Gameloft Brisbane has developed a specialized hybrid art pipeline to bring the hand-drawn world of Bluey into an interactive 3D game. The production of Bluey’s Happy Snaps reveals how custom shaders, Signed Distance Field (SDF) textures, layered 2D character planes and Unreal Engine tools can preserve a television series’ distinctive visual identity.
A 2D look inside a 3D world
Released on 15 October 2026, Bluey’s Happy Snaps lets players explore familiar locations, photograph characters and wildlife, and build a personalized scrapbook. The game was developed by Gameloft Brisbane in collaboration with Ludo Studio and BBC Studios.
Recreating the series’ simple-looking artwork was a significant technical challenge. Rather than building every character as a conventional fully volumetric 3D model, the team used layered, camera-facing 2D planes. These planes allow characters to retain familiar proportions and graphic appearance while moving through three-dimensional environments.
The technology behind the characters
Signed Distance Field textures help reproduce crisp, vector-like shapes while reducing texture-memory requirements. Custom shaders maintain consistent outlines, helping characters retain their illustrated appearance as the game camera moves.
The team used Maya for modeling and preparation, then integrated character rigging and animation into Unreal Engine’s Control Rig system. Because characters were designed around multiple viewing angles, the developers built tools to transfer animation between angles and refine results.
Why this workflow matters
The project demonstrates that converting 2D animation into an interactive 3D experience does not require abandoning the original art style. The right combination of 2D assets, 3D tools and custom rendering techniques can preserve a recognizable visual identity while enabling player-controlled exploration.
Source: 80 Level technical-art breakdown
Additional reference: Bandai Namco launch announcement
