Kelley Williams

2022 Senior Exhibition Artists

Kelley Williams

Art + Design: Animation + Game Arts

About Kelley Williams

In 2016, Kelley Williams graduated from Bristol County Agricultural High School after studying Floriculture for four years. Later that year, she decided to continue her education and moved to Lowell, Massachusetts to study computer science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Though she worked hard and tried her best to learn, Kelley found that it was not the best environment for her. It weighed heavily on her and for some time began to drag her down. She took a step back and made the difficult decision to start again. From there, she applied to Bristol Community College to study Animation and Motion Graphics. It was a dramatic change but one that supported her true passions and created a bridge for her to succeed.

Two years later, she was ready to make another transition. Kelley transferred to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2019 to study Animation and Game arts for her final semesters before graduation. There she would explore many outlets in that field. She would get the opportunity to dive into both 2D and 3D art as well as animation. She gained experience with the associated programs, including Photoshop, Maya 3D, ZBrush, Substance Painter, and many more. She also got the opportunity to participate in an interdisciplinary course where she learned how to work with a group on a collaborative project and even implement the work they had done into Unreal engine. Umass Dartmouth created the perfect environment for her to find herself.

After graduation, Kelley plans to continue honing her skills in digital painting and concept art creation, as well as continue to improve on making compelling characters and other assets for games. Her goal is to give back to what carried her through all the hard times in her life so that one day someone else can enjoy it just the same. The road ahead may pose difficulties similar to what she left behind, but Kelley knows if she keeps getting up when she's pushed down, she will succeed. Maybe she can inspire those who have gone through hard times, but she will for sure help those she can with her work.

Statement

There is nothing that has had more impact on my life than video games. One of my earliest memories of playing was as a young child when I used to walk around the grocery store following my mother playing the start of Pokemon Silver over and over because I never knew the battery ran dry and that caused the game not to save. I continued to play from the start and get as far as I could before my Gameboy died because it was such a wonder to roam around and collect all these pokemon in a virtual world, the way I wanted to. Throughout my life, that fascination never seemed to fade and instead expanded well beyond just the small handheld game I played back then.

As I got older, it opened up a greater world of possibilities. It allowed me to gain opportunities to make friends I had interests in common with and also offered an outlet to relieve stress and pressure in my life. As things got tougher, it became a critical part of being able to push past the lows. That is what brought me to study Animation and Game Arts and influenced my final senior project. I wanted the opportunity to show I could give back to what gave me so much.

My project focuses on conceptualizing an idea for a video game. I wanted to utilize my creativity to build my own universe from the bottom up. With that being such a monumental task, I divided the work and decided to focus on smaller parts of the universe itself. Using my past experience, I narrowed my work down to a more strict focus on the main characters and the world they live in. From there I was free to explore and share all the thoughts I could cook up in my head. I utilized digital media such as Photoshop and Maya 3D to help visualize the ideas I poured into my notes.

My game's concept is based on the science fiction fantasy genre, on an alien planet separate from Earth after it faced its destruction at the hands of humanity. It's set in the distant future when people have already established themselves. From that idea, I worked to build off of how they would live their lives and what conflicts they would face.