Sam King

Work History

• 

  Art Director - Balisti Studios

  Balisti Studios

  November 2015 - Present

  Working in partnership with large game dev studios to casual / indie games.
  
  https://www.balististudios.com/
  
  Clients include:
  Disney Interactive
  Electronic Arts
  Bioware
  Unity Technologies
  Pixeltoys
  Nordeus
  
  Feel free to get in contact if your game development studio needs help with their next project.
  
• 

  Freelance figure and creature sculptor.

  Freelance

  June 2015 - Present

  Freelance artist working for various clients as a character artist, figure / creature sculptor, miniature designer and Game Art Director.
  
  Clients include:
  
  Wicked Creations - Creature sculptor for collectables
  
  Forge Studios - Figure sculptor for board game miniatures
  
  Wotan Games /Cartesian Creations - Figure sculptor for board game miniatures
  
  Pixelsquad games - Games: Crime Coast and other projects
  Character Artist, Art Director, asset artist and lighter.
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pixelsquad.ccmafiawars
  
  Kyoto VR - Character Sculptor, Character Artist
• 

  Production Designer

  Triggerfish Animation Studios

  May 2014 - October 2015

  Cape Town Area, South Africa

  Cape Town Area, South Africa
  
  Project: Stick Man animated feature for BBC One to be aired as a Christmas special.
  Acting as production designer for production.
  Production went on to win multiple international awards for best animation including the Annecy Cristal award for best TV production and Bafta nomination.
  Also acting as concept artist and character / environment sculptor.
  Also acting as lighter and texture artist
  Created concept of characters and world with concept team.
  Sculpted main characters and various props and enviro pieces.
  Worked with directors to establish the look and feel of the entire production.
  Established cg pipeline with Leads for all assets to be made.
  Art directed a team of twenty plus cg artists
• 

  Art Lead

  NaturalMotion

  November 2012 - February 2014

  London. Notting Hill

  Leading a team of 5 to 10 artists as well as managing freelancers for Natural Motions Latest projects in their London studio.
  Create Key Art for Characters, Environments and concept pieces. Develop pipeline so these assets can be used as a benchmark to estimate the rest of the project.
  Specialist in Character art and general look and feel of the game.
  Work with product owner and head of studio to develop the look of the game and then pass this through into tasks for the art team.
  Art direct where needed.
• 

  Character Artist

  Eurocom

  November 2011 - November 2012

  Derby, UK

  • Create fully modeled and textured characters ready for rig
  • Sculpting high detail models in Zbrush to be used for detailed normal maps and diffuse map creation.
  • Create character models and textures to budget .
  • Assured character models worked in game with all relevant bug fixing.
  • Created photoreal, stylised or cartoony character models according to project specifications.
  • Created LODs for character models and various props.

  
• 

  Assistant Lead Artist

  Eurocom

  September 2008 - November 2011

  • Created Environment Art bible with other Lead artist. Responsible for creating the look and feel of the game and ensuring the rest of the team followed the style set down.
  • Managed a team of over twenty environment artists in conjunction with other lead artist.
  • Created multiple environments including responsibilities such as; Modeling, texturing, lighting, management and optimization.

  

  
• 

  Lead artist

  Triggerfish Animation Studios

  January 2006 - September 2008

  Cape Town Area, South Africa

  Lead artist at Triggerfish animation studios. Lead in modelling, texturing and shader dev but also did a lot of lighting comp and render wrangling.
  Managed a team of anywhere from three to eight (or more) model and texture artists including interns, depending on the project.
  Projects included various animated shows, adverts, Fifa 2010 Mascot design, Sesame Street series and Triggerfishe's animated feature 'Zambesia'.
• 

  Senior Artist

  Character Matters

  March 2005 - January 2006

  Cape Town, South Africa

  Involed in the creation of models, textures, shader setup and some lighting. Worked on various projects including the pre production of two animated feature projects.

• Artist / animator

  Artworld UK

  April 2003 - March 2005

  Birmingham, United Kingdom

  Character and Environment artist for PS2, XBOX, Gamecube and PC titles.
  • Responsible for concepting, modeling, and creating textures for in-game characters and vehicles. Responsible for rigging characters and bone setups.
  • Responsible for concepting, modeling, and creating textures for in game environments

• 3d artist / CAD operator

  Vendors Choice Architects

  November 2002 - April 2003

  Cape Town, South Africa

  3d animator and artist.
  • Created conceptual walk-through and detailed renders For various architectural projects
  • Worked from initial architect plans to generate precise and final 3d visualizations
• 

  Triggerfish Animation Studios

  ? - Present