Nintendo
Art Department Manager
2021 – Current
Microsoft – Turn 10
Environment Domain Lead
2019 – 2021
- Hired & managed the Environment team
- Presented progress reports & highlighted team successes to the studio
- Developed schedules for internal & external teams
- Coordinated work across Environment, Concept, Lighting & Look Dev teams
- Organized & prioritized development of new features & content
- Managed fiscal budgets for internal & external teams
- Created outsourcing plan & strategy
- Collaborated with the Licensing team for tracks, branding & fictional content
- Triaged & delegated bugs & tasks
- Supported the improvement of new reference processes & techniques
Keywords Studios
Art Director
2019
- Translated visuals from client to artists
- Managed team across a variety of projects & artistic styles
- Engaged clients to support their vision & production needs
- Supported development through an assortment of pipelines
- Conducted nightly meetings with team members in India
- Reviewed content & delivered feedback to Artists
- Traveled to India to improve processes & support future planning
- Mentored Leads & Artists
Wargaming – Seattle
Art Manager
2015 – 2018
- Directed & managed Artists across Environment Art, Lighting, VFX & Destruction Teams
- Built & hired the Environment team as well as defined team structure & responsibilities
- Incorporated production processes & phases to guide Artists
- Provided high level art direction & created paint-overs for visual feedback
- Established relationships with external partners
- Defined & managed the outsourcing pipeline
- Managed schedules & priorities for internal & external teams
- Traveled to Ukraine to support insourcing team
- Produced staffing projections & production estimates for annual budgets
- Coordinated with Engine, Tools & Tech Art to push visuals & pipeline features
- Partnered with Level Design to implement gameplay features
- Presented progress reports to the Senior Leadership team & studio
- Organized feedback from the Art Director & Studio Leadership to my team
- Planned & coordinated trips to gather reference for art content
Microsoft – Turn 10
Environment Lead | Outsourcing Lead | Track Lead
2007 – 2014
Forza 3 | Forza 4 | Forza 5
- Provided visual direction & leadership to Environment Artists
- Generated schedules for the internal & external teams
- Developed status reports for Studio Leads
- Collaborated with Tech Art & Tools team to increase production efficiency
- Worked with Biz Dev to develop pipeline to monitor multi-million dollar budgets
- Organized & constructed pipeline to track external asset production
- Created bids for Vendor SOWs as well as managed & approved vendor invoicing
- Traveled to Vietnam & India to meet Studio Leads & expand external development
- Produced paint-overs for visual feedback to external teams
- Interfaced with media to support the release of track content
- Hired & on-boarded Artists during production of Forza 5
- Mentored newly hired Track Leads on Forza 5
- Established documentation & best practices for on-boarding internal & external Artists
- Coordinated with QA to define test cases & production gates
- Created track layouts & worked with Design to implement gameplay features
- Gathered track reference for Artists in Europe, Middle East & the US
- Forza 3: responsible for visuals & production of Le Mans & Catalunya
- Forza 4: responsible for visuals & production of Garages, Top Gear & Hockenheim
- Researched & defined lighting renderer for Forza 3 tracks
Nintendo
Environment Lead | Environment Artist
1999 – 2007
Ridge Racer 64 | Wave Race Bluestorm | 1080 Avalanche | Metroid Prime Hunters | Project Hammer
- Developed on 5 titles across 4 different consoles
- Provided visual feedback to internal & external Artists
- Created & managed environment schedules
- Contributed to map layouts & collaborated with Design on gameplay features
- Managed art teams in both Redmond & Vancouver (Wave Race Blue Storm)
- Worked with the Art Director to define high level goals
- Coordinated with the Engineers to improve processes & tools
- Trained & hired Artists & helped grow the internship program
Additional Employment
Seattle Central College
3DS Max & Photoshop Instructor
2010 – 2012
- Taught evening classes while working at Microsoft at Turn 10
- Hired 2 former students to work as Artists on contract for Forza 5
Secret 6
Consultant
2014 (3 days)
- Worked with the Owner & Studio Manager to find & hire an Art Director
- Spent 3 days on site in Manila, Philippines interviewing & reviewing current staff
- Provided insight & guidance to reform processes & responsibilities
- Championed the need for Artists to receive additional Engineering support
Education
DigiPen Institute of Technology (Vancouver, Canada)
3D Computer Animation
1997 – 1999