art production for games and entertainment
Bringing a unique perspective to art production
Having made the transition from artist to manager gives me valuable insight into the complex process of creating art for video games, enabling me to effectively and efficiently evaluate scope, schedule, and resources to produce high quality art, on time and on budget.
I've been lucky enough to have spent more than 25 years doing what I love, working in art and games.
Starting with an internship at Electronic Arts back in the late 90s making assets for the Tiger Woods Golf franchise, I continued working for EA as a 3D artist, shipping 5 titles in 4 years.
I left EA to finish college and, after graduating with a degree in illustration and traditional animation, I worked at a small animation studio in San Francisco making commercials, video game cutscenes, and film pitches.
In 2007, I returned to video games and joined a team of mostly former EA developers, working on the MMO, Rift.
I joined Funcom as an animator in 2013, relocating from the Bay Area to North Carolina. Then in 2018, I made the transition to manager, first as a lead artist, then as an art producer. Since then, I have enjoyed the new challenges that have come with managing teams.
It has been immensely rewarding, but I am also thankful that I'm still able to work - day in and day out - with the art team, drawing on my past development experience to help guide them through the game-making process and to help them grow in their own careers.
I believe that the best games are made by great teams.
It's not exactly a groundbreaking observation. It's stating the obvious.
But understanding what goes into building a great team is a little more elusive. It's a lot more than just throwing a bunch of talented people together. Even a team of top-to-bottom rockstar developers can fail and kill a project - I've seen it happen more than once.
In my years of working in games and entertainment, I've been fortunate to have worked on a few exceptional teams and I have come to appreciate that they don't just happen by accident. Hiring the right people is just the beginning. It's a constant work-in-progress, ensuring that each team member has what they need to excel, doing what they do best, supported in their growth and well-being.
As a producer, the most rewarding part of my job is ensuring that my teams not only run smoothly, but that they enjoy working with one another. That's when the magic happens.
Mobirise web builder - Try it
Get in touch