Elvira Belyaeva — Multidisciplinary Designer and 2D Artist

Games

• Game art
• Pixel art
• Characters
• Environments
• Props
• Cutscenes
• Game UI assets

Illustration

• Character art
• Portraits
• Concept art and key art
• Vector art
• Pixel illustration
• Visual storytelling

Motion

• 2D animation
• Frame-by-frame animation
• Vector animation
• Motion design
• Video editing
• Trailers
• Kinetic type

UI/UX

• Interface design
• Game UI
• Web design
• Wireframes
• Prototypes
• User flows
• UI animation

Design

• Visual identity
• Graphic design
• Layout design
• Posters and print
• Social media
• Promotional materials

Craft

• Sewing
• Pattern making
• Knitting
• Sculpting
• Dolls
• Making
• Styling
• Set design

Art and Design

• Procreate
• Photoshop
• Affinity
• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Figma

Animation and Video

• After Effects
• Premiere Pro
• CupCat
• ProcreateDr
• DaVinci
• Moho

Web and UI

• Figma
• Tilda

Game Art

• Aseprite
• Resprite
• Unity

AI and Prototyping

• Codex
• ChatGPT
• AI image tools

How I Work

I don’t build my workflow around a single program. I choose tools based on the task—and if the project requires something new, I learn it quickly and integrate it into the process.

I’m comfortable combining different programs, adapting to new styles and formats, working independently, and using feedback to find the strongest solution.

Soft Skills

• Adaptability
• Fast learning
• Creative problem-solving
• Independent workflow
• Working with feedback
• Attention to detail

Art School, 2013–2017

Since childhood, I’ve been drawing, sculpting, inventing characters, and creating tiny worlds. At art school, I was especially drawn to sculpture, graphics, and composition, while independently learning vector art and animation in Anime Studio Pro and video editing in Sony Vegas. That was when I realized I wanted to work with movement, visuals, and storytelling.

Graphic Design, 2017–2022

I entered college planning to become a book illustrator, but gradually shifted toward animation and visual storytelling. Alongside graphic design, I studied form, light, composition, typography, and illustration with senior artists. By my second year, I was already working professionally on illustrations for apps, logos, brochures, and printed materials.

Tailor-Patternmaker, 2025

From March to September 2025, I studied to become a tailor-patternmaker and unexpectedly fell in love with it. Constructing patterns and complex silhouettes gave me a better understanding of form, structure, and volume. It also showed me that my personal style remains recognizable across drawing, sewing, sculpting, and knitting.

Self-Education

Most of my learning happens directly through work: when a project requires something unfamiliar, I research it and figure it out. This is how I learned Tilda, Unity, new animation and editing tools, UI logic, plugins, and other technical skills. For me, learning is a continuous process of collecting knowledge from different fields and combining it in my work.

Hack the Publisher, 2023–2025

Roles: Motion Designer, Pixel Artist, Animator.

• Created expressive pixel-art characters through poses, gestures, emotions, and behavior, even at very small resolutions.
• Produced movement and attack animations, VFX, cutscenes, UI icons, interface elements, windows, and in-game items.
• Created trailers and promotional animations, which led me deeper into motion design.
• Developed a strong production workflow for exporting, structuring, batching, and organizing large amounts of assets.

Dreamers Workshop, 2026–Now

Roles: Motion Designer, UI/UX Designer.

• Create game trailers, DLC videos, and other promotional materials, working with editing, animation, and motion graphics.
• Design UI/UX elements and layouts in Figma, as well as props and other visual assets for game projects.
• Generate images and refine them manually, correcting details and preparing polished final assets while working closely with the team.

Freelance, 2025

Roles: Designer, Illustrator, Motion Designer, Pixel Artist, Animator.

• Worked with solo developers and small indie teams on characters, animations, environments, effects, and complete sets of pixel-art assets.
• Created game trailers, DLC teasers, video editing, and motion graphics.
• Expanded into Tilda, UI logic, and assembling complex web pages.

Game Jams, 2023

Roles: Pixel Artist, Animator.

• Participated in two game jams and received my first paid pixel art work.
• Learned to create game assets quickly while working within strict stylistic and technical limitations.

RetroGaze, 2021–2022

Roles: Art Director, Founder.

• Developed the full visual identity of a Y2K showroom, from the logo to packaging.
• Styled photoshoots, curated social media, and shaped the overall visual mood.
• This project significantly strengthened my sense of style, composition, and brand vision.

Marsbase, 2022

Roles: Junior Designer, Illustrator.

• Designed the main character, outfits, accessories, and variations for a generative collection.
• Created promotional graphics and visual assets for the website.
• Learned to build complex visual systems in which dozens of elements had to work together.

UPM App, 2020

Roles: Motion Designer, Illustrator.

• Created vector characters, scenes, and backgrounds from sketch to final artwork.
• Designed animated stickers and small motion elements.
• Supported the lead designer with interface details and the overall visual rhythm.

Personal NFT Project, 2022

Roles: Concept Artist, Illustrator.

• Developed the concept, visual direction, and world of the project.
• Although it was never launched, it gave me valuable experience in visual development and production pipeline structure.

Bazhanova Agency, 2019–2020

Roles: Junior Designer, Illustrator.

• Created vector and raster illustrations for several mobile apps.
• Worked on UI/UX elements, including icons, small screens, and visual accents.
• Made my first game prototypes and animated assets.

Roles: Motion Designer, Pixel Artist, 2D Artist, Animator.

An unreliable narrative-driven adventure where reality constantly shifts around the player. A surreal mix of point-and-click exploration, dialogue, and psychological horror.

My Role

Centum was one of the projects I was most deeply involved in, working on it from the early stages of production. My work covered a wide range of visual tasks, including character portraits and animation, environments, in-game assets, and a mini-game.

One of my favorite parts was developing the visual concept for the dream sequences. I had a lot of freedom to experiment with them, and it was especially nice to see both the team and players respond so positively to the result. I also created and edited the promotional trailer and worked on additional DLC content.

Responsibilities

• Character portraits
• Character animation
• Environment art
• Dream sequences
• Mini-game art
• In-game assets
• Promotional art
• Dialogue artwork
• Additional pixel-art assets
• Trailer production
• DLC content

Tools

Aseprite, Resprite, Procreate, PremierePro, ProcreateDr.

View Centum on Steam

Roles: Pixel Artist, Illustrator, Animator.

Rooked is a story-driven strategy and management game set around a strange chess club. The game combines a 3D environment with pixel-art characters and textures.

My Role

I was responsible for the character art and animation, creating all of the characters’ in-game movements and interactions. A big part of my work was expressing their personalities through movement: the way they walk, sit, idle, and pose. I also had to integrate the pixel-art characters naturally into the 3D environment, creating animations and poses for their interactions with 3D objects, such as sitting at tables, using furniture, and interacting with elements of the scene. Alongside the pixel-art work, I created non-pixel 2D character illustrations for the project.

Responsibilities

Character design, character animation, walk cycles, idle animations, character acting, 2D/3D environment integration, object interactions, and 2D character illustrations.

Tools

Aseprite, Resprite, Procreate.

View Rooked on Steam

Roles: Pixel Artist, Animator.

A pixel-art side-scrolling beat ’em up inspired by Korean crime dramas, built around brutal combat, environmental interactions, and finishing moves.

My Role

I joined the project during its final production stages, mainly working on missing character and combat animations. A large part of my work involved dynamic fight scenes, enemy finishers, and boss encounters, along with smaller character-specific and idle animations.

Responsibilities

Character animation, combat and finishing moves, boss fight animations, enemy animations, idle and character animations, and trailer edits.

Tools

Aseprite, Resprite, Procreate, PremierePro.

View Vengeance of Mr. Peppermint on Steam

Roles: Pixel Artist, Illustrator.

A promotional video for WinLab built around the idea of career growth, following employees as they progress from entry-level roles to leadership positions.

My Role

The main challenge was keeping the characters recognizable as the real actors while translating them into a stylized pixel-art aesthetic. My workflow combined hand-drawn sketches with AI-assisted generation, followed by extensive manual redrawing, editing, and pixel-art cleanup. I also worked separately on characters, backgrounds, and visual effects to build the final compositions.

Responsibilities

Portrait illustration, character likeness, pixel art, AI-assisted workflow, image editing, background art, and visual effects.

Tools

Aseprite, Procreate, Resprite, AIImageTools.

View the WinLab project on Vimeo

I work with indie developers, small teams, and individual clients on projects of very different scales—from individual illustrations, animations, and motion pieces to complete visual development for games.

My Role

My role changes from project to project. Sometimes I join for one specific task; sometimes I become responsible for almost the entire visual side of a game. I’ve worked on characters, environments, props, UI, animation, combat, and promotional materials, and for one long-term client I created the visuals for three different game projects almost entirely from scratch.

I enjoy moving between disciplines and expanding what I can do. Right now, I’m especially interested in going deeper into Unity and 3D, particularly low-poly workflows combining 3D with stylized 2D or pixel-art textures. I want to understand more of what happens beyond the visual layer and how everything actually comes together inside a game.

This is just a small selection of my freelance work. If something catches your eye, feel free to ask me about it.

View Elvira Belyaeva’s work on Instagram

Craft

I love making things with my hands and bringing ideas into the physical world. Over the years I’ve worked with ceramics, drawing, sewing, knitting, dolls, and all kinds of small handmade experiments. I’ve also worked as an art director on a short film, styling both the set and the characters.

I trained in garment construction and tailoring, learning to design and make clothing from scratch. I once applied to a Sportmaster competition as a fashion designer and was selected to participate with my own clothing concept.

Gavryusha started as a handmade toy and somehow became my personal mascot. He keeps finding his way into my work—including this website.

Styling is a big part of how I think in general. Even I become a little creative project of my own: I build looks through clothes, accessories, makeup, and even do my own nails to fit the character I want to create.

Right now I’m especially into ceramics, and one of my longtime dreams is to study puppet and stop-motion animation. If you’d like to see more of this side of my work, you can find it on Instagram—or just message me.

• View the Gavryusha craft project
• View Elvira Belyaeva’s work on Instagram

Roles: Art Director, Motion Designer, Animator, Founder, Illustrator.

RetroGaze was my own vintage clothing store, bringing together fashion, design, and visual storytelling. I developed its visual identity and shaped the atmosphere of the brand both online and in the physical space.

My Role

I handled the visual side of the project, from branding, content, and styling to shoots and the store interior. But I also wanted RetroGaze to become more than just a shop—a small creative community and a place where people could meet, collaborate, and make things together.

That eventually grew into a wonderful team of photographers, models, and other creatives. We organized shoots, worked on ideas together, and even travelled for projects. RetroGaze became as much about the people around it as the clothes themselves.

Responsibilities

Art direction, visual identity, styling, content creation, photography production, interior styling, and community building.

NDA Projects

Some projects I’ve worked on can’t be shown publicly, but I can still share a little about my role and the kind of work involved.

Additional details may be shared upon request.

Trash (Old Stuff)

These were two of my first personal game projects, created when I was learning pixel art and wanted to understand how game art actually works inside a game. I designed and animated the assets, then built both projects in Unity myself. Along the way, I learned the basics of working with code, hitboxes, character interactions, and animation implementation. They were essentially my playground for figuring out the technical side of game art before I started working on commercial pixel-art projects.

• Chicken Leg
• In the Darkness