30-year Production Artist, Graphic Designer, Art Director, Creative Director in CG feature animation, mobile/console games, VR/AR for such companies as Pixar, Electronic Arts, Maxis, Google and Facebook
Work History
Art Director
Shomen Productions
April 2018 - April 2018
San Francisco, California, United States
Art Director
Facebook
December 2017 - April 2018
Art Director
Pocket Gems
January 2017 - June 2017
Art Director
Electronic Arts/Maxis
November 2019 - August 2023
Art Director & Narrative Designer for next-gen Project Rene.
Art Director
Electronic Arts
September 2018 - November 2019
209 Redwood Shores Pkwy Redwood City, CA 94065
Art Director for launch of Command & Conquer: Rivals for mobile; Art Director for new IP development (cancelled)
Art Director
Steel Wool Games
September 2016 - January 2017
Doodler
Google
January 2015 - June 2016
Mountain View, CA
As a doodler and doodle manager I produced illustrated doodles, creatively led and visually prototyped large interactive doodles, art directed in-house and freelance artists on international doodles, led efforts towards defining doodles for mobile, helped lead the visual design of numerous Funbox interactive search results, consulted with numerous teams on user delight, lectured and taught internal classes on the process and principles of visual storytelling and emotional design.
Dynamighty
September 2011 - December 2014
As a founding member and co-creative lead of a small independent games developer, I Art Directed our debut title, Counterspy, published in 2014 by Sony for PS3, PS4, PS Vita, iOS and Android:
• Visually designed and helped prototype 3d demo that secured 3-game development deal with Sony
• Worked with Design to prototype 3D greybox assets, gameplay metrics & modular systems in Unity
• Sourced & Art Directed external freelance vis-dev artists and internal character/set/vfx art team
• Established visual style & voice of game, designed early set, character, vfx, gfx, UI, promo concept art
• Designed, Modeled, Uved, Textured sets, environmental & gameplay props, vehicles in Maya
• Staged lighting, cameras, gameplay & set dress props, collision, decals, effects, textures in Unity
• Designed all outer-loop gfx for HUD, UI menus, screens, icons, badges, cinematics
• Designed and implemented all in-game gfx dressing: posters, signage, screens for visual storytelling
• Designed & implemented 2D cut scenes & HUD/UI oute-rloop assets in NGUI
• Designed all corporate ID and product promotional art, swag, branding and app store assets
• Designed & helped develop pitch decks for multiple original game concepts, including CS 2
• Established look & feel for follow up indie mobile release, Fingers of Fury
• Helped grow company, shape culture & create distinctive voice of Dynamighty
Art Director, production designer, production artist
Pixar
1996 - May 2011
Emeryville, CA
With over 15 years at Pixar that spanned the making of the first Toy Story, I worked in the feature art department on many of Pixar's classic films as a production artist, graphic artist, art director and production designer. I also contributed to commercials, interstitials, short films, DVD menu designs, theme parks, marketing, consumer products, film internationalization, studio training, internal studio resources.
Feature/Short Work:
• Monsters Inc. 2: Graphic Designer
• Cars 2: Graphic Designer
• Brave: Graphic Designer
• CarsToons: Set, Character, Graphic Designer
• Toy Story 3: Graphic Designer
• Newt (cancelled): Sets Art Director
• WALL-E: Graphics Art Director
• Ratatouille: Sets, Graphic Designer
• Lifted: Production Designer
• The Incredibles: Sets, Graphic Designer
• Monsters Inc: Character, Sets, Graphic Artist
• Toy Story 2: Sets, Graphic Artist
• A Bug's Life: Character, Sets, Graphic Artist
• Commercial Division: Freelance Graphic, Texture & BG Painter
Instructor
Academy of Art University
2006 - 2007
San Francisco, CA
• Production Art for Animation: Stressing the relationship and role of design to story, and character to environment; students take a character and set through the entire design process--from research and development to concept to final production art.
Digital Artist
The 3DO Company
1995 - 1996
Redwood City, CA
• Development Artist: Character, vehicle concepts for multi-player strategy game
• Development Artist - Rush: Conceptualized characters and environments for real-time, 3D racing game; Modeled and textured characters and environments for prototype; Assisted with game design, level concepts and narrative scripting
• Freelance Storyboard Artist - Station Invasion, Golden Gate: Storyboarded and designed characters for cinematics
• Freelance Production Artist/Animator - Monster Manor: FX animation for 1st generation platform game
Art Director
Rocket Science Games
November 1993 - November 1994
• Art Director - Rocket Boy: Character, Set and Prop designer for pre-rendered 3D platform game; Art directed team of artists and animators; Assisted with game design, level concepts and narrative development.
• Concept Artist - Obsidian: Character concept designs for initial pitch
• Digital Artist/Animator - Cadillacs & Dinosaurs: Storyboarded cinematics for FMV game; animated cut-scene FX; Composited game elements for product demo; Responsible for all in-game sprite animation, asset management, image processing and platform conversion on Sega CD and PC.
Self-employed
1992 - 1995
Pixar Animation Studios, Tippett Studios, Xaos, Academic Systems, New Technology Group, The 3D0 Company, Cyclone Studios, Presage, Mindsphere, Time-Warner Interactive, Digital Deck, Syndeo, One Page
Digital Artist/Animator
Epyx Games
1992 - 1993
Redwood City, CA
• Digital Artist/Animator - Battle Bugs: Co-designed/animated all characters, backgrounds, interface screens, title screens and tile sets for PC game; Participated in level concepts and game design
Digital Artist
Computer Curriculum Corporation
1991 - 1992
Sunnyvale, CA
• Digital Artist: Designed bitmap and vector-based digital iIllustrations for educational modules; Supervised artists on platform conversions; Responsible for image processing and file conversions for Mac, PC and Atari platforms