Hyung-tae Kim

Infobox Korean name
hangul=김형태
hanja=
rr=Kim Hyeong-tae
mr=Kim Hyŏng-t'ae

Hyung-Tae Kim (born February, 1978, Seoul) is a Korean artist. He has designed characters for video games such as the "Magna Carta" series and the later installments of the "War of Genesis" series ("War of Genesis: Tempest", "War of Genesis III" and "War of Genesis III: Part 2").

He began his video games career working in the field of background music, then shifted to art and design. He has branched out into the comic book industry, serving as a guest cover artist, and has contributed to the Udon street fighter series.

He is currently working on an MMORPG in NCsoft known previously as "Project M." The official title is Blade & Soul revealed in July 31, 2008. Blade & Soul is an Asian Martial Artsy Fantasy with cultural influences mainly from the Korean culture. Though it was rumored that Kim would not do primary designs for the game, the video clip of Blade and Soul suggests Kim was responsible for the character designs.

Kim is an artist in the manhwa style. His latest artworks use a deformation technique where Kim disregards anatomical accuracy to achieve a specific feel to the character.

Books containing Hyung-tae Kim's illustrations

*"Comickers Art Style Vol. 1: Color Technique" (ISBN 4-5685-0292-6) ja icon
*"OXIDE"
*"OXIDE 2: Carta Numinous: Kim Hyung Tae: The Second Works" (ISBN 8995594810)
*"OXIDE 2x: Kim Hyung-Tae Illustrations" (ISBN 4-7577-2095-5)
*"Act III: Scene 8" (ISBN 8970412832)
*"Io: Art of the Wired" (ISBN 0973586702)
*"Ragnarok Online Official Fan Book" (ISBN 4-7973-2815-0)
*"Range Murata's Robot" Vol. 05 (ISBN 4-8982-9987-3)
*"Japanese Comickers 2: Draw Manga and Anime Like Japan's Hottest Artists" (ISBN 978-0060833305)
*"KOREAN illustration" (ISBN 978-4-8703-1792-5)
*"APPLE Vol. 1" (ISBN 978-1897376362)

Trivia

*He has worked on nearly all of Softmax's works, but now works in NCsoft, another Korean game company.
*He is very good friends with Juno Jeong, most noted for his contributions in the Lineage series of NCSoft.

External links

* [http://studiosis.com/jam/ Official Hyung-tae Kim Website] (under construction)

* [http://www.guupress.com/magazine/features/htk-runaway/1.asp "The Making of "Runaway": A Sketching Tutorial by Hyung-tae Kim"] from Guu Press's "Magazine"

* [http://www.guupress.com/comersus/store/books-io.asp "Io: Art of the Wired"] : An art book featuring Hyung-tae Kim, and six other artists, published by Guu Press

* [http://eowyn.nu/nitty/ NittyGritty²] : Hyung-Tae Kim's official Korean and English fansite.

* [http://hyung-taekim.org/ Hyung-taekim.org] : The largest fan-composed gallery of Hyung-tae Kim's work on the Web. Also includes his biography, merchandise information, interviews, drawing/coloring tutorials, and more.

* [http://bns.plaync.co.kr/ Official website of Blade and Soul] (Korean): Official website of Blade and Soul, which Kim is currently working for. Features video promo of game.