Posts Tagged ‘Artist’

In our continuing series of "Meet the Team" interviews, we sat down this week with Senior Environment Artist Jeff Voeltner.

What do you do at Hi-Rez Studios?

I’m a Senior Environment Artist. I design and build the areas or "sets" that the players run around in. Most of my time working on Global Agenda has been on designing and developing the social spaces for the game (cities, agency headquarters, etc.).

How long have you worked in Gaming, and what did you do before Global Agenda?

I’ve been working in the industry for about seven years now. The first game that I worked on was Call of Duty: Finest Hour. I also worked on the games Legendary and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty during the beginning stages.

Prior to working on games, I’ve had the fortunate opportunities of working within feature film, advertising, and in comic books where I began my career as a color artist with Image Comics in the 90s.

Describe your video game experience, when did you start playing, etc..?

Now I’m starting to feel old! I first started playing video games on the Atari 2600, playing Pong, Pac-Man, Frogger, Q-Bert… I’ve had my hands on all the systems since then, but definitely have some great memories playing Super Mario Bros. and Zelda in elementary school when Nintendo made their debut..still among my favorite games to this day! My video game addiction slowed down a bit though throughout my high school and college days, but I eventually came back to my senses when I started working in the industry and picked up the controls again!

I actually never really pursued becoming a video game designer when I was young. Growing up, I always knew that I would eventually become an artist or an architect and I really had my eyes set on going into feature animation. However, my path towards working in the entertainment industry took a different course when I was offered an internship with Image Comics right after graduating high school. My time with Image helped me gain some great professional experience early on in my career, as well as the opportunity to establish connections in the industry which have opened up other opportunities.

What is your favorite Global Agenda character/class to play?

Recon

What are your Favorite Games?

• Favorite games for Art Direction: Assassin’s Creed, Oddworld, Prince of Persia
• A favorite character-driven game: Super Mario Brothers 1-3
• Favorite game of all time: The Legend of Zelda

In my free time…

Draw, read, movies and games with the family.

What is your favorite aspect of Global Agenda?

The Cities!

What inspirations do you draw from when creating the art/levels/environment you do for the game?

I’m most passionate about designing custom environments that are big on personality, have character to them, and anything with unique architecture. I would say most of my inspiration comes from exploring real world places and memories from all the different places that I went to as a child. Sometimes, just imagining the places that I really wish existed! I try and gain as much knowledge as I can from other professionals and designers in entertainment design, including many of the colleagues that I’ve been blessed to work with in the past who continue to push my work further.

Name three things you can’t live without?

Books, friends/family, and my art supplies.

What superpower would you want, and why?

Flying. Flying is something most people probably dream of doing. For me, that wish begun as a child and has has never left!

What is on your iPod/MP3player?

U2 and…my entire music collection from home. Man that took a long time to get everything imported into iTunes! No more buying CDs, its all about the download now!

What advice do you have for someone who wants to break into gaming?

Pursue what matters most to you and what you are most passionate about because without passion…you won’t get very far or your efforts will be short-lived! Don’t pursue a particular area of game development just because it’s the most popular or because it’s what is in demand. If you follow your heart, everything else will fall in place! I recommend developing your own original ideas as much as possible. "Brand" yourself, coming up with something which is unique to you and something which comes from your own imagination. And, for artists…round out your portfolio/demo with a variety of different subjects and mediums.When you build your demo reel and portfolio, give it a unique look and something which represents you (your "brand").

Personal Art

In our continuing series of "Meet the Team" interviews, we sat down this week with Environment Artist Kosit Jarusripan.

What do you do at Hi-Rez Studios?

I am an environment artist, mostly responsible for architecture in the game.

How did you get into the video game industry?

I went to Savannah College of Art and Designs for a masters in Interactive Design and Game Development. At school I didn’t have clear idea what I wanted to be: animator, conceptual artist, rigger,3D artist. So I learned everything by either self-teaching or classes provided by school. I eventually focused on environment art because it was something that matched up with my background as an architect. And that’s how I got in the game industry as an Environment Artist!

Describe your video game experience, when did you start playing, etc..?

I don’t remember what was the first game I played. But I remember that I used to play a submarine warfare game that came with Sun computer that was used for operating a machine that extracted substances from sample inorganic materials (rock, for example) in my mother’s laboratory. It was very old simulation game using 8-bit gray scale. I liked it a lot in the game you play as a submarine commander navigating the submarine along narrow channel search and destroy enemies and avoid underwater mines. It was very realistic in terms of game play.

What is your favorite Global Agenda character/class to play?

Stealth/Recon so I can back stab someone.

What are your Favorite Games?

Diablo 1-2 and its expansions
God of Wars2

In my free time…

I play XBox 360 and PS2 games and play tennis, basketball. Also enjoy taking pictures.

What is your favorite aspect of Global Agenda?

Capture the robot is my favorite aspect of GA.

Name three things you can’t live without?

Video games
Camera
Internet

What advice do you have for someone who wants to break into gaming?

Do what you like and be the best.

What do you do at Hi-Rez Studios?

I am the Lead Animator, responsible for animation and animation design in Global Agenda. I also supervise the technical art standards as far as rig design, asset transferability, and overall art/animation interaction.

How did you get into the video game industry?

Making games was always a goal, I just wasn’t sure how to go about it initially. Eventually after spending my entire now useless Bachelor’s degree in History drawing all up and down the margins of my notes, I began looking into how to get into games. This was in the 90’s, so there wasn’t really the schools devoted to making games, and certainly information and tutorials were not available the way they are now. So I elected to just get instruction in animation, and to gear my work in that degree towards game art, and just kept pressing. I had to take some unrelated gigs early on — architecture and instruction, but I just kept at it until I got signed on at Heuristic Park.

What is on your iPod?

Nothing, because that would mean I owned an Apple product. On my mp3 player lately, however…Clutch, which goes without saying, as they are the best. Madball, excellent NYC hardcore. And getting the most play lately, Lucero, probably the best band that nobody knows about.

What is your favorite Global Agenda character/class to play?

Definitely Recon class. I am not the biggest fan of shooters (with the current exception of Left 4 Dead, which totally has its claws in me) and the Recon class build I use allows me to play Global Agenda without shooting, by using melee, stealth, and the array of traps. This gives me an experience in Global Agenda that is more tactical, tense…less twitchy.

What are your Favorite Games?

Way too many to name, but some that come to mind immediately:

Early Madden games — before it got to be the bloated monopoly it is today (sorry, the Sega/EPSN football games were a vastly superior product before Madden got scared and bought exclusive rights to the NFL)…Madden used to be a great game, and I know of specifically one projection screen TV that had the field image burned into it from too much Madden in college.

Bomberman — Great party game, in most of its incarnations. Most specifically the Bomberman for the Turbo Graphics back in the day. It can, and has, been adapted into a drinking game. I suggest beer, however, instead of the whiskey we used in college.

Left 4 Dead — -Currently playing and loving this game, but it makes me think of an older, and perhaps predecessor, zombie game called Hunter: The Reckoning. Great co-op undead fighting game from back in the day. The sequel was a massive letdown, however.

In my free time..

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Hmmm… Free time…I currently only have a passing acquaintance with free time as we are pushing pretty hard to make Global Agenda the best product it can be, but when I am free:

Sports — playing and watching basketball and football.
Concerts when the right band or comedian comes through (just saw Patton Oswalt in a very small venue — it was very cool).
Reading. Playing games with my nerd brethren, both video games and board games (Fantasy Flight has been good to us with the Game of Thrones series, and now a very cool Battlestar Galactica game).
Spend time with family, friends, puppy dog.
Beer and the usually clownery that is associated with it.