Meet @Maria Gorbacheva, Art Director on TAOS, inspired by stories that resonate and worlds that leave a lasting impression. Passionate about bringing imagination to life through meaningful visuals, she joined the project to help shape a story she believes deserves to be told alongside a talented creative community.

Why did you join TAOS? What do you hope to get out of it?

I've seen the first animation and it was incredibly inspiring. When I've read Lavina's story, a story so resonating with everyting happening in creative industry right now, I knew it's going to be worthy, and I want help creating this story and make it the best.

What first inspired you to pursue art, and how has that inspiration evolved over time?

I wanted to create worlds. At school, I actually loved writing more than drawing. But during university, that passion gradually shifted towards art -- I wanted to visualise imaginable and unimaginable worlds and stories. I worked on games, TV series and films, but animation turned out to be the embodiment of everything I love. Its visuals speak, its stories feel deep, and its worlds and characters feel truly alive. I love bringing both my own and others’ imagination to life and helping make visuals more emotional, immersive and meaningful. Because of this I never really framed myself with 'styles' and studied with interest character concepts, environmnets, color scripts, storyboards, illustrations, mangas, movies, games and all kind of tools to tell the story - and now this's why I'm so interested in art directioning. You can do much more when you have skilled people in your team

What has been your biggest achievement so far as an artist?

Well, I have several AA games and movies, and games where quite praised for the visuals .. but for me, my greatest achievement is that even now, I’m still creating. I still draw, and I’ve even started writing again. I’m an artist not because I'm paid to draw, but because I’m able to spend my life doing what I truly love. That's good.