My first JRPG game was Final Fantasy IX back in 2000 and I was absolutely mesmerized by it. I guess the first impression really does matter for me, haha.

How were you developing as an artist? Was there someone at the start of your career who inspired or even maybe helped you?

I started to draw The Little Mermaid when I was a kid, and as an Asian kid, I would watch anime too, so I began to draw anime as I grew up till my teenage years. And then I took an animation major at college to study this passion of mine. I think there are so many things that inspired me but thanks to the internet, I could learn a lot from many artists outside my country.

Your work inspires a lot of people, some try to copy your style, some make 3D models based on your characters. What do you think about it?

I absolutely love to see them! It's a great achievement for me to get someone to try to study my works. My art journey started when I copied works from The Little Mermaid and so if someone copies my work, I’d cherish them as maybe it’s their first step to be an artist.

What unusual projects have you worked on—book covers, music album covers, cartoons or films?

Book cover! I guess it was just one of my ambitions, I just wanted to see my works on a bookshelf and so I took a book cover job. It was really fun and rewarding to see them on lots of people’s shelves.

What do you think of the characters you designed for Spring Valley? Think back to when you first read their biographies and descriptions—what emotional response did they cause you? Tell us about one of the characters here that you were particularly hooked on.

I think the most memorable character for me would be Tiffany because it’s the first character that I created for Spring Valley. We had some time to figure out what kind of style we want to go for the characters. I had many sketches before we went to the current style and Igor (Igor Asanov, Art Director at Spring Valley) helped me a lot to define the style that he had in his vision.

‘It’s wonderful that we have a strong, independent female character in Spring Valley’, says David.

We need to tell this: even though the game went global just recently, we already have quite a few comments from our players on how much they like the characters, especially Matthew and, most of all, Sid. What’s his story?

I’m so happy to hear that! I can’t take all the credits since it’s a team work, and Igor did amazing work as my art director. He assigned me these characters, and he did complete them with all the descriptions of what they are. And from that, I sketched out many versions of what Sid and Matthew would look like and we went back and forth with Igor to perfect the Sid and Matthew that we see now in the game.