I thought it would be nice to put up a few words about myself, a quick run through of who I am and where I've been.
I knew I wanted to be an artist from a very young age. It was in Grade 5 that my teacher, Mrs. Gray, saw my potential as an artist, and got my work in the local paper and gallery. Ever since then its been a slippery slope.
Education
I was always interested in doing art for a career, and did everything in life with that in mind. In high-school I took the maximum number of art courses I could. In College, after a year of general art studies, I got into the Graphic Design program. Even though in the 2 years I spent in that program I decided that it wasn't what I wanted, it has been invaluable to me as a professional artist. I learned how to divorce myself from my work and take criticism, I learned about the theories of colour, design, type and layout, in how they effect the viewer and how they affect the message you're trying to send. This schooling is rare in the video game field, and its given me special insight that has been immeasurably valuable.
After Graphic Design, I decided to move on to the 3D entertainment field, and took courses at BCIT to learn Maya and Softimage. I found this a lot more fun, and knew I was on to what would become my career.
Experience
Right out of BCIT, I started a job teaching 3D. Once again, in retrospect this experience proved priceless. I took teaching and turned it into leading, into guiding and helping. It allowed me the skills I needed in all my jobs after this.
Following teaching, I really wanted to get into the industry properly – to prove I could do - as well as teach. At the time though, there weren't a lot of opportunities locally, so I decided to look further afield. I found myself a job working for Vis Entertainment in Edinburgh, Scotland – a world away. I flew out there, a bundle of nerves, not knowing at all what I'd be working on, or what it would be like. I would recommend it to everyone I've ever met. Living abroad is so different from visiting. I gained new insight into other cultures, and in doing so, new insight into my own. I worked there for 2 years, as a model/texture artist doing mostly environments, and as a lead of two other artists doing environments.
After two years, I was excited to come home, so I started looking in Vancouver again. This time with some experience under my belt, I was able to get a job at Relic Entertainment, as the World Object Lead on Company of Heroes. It was a long but very rewarding project giving me the opportunity to work with some really talented people, to create art using the latest techniques, to create pipelines, to manage and mentor up to 8 more junior artists.
Following Company of Heroes, I began working on the expansion, Opposing Fronts. I was finally given the chance to make the leap out of environments, something I had been trying to accomplish for quite some time. I was now a vehicle artist, and together with the rest of my team we were called “The Heavies”. Opposing Fronts was such a fun project, I got to work with and learn from a really great group of guys.
Recently, I moved on to the Dawn of War II team, which is just now in the finishing stages. My time on this project has been divided up into 3 main pursuits. First, I got the opportunity to use my leadership, management and teacher skills as the Outsource Manager / Director. I worked with an exciting company over in Shanghai, China, and another in Chengdu, China, and got them creating assets in the Relic style. After a few months getting that up and running, I got back to my main role on the team, a Senior Character Artist. I steamed through my models with vigor, and helped keep us in good condition for finishing. Which brought me to my third pursuit on DoW2. While characters were on schedule, effects were looking dangerously behind, so I was brought onto the FX team. This helped me round out my talents, while getting the chance to work on some really cool explosions and gory deaths. Effects truly are the icing on the cake, and it was fun to work on the big bangs for a while.
Now, I've moved onto a new team, as per usual it's unannounced, but I'm back working with my passions, as a Senior Character Artist.
