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Ari Gibson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 May 1983 Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Education | University of South Australia |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Title | Co-founder and co-director of Team Cherry |
Ari Gibson (born 14 May 1983) is an Australian artist, animator, and video game designer, best known for his work on Hollow Knight (2017) and its sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025). He is also the co-founder and co-director of the games' development studio, Team Cherry.
Ari Gibson was born in Adelaide, [1] South Australia, [2] on 14 May 1983. [3]
He graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in New Media Art. [3]
Gibson formerly worked with The People's Republic of Animation starting in 2005, where he collaborated with Eddie White on many projects, most notably The Cat Piano , [4] [5] which received many awards. [6] [7]
He also ran Mechanical Apple, a boutique animation studio, [8] alongside Jason Pamment. [9]
In 2014, Gibson co-founded the independent video game studio Team Cherry with William Pellen, whom he had previously worked with on game jams. They started a Kickstarter project for their then-upcoming game Hollow Knight, which was a success; the game released in 2017 to critical acclaim. Gibson worked on the game's art and animation, while also co-directing its development. [10]
He later worked on a piece of Hollow Knight downloadable content that eventually evolved into a sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, with the same roles he had while working on Hollow Knight. [11] The game's development took over seven years, though Gibson described the process as enjoyable. [12] Silksong released on 4 September 2025, also to critical acclaim. [13]
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For Hollow Knight, and presumably its sequel, Gibson scanned his hand-drawn art directly into the game's engine. This was done to "create [a] vivid sense of place." [10]
PC Gamer writer Tom Marks described Gibson's art in Hollow Knight as using “a mostly monotone dark color palette.” He characterized the character designs as “relatively clean and simple”, but noted that Gibson’s animation “fills them with personality”. He also described Gibson's background art as quite complex, contrasting the rest of Hollow Knight's art. [14]
| Year | Title | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Dust Echoes: Whirlpool [3] | Animation |
| Dust Echoes: Mermaid Story [3] | ||
| Carnivore Reflux [3] | ||
| 2007 | Sweet & Sour [15] | |
| I Was a Teenage Butterfly [16] | ||
| 2008 | De Blob [17] [18] | Video game |
| Hellboy: The Science of Evil [17] [18] | ||
| 2009 | The Cat Piano [4] [5] | Animation |
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen [17] [18] | Video game | |
| 2010 | The Last Airbender [17] [18] | |
| Megamind: Mega Team Unite [17] [18] | ||
| Sometimes the Stars [15] [19] | Animation | |
| 2011 | De Blob 2 [17] [18] | Video game |
| Bronte [20] | Animation | |
| 2013 | Winter Fox [9] [21] | |
| Tomb Cat [22] | Video game | |
| 2014 | Hungry Knight [10] | |
| Motorbike [23] | Animation | |
| 2017 | Hollow Knight [10] | Video game |
| 2025 | Hollow Knight: Silksong [11] | |