Mark Holmes

Mark Holmes

SF Bay Area Art/Creative Director & Visual Storyteller

Supervisor Art Director

San Francisco, CA

Hire Me

Doodler/Art Director

Google Doodles

Art Director

Fingers of Fury

Art Director

Counterspy (2014)

Art

Monsters University (2013)

Graphic Artist (uncredited)

Brave (2012)

Graphic Designer

Cars 2 (2011)

Set, Character & Graphic Designer

Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales (2008)

Graphic Artist

Toy Story 3 (2010)

Sets Art Director

Newt (cancelled)

Graphics Art Director

WALL·E (2008)

Production Designer

Lifted (2015)

Production Artist

Ratatouille (2007)

End Titles

The Incredibles (2004)

Production Artist

Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Sketch Artist

A Bug's Life (1998)

Concept Artist

Obsidian

Lead digital artist

Cadillacs & Dinosaurs

Co-artist, animator

Battle Bugs

30-year Production Artist, Graphic Designer, Art Director, Creative Director in CG feature animation, mobile/console games, VR/AR for such companies as Pixar, Dynamighty, 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

    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

Education
  • Film Making/AnimationFilm Making/Animation

    De Anza College

    1990 - 1991
  • Graphic Design in IllustrationGraphic Design, Illustration

    San Jose State University

    1987 - 1989
  • Screenwriting in fiction, storytelling, improvScreenwriting, fiction,

    Continuing Education

    ? - ?