SUMMARY
Highly skilled video game artist with over 15 years of experience working across multiple art disciplines often on small, interdisciplinary prototype teams. Proven expertise in developing and managing art production pipelines and prototyping new IP, UX and gameplay design. Seeking opportunities to work as an Art Manager, Art Generalist or as an Environment Artist with a specialty in Prototyping.
WORK EXPERIENCE
EPIC GAMES, Cary, NC- Remote
2021-2026
Environment Artist
Gameplay Research and Development Team
● Worked on small, interdisciplinary teams to prototype gameplay and other interactive experiences
Dancing with Sabrina
● Created initial demo as a member of a three-person prototype team
● Modeled, textured and animated environment assets
● Assisted with lighting and other musical reactivity
Fortnite Festival
● Modeled, textured and animated environment assets
Patchwork (Modular Synthesizer) Devices
● Prototyped UX and aesthetic design for a series of 3D devices that needed to:
o Plug into each other, expand to reveal layers of information, visualize their functionality
● Modeled, textured and animated some of the devices
HARMONIX MUSIC SYSTEMS, Cambridge, MA- Hybrid
2009-2021
Senior Artist (Generalist)
Lead Environment Artist | Unreleased Music Game
● Concepted, prototyped, level-designed, modeled, textured and lit ten levels in Unreal Engine
● Designed a pipeline to reuse camera shots with multiple levels
VFX Artist and Mo-Cap Animation | Twitch Sings
● Created shader-based, musically reactive backgrounds
● Recorded and cleaned-up motion capture data for avatar animations
Art Lead and UI Art | Rock Band Rivals Expansion and Seasonal Rewards
● Art directed the development of 18 months-worth of reward assets for Rock Band Rivals season challenges
o Hired, mentored and managed 5 summer art interns who produced most of these assets
● Designed, prototyped and created production pipelines for new categories of reward assets such as customizable gem tracks and floating objects
● UX Design and UI implementation for new Rock Band Rivals features, including a new scoring system
Art Lead | Fuser Prototype Team
● Art directed the prototype and initial demo for the game that became Fuser
UX Design and UI Art | SingSpace
● UX Design and UI implementation of gaze-reactive, diegetic UI for selecting songs and customizing avatars in a virtual reality karaoke game
o 3D models that transformed based on the player’s gaze
● Presented lessons learned about creating gaze-reactive, diegetic UI for VR at the Game Developers Conference VR Summit
Environment Artist and UX Design | Harmonix Music VR
● Designed, prototyped, modeled, textured and animated a kinetic, 3D music visualizer in virtual reality
Character Artist and Tech Art | Rock Band 4
● Character Artist in charge of crowd assets
o Concepted, Modeled and texted 20 character variations for the crowd
o Implemented and optimized the crowd models and animations
● Worked as a Tech Artist along with a programmer to design and implement a physics system for hair and other secondary motion
o The game engine was being created at the same time as the game
o After helping to design the system, rigged and skinned every asset in the game to use it
Art Generalist and Prototype Artist | R&D Team
● Worked on interdisciplinary teams of 4-5 people to design and prototype new music-based gameplay and experiences for mobile devices and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset
Lead Environment Artist | Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved
● Art directed and helped design the initial demo
● During Pre-Production, managed a team of artists that:
o Worked closely with designers, musicians and engineers to design, prototype and concept interactive and musically reactive environments and objects
● During Early-Production, managed a team responsible for:
o Level design and set dressing
o Environmental animation (animated models, textures, lights, etc.)
o Particle systems and other VFX
● During Final-Production: Oversaw and managed the integration of all production art into the levels
o Created the pipeline for moving from gray box prototypes to production art and then integrating the final art back into the gray box levels
o Rigged, skinned and integrated physics-based touchable objects (plants, etc)
Character Artist and Tech Art | Rock Band 3
● Concepted, modeled and textured character outfits
● Adjusted and polished character skinning for animation
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI | Senior Critic in Illustration, Sculpture and Foundation Studies
New York Academy of Art, New York, NY | Anatomy and Sculpture Faculty
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY | Artist Educator in Residence
EDUCATION
Masters in Sculpture, The University at Buffalo
Masters in Figurative Studies, The New York Academy of Art
Bachelors in Humanities, The University of Chicago
PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS
Jackbox Games, Chicago, IL | Effective Feedback Workshop (webinar), upcoming
GDC (Game Developers Conference), San Francisco, CA | Effective Feedback and Critique (remote round table discussions), 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Boston Post Mortem (Boston Chapter of the International Game Developers Association), Boston, MA |Revisiting the Culture of Critique (webinar), 2020
GDC, San Francisco, CA |Effective Feedback and Critique (round table discussions), 2018, 2019
Boston Post Mortem, Boston, MA |The Culture of Critique (presentation), 2019
VRDC (Virtual Reality Developers Conference), San Francisco, CA |Mind Control in Mobile VR: Gaze Activated UI in SingSpace (presentation), 2018
GDC, San Francisco, CA |Improving the Culture of Critique: Communicating Across Disciplines (presentation),2017
PAX East (Game Convention), Boston, MA |It Feels So Good: The Ergonomics of Virtual Reality Games (presentation),2017
VRDC, San Francisco, CA |Virtual Reality Museum Installations: Challenges and Rewards (presentation),2016
GDC, San Francisco, CA |Maximizing Critique: Improving Communication for Everyone Involved in Critical Feedback (presentation),2016