Netmarble Technical Artist Details Mongil: STAR DIVE Anime Look at Unreal Fest Tokyo 2026
Netmarble Character Technical Art Director Ahn Wonchul spoke at Unreal Fest Tokyo 2026 on November 3, addressing how Mongil: STAR DIVE achieved its anime-style look.
1 source 1h ago
Reporting from 1 source: 4Gamer.net.
Why it matters
The talk is a rare public account of late-stage art direction on a mobile title, where a technical artist works inside fixed engine and resource limits rather than rebuilding the renderer.
Key Facts
- Ahn Wonchul gave a talk titled "'Mongil: STAR DIVE' Anime-Style Look: Beyond Polish, Toward Appeal" at Unreal Fest Tokyo 2026 on November 3, 2026.
- Ahn is Character Technical Art Director at Netmarble and joined Mongil: STAR DIVE in the final stage of development before release.
- Ahn said major shader overhauls, mass re-creation of art resources, and changes to the engine core and G-Buffer were not possible.
- The stated policy was to leave the engine unmodified, make maximum use of the Material Editor, and keep art man-hours to a minimum.
- Ahn adjusted hair rendering by applying skylight to color tone and organizing separately loaded textures into masks.
Ahn joined in the final stage of development, when major shader overhauls and mass art re-creation were not possible. He described organizing constraints, then adding targeted expression through the Material Editor while leaving the engine and G-Buffer untouched.
Ahn Wonchul joined Mongil: STAR DIVE in the last stretch before release, a point where the shader and art resources were effectively locked. His account at Unreal Fest Tokyo 2026 describes what a technical artist can still do at that stage: no engine changes, no G-Buffer changes, no mass re-creation of assets.
He framed the gap as one between technical polish and anime-specific appeal. The game's physically based shader was already strong, but it lacked mechanisms such as Light Attenuation for controlling shadows. His policy was to leave the engine alone, lean on the Material Editor, and keep art man-hours to a minimum.
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