Vidar Rapp
Vidar Rapp
Character Art Expert
Stockholm, Sweden

Summary

20+ years building and leading character art teams across MachineGames, Arrowhead, Avalanche, Starbreeze, Fall Damage and Rebellion. 13 shipped AAA titles including the Wolfenstein franchise, Just Cause, Syndicate, and Helldivers II.

Specialist in realistic characters, production pipelines, and building high-performing teams. Experience spanning individual contribution, team leadership, and art direction. Equally comfortable mentoring junior artists, sculpting heroes and villains, or fixing the parts of a pipeline nobody else wants to touch.

Guest lecturer on game art, workflows, and production at PlaygroundSquad, Nord University, The Game Assembly, and others. Speaker at Promised Land Art Festival.

Now also on YouTube talking about art for games: youtube.com/@vidarrapp

Collecting hobbies and staying curious since 1984.

Resume PDF

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Skills

Art DirectionCharacter ModelingCharacter Design

Software proficiency

Blender
Blender
Maya
Maya
Substance 3D Designer
Substance 3D Designer
Substance 3D Painter
Substance 3D Painter
Photoshop
Photoshop
Marvelous Designer
Marvelous Designer
TopoGun
TopoGun
ZBrush
ZBrush
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
Ornatrix
Ornatrix
Houdini
Houdini
Marmoset Toolbag
Marmoset Toolbag

Productions

    • Video Game
      Helldivers 2
    • Year
      2024
    • Role
      Senior Character Artist
    • Company
      Arrowhead Game Studios
    • Video Game
      Alara Prime
    • Year
      2025
    • Role
      Character Art Director
    • Company
      Fall Damage Studios
    • Video Game
      Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
    • Year
      2024
    • Role
      Additional support
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Wolfenstein: Youngblood
    • Year
      2019
    • Role
      Senior Character Artist
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot
    • Year
      2019
    • Role
      Senior Character Artist
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Doom: VFR
    • Year
      2017
    • Role
      Character art
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
    • Year
      2017
    • Role
      Senior Character Artist
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Doom
    • Year
      2016
    • Role
      Character art
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
    • Year
      2015
    • Role
      Senior Character Artist
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Wolfenstein: The New Order
    • Year
      2014
    • Role
      Senior Character Artist
    • Company
      MachineGames Sweden AB
    • Video Game
      Syndicate (2012)
    • Year
      2012
    • Role
      Senior Character Artist
    • Company
      Starbreeze Studios
    • Video Game
      Just Cause 2
    • Year
      2010
    • Role
      Character Artist
    • Company
      Avalanche Studios
    • Video Game
      Shellshock 2: Blood trails
    • Year
      2009
    • Role
      Character Artist
    • Company
      Rebellion
    • Video Game
      Just Cause
    • Year
      2006
    • Role
      Character Artist
    • Company
      Avalanche Studios

Experience

  • Senior Character artist at Experiment 101
    Stockholm, SE
    October 2025 - Present

    Working on an unannounced AAA title in Unreal Engine 5.7. Contributing across character art, pipeline development, and outsourcing supervision, and acting as a senior technical and creative reference for the project.

  • Lead Character Artist at Avalanche Studios Group
    Stockholm, SE
    June 2025 - October 2025

    Joined to lead the Character Art Team on Avalanche's now paused game Contraband.

    Got reacquainted with some old colleagues and got to take the reins on a great team, however the project fizzled out before we really could get going.

  • Senior Character Artist at Arrowhead Game Studios
    Stockholm, SE
    January 2024 - June 2025

    Character artist on the Enemies team for Helldivers II. Delivered enemies across all factions during the first year of live service, including the Factory Strider, Impaler, and Leviathans.

    Menacing threats to managed democracy delivered as ordered.

  • Character Art Director at Fall Damage
    Stockholm
    January 2022 - December 2023

    Led character art direction and concept development for Alara Prime. Defined the visual language for the roster and drove the production brief for the character team on this esports title.

  • Lead Character Artist at Fall Damage
    Stockholm
    June 2021 - April 2022

    Built and led the character art team through pre-production and into production on Alara Prime.

    Established working methodology and visual style from the ground up.

  • Lead Character Artist at MachineGames Sweden AB
    Uppsala
    July 2019 - June 2021

    Led the character art team across the Wolfenstein franchise over a decade of production, during which the team grew from 2 to 5 artists. Day-to-day art direction, asset feedback, onboarding and training, outsourcing supervision across vendors including Airship Interactive, Goodbye Kansas and others, workflow design, tool development, and high-level production planning using Scrum.

  • Senior Character Artist at MachineGames Sweden AB
    Uppsala
    February 2011 - July 2019

    Joined as one of MachineGames’ earliest employees and helped build the character art team from the ground up. Delivered character art across three shipped Wolfenstein titles, contributing to the franchise’s visual identity from The New Order through The New Colossus, with credited work spanning over 200 named characters across the trilogy.

  • Lead 3D Artist at Starbreeze Studios
    Uppsala
    February 2010 - February 2011

    Supervised the modelling team that delivered characters, props, and weapons for Syndicate (EA, Xbox 360/PS3/PC).

  • Senior Character Artist at Starbreeze Studios
    Uppsala
    August 2008 - February 2011

    Created characters for Syndicate. Also served as Character Lead on a Bourne-license project for EA, handling R&D and outsourcing partner evaluation.

  • Character Artist at Rebellion
    Derby
    September 2007 - August 2008

    Character work on Shellshock 2 (PS3/360/PC), plus concept and pre-production work on several original IPs and pitches.

  • Character Artist at Avalanche Studios
    Stockholm
    May 2005 - September 2007

    Joined on Just Cause, the studio’s first AAA title. Initially focused on quality improvement of outsourced characters and vehicles before being appointed Character Artist during development, with credited work including the main character Rico Rodriguez. Later led outsource supervision for Just Cause 2 and worked on pre-vis for the vertical slice, plus R&D on upcoming projects.