Hands-on work

I make

I'm not just the director. I'm one of the artists.

Logos: Every logo in the Quest family
Storyboards: Every episode of Collapse, Glitch, Element and Apex Academy
Final art: Overpaint and edits on much of it
Animation: Key shots, Cubie
Tools: Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign

Directing is not a handoff for me. I designed every logo in the Quest family, storyboarded every episode of Collapse, Glitch, Element and Apex Academy, overpainted or edited much of the final art and animated key shots myself.

Sections marked No AI used were made entirely by hand.

Animation

Shots I animated myself. I usually took the complex ones: short moments that had to look good and believable.

No AI usedAnimated by me.

Lulu, Charge

Charge

Maya's Dream

Starforce: Explorer landing

Starforce: Drago's ship flyover

Starforce: Drago, color fill

Element: retro continue screen

Vault lever pull

Trike run cycle

Overpaint and edits

On much of the final art I overpainted or edited the artists' work to get it where it needed to be. Drag the handle to compare the art before and after.

No AI usedOverpaints and edits by me.

Every overpaint here was made by hand in Photoshop. Watch the recordings.

After: four kids in front of a dark helmeted figure — Shot 1

Before: four kids in front of a dark helmeted figure — Shot 1

After: a girl in a green helmet reaching toward the camera — Naomi

Before: a girl in a green helmet reaching toward the camera — Naomi

After: kids watching a giant stone creature in the desert — Shot 2

Before: kids watching a giant stone creature in the desert — Shot 2

After: a figure in a black suit holding a pole — Ren

Before: a figure in a black suit holding a pole — Ren

After: a stone giant's chest in close-up — EGO 2

Before: a stone giant's chest in close-up — EGO 2

After: a stone giant's shoulder with an army on the dunes behind — EGO 3

Before: a stone giant's shoulder with an army on the dunes behind — EGO 3

After: a girl with blue hair holding a glowing orb — Egg

Before: a girl with blue hair holding a glowing orb — Egg

After: two helmeted characters looking up at a stone giant — EGO 5

Before: two helmeted characters looking up at a stone giant — EGO 5

After: two helmeted characters in the desert — Yash

Before: two helmeted characters in the desert — Yash

After: a hooded character with antlers and a snake staff — Mengi

Before: a hooded character with antlers and a snake staff — Mengi

After: three kids running down a corridor — The run

Before: three kids running down a corridor — The run

After: a boy glaring, lit by a red alarm — Jesse

Before: a boy glaring, lit by a red alarm — Jesse

After: Egg revealing the glowing device — Egg

Before: Egg revealing the glowing device — Egg

After: a stone giant walking across the desert — EGO 1

Before: a stone giant walking across the desert — EGO 1

After: a stone giant leaping between streams of water — EGO 4

Before: a stone giant leaping between streams of water — EGO 4

After: three kids smiling at a railing — The team

Before: three kids smiling at a railing — The team

After: the Apex Academy campus from above — Apex campus

Before: the Apex Academy campus from above — Apex campus

After: a sun rising over desert mountains — Desert sunrise

Before: a sun rising over desert mountains — Desert sunrise

Logos

I designed every logo in the Quest family.

No AI usedLogos and explorations designed by me.

Exploration

From pencil sketches and type tests to the finished marks.

Pencil sketch of the A and X letterforms — Apex: pencil sketch

Nine typeface tests of the word APEX — Apex: type tests

Apex: early version

Apex: variations

Apex: final

Element: color tests

Element: one color

Glitch: plain type

Glitch: glitch effect

Glumen

Cubie, the tutorial bot

I designed Cubie, Quest's snarky tutorial bot, painted his art and animated him. I also designed and edited every tutorial video myself, including the on-screen interface and how it works.

No AI usedCharacter, art, animation and tutorial videos by me.

Cubie, a round white robot with one orange eye and jets — Apex Academy

Cubie drawn in the Starforce style — Starforce

Cubie tutorial: Challenge 2Cubie walks teams through a challenge. 1:12.

Cubie tutorial: Challenge 5Another walkthrough, another challenge. 0:44.

Storyboards

I storyboarded every episode of Collapse, Glitch, Element and Apex Academy. Each stack is one storyboard: click it to flip through the pages.

No AI usedStoryboards drawn by me.

Welcome to Apex

4 pages · click to flip through

Trap Sprung

2 pages · click to flip through

Biscuits

3 pages · click to flip through

EGO Joins Battle

3 pages · click to flip through

A Hard Place

3 pages · click to flip through

The Sorcerer

3 pages · click to flip through

Board to screen

Storyboard panel: The RCI sign — The RCI sign

Finished shot: The RCI sign — The RCI sign

Storyboard panel: Virus detected — Virus detected

Finished shot: Virus detected — Virus detected

Storyboard panel: The sleep pods — The sleep pods

Finished shot: The sleep pods — The sleep pods

Game interface

Screens I designed for the Apex Academy games, from team select to the Season 3 puzzles.

No AI usedInterface design by me.

Team points screen with six tribe sliders

Station choice screen: Explore the Apex Academy Grounds

Glider hangar with four paper gliders and mod icons

Moonmoth glider specs with speed, control and difficulty bars

Padlock puzzle with three glowing letters

Elemental puzzle with a glowing symbol and stone icons

Thorn's Throne hex board with chess-like pieces

Teams Build Their Tech screen with six tribe banners

Trade marketplace screen with buy and sell shelves

Challenge won, animatedInterface animation, 6 seconds.

Icons and map art

Map locations, the maps themselves, then the items, badges, flags and buttons for the games.

No AI usedMap icons, maps and game icons made by me.

Element map locations

Glitch map locations

Quest maps

Collapse game map: a scorched rock field, a snowy ridge, the school town, a river and a pine forest — Collapse

Element game map: desert camps, rock towers and an oasis — Element

Glitch game map: violet ruins, a neon jungle, a lightning field and a mushroom forest — Glitch

Interface icons

Items

Badges and ranks

Tribe flags

Buttons and status icons

Starforce icons and UI

Pip characters

Tiny one-color people that show teams and actions in the game.

Pip character sheet: default, RCI employee and post-apocalyptic

Print design

A selection of the boards, cards, tokens and kit renders from the boxes.

No AI usedPrint design and art made by me.

Starforce

Illustration

Scenes, characters and posters I painted myself.

No AI usedPainted by me.

Scenes

SAM, a large robot, bursting through a glowing hexagon wall

SAM breaks through. One of the first pieces of art made for Quest: a large, highly detailed painting for the Quest escape-room tour bus, with SAM, Quest's robot, smashing through the wall. I painted it from scratch, by hand.

A stone giant towers over an army in the desert

A figure falls through flying rubble as the kids watch

A desert tribe camp with banners under red rocks

A school hallway with students and screens

A dark control room with glowing screens

Welcome to the Town of Apex sign by a river

A kid at a console in a purple control room

Characters

Circus, a dark creature with teal markings — Circus

Twinkyplums, a hat-wearing creature with a tentacle beard — Twinkyplums

The Harbinger in an orange suit and goggles — The Harbinger

EGO in black armor with blue lightning at his hands — EGO

EGO as pure blue energy, with no robot exosuit — EGO, pure energy

SAM from Glitch, overgrown with moss, with a face on the visor — SAM

Season posters

I made each season poster from that season's art.

Video production and editing by me

Video is the ultimate form of storytelling: one medium that controls what the audience hears, imagines and feels. I'm proficient in After Effects and Premiere Pro, and when a project needs a video I make it myself, from scratch.

Videos produced and edited by me.

Apex Academy launch trailerAI-assistedVideo written and edited by Nick Bowen, with his own animation alongside AI-animated art assets. 2:45.

Element trailer, Season 3No AI usedWritten, directed and edited by Nick Bowen. Animation by Nick Bowen and Heck Studios. 1:13.

Glitch trailer, Season 2AI-assistedEdited by Nick Bowen, updated in 2026 with AI tools. 1:20.

Starforce launch session videoNo AI usedVideo made by Nick Bowen. 1:40.

Echodisc, a Hub Arcade game introAI-assistedVideo made by Nick Bowen. 1:14.

The Hub promoAI-assistedProduced by Nick Bowen with AI video tools. 1:56.

Hub ActionAI-assistedProduced by Nick Bowen with AI video tools. 1:52.

I make

Animation

Overpaint and edits

Logos

Exploration

Cubie, the tutorial bot

Storyboards

Welcome to Apex

Trap Sprung

Biscuits

EGO Joins Battle

A Hard Place

The Sorcerer

Board to screen

Game interface

Icons and map art

Element map locations

Glitch map locations

Quest maps

Interface icons

Items

Badges and ranks

Tribe flags

Buttons and status icons

Starforce icons and UI

Pip characters

Print design

Starforce

Illustration

Scenes

Characters

Season posters

Video production and editing by me

Independent work