Portfolio under construction / Case study draft

Boali Dashtestani

Art Direction / Game Art / Technical Art

bdbros.com

Art Direction / London Pitch

Ballpark in a Box

A baseball experience imagined for Trafalgar Square.

London-themed stadium concept with a Union Jack airship, Big Ben, the London Eye, and a home-run presentation screen.
Presentation concept Paintover over a Unity editor render.

01 / The Brief

Baseball in a London setting

MLB requested a concept for Ballpark in a Box centred on Trafalgar Square. The pitch called for a short VR demo and presentation visuals showing how the gameplay and environment could look for the London occasion.

I served as Art Director and Senior Technical Artist on the pitch. I gathered references, developed concepts and paintovers, and planned how we could render the surrounding area within a short production schedule.

My role
Art Director
Senior Technical Artist
Studio
Little Guy Games
Project stage
Pitch and visual development
Collaboration
Project producer and lead UI artist

02 / Visual Research

Finding the London atmosphere

I collected references for local architecture, daylight, mist, and atmospheric depth. These gave us a shared starting point for discussing the setting and its visual treatment.

London skyline reference showing mist and softened distant buildings.
Atmosphere and distance
London architectural reference in warm sunlight.
Daylight and architecture
The London Eye and surrounding buildings under softer, overcast light.
Softer ambient light

Reference photography from the original research board; not original artwork.

03 / Concept Development

Two ways to bring the setting into play

The pitch explored two relationships between the stadium and Trafalgar Square. I worked with the project producer to develop concepts for the visual presentation and gameplay context.

Concept showing Trafalgar-inspired holographic landmarks and score multipliers within the baseball stadium.
Exploration A

Bring London into the stadium

Use Trafalgar-inspired elements within the ballpark, including proposed holographic landmarks for scoring and catch zones.

Concept showing a stadium surrounded by oversized Trafalgar Square architecture, fountains, and monuments.
Exploration B

Place the stadium within the square

Explore a larger-than-life setting around the stadium, with more dramatic camera views. The proposal retained the stadium's gameplay scale while enlarging the surroundings.

04 / Technical Art Direction

Planning a large vista for a short schedule

Alongside the concepts, I developed a plan for rendering the surrounding area. The studies divided buildings by their distance from the camera, keeping more detail nearby and proposing shader-based treatment for the far vista.

Annotated environment study separating detailed nearby buildings from the distant London skyline.
Concentrate detail near the player.
Annotated vista study proposing distance-based fog and desaturation for far-away buildings.
Use atmosphere to establish depth in the far vista.
Colour-coded map identifying near, intermediate, and distant building groups around the intended viewing area.
Building-detail zones from the production planning board.

Connect the visual goal to production

The colour-coded study made the intended distribution of detail explicit. Yellow identified the buildings intended to receive the most detail.

The board also explored procedural material variation and distance-based fog or desaturation. The aim was to establish scale and visual variety without giving every building the same level of detail.

Building material study
Building material study showing position-based masking and variations across the facade.
Position-based masking and material exploration.

Flag shader: tessellation and vertex offset

I created this Unity flag shader using tessellation and vertex offset to animate the flag's surface. This editor capture shows the deformation from different viewing angles in the London environment.

Shader by Boali Dashtestani Unity editor capture. Tessellation and vertex-offset animation.

05 / Presentation

Bringing the pitch together

The presentation paintovers combined the stadium view with recognisable London landmarks and event-themed imagery. I worked with the producer and lead UI artist on the presentation, with the lead UI artist creating the UI shown below.

London stadium presentation concept with team score, player points, and pitches-left interface.
Presentation iteration with UI UI created by the lead UI artist. Scene details also differ from the opening paintover.

Contributions and credits

Boali Dashtestani
Art direction, senior technical art, reference selection, concept development, paintovers, and rendering approach for the pitch.
Project producer
Collaboration on concept development and the presentation.
Lead UI artist
UI design for the presentation.
Project team
Underlying game environment and project assets. The work shown combines individual contributions and team-produced material.