PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Abyss Studios         Owner         Burbank, CA         August 2011- Present

Started an indie game studio and manage a team of four employees composed of two artists, a writer, and a business manager; formed Abyss Studios by establishing a business plan and raising funds to support the development and release of the first game, Tiki Galore; Tiki Galore is a multiplayer arena game, created in Unreal Engine 4; was chosen by Epic Games in 2014 to be display at EGX London; the game was Greenlit in 7 days in May 2015; managed the team on enhancing the quality of art, extended the game to four levels of play, and developed nine Tiki special abilities; personally worked on the environment art, game play systems, visual effects, user interface development and character work; created using Maya, Photoshop, Unreal Engine 4, Perforce Versioning Software, ZBrush, xNormal, and World Machine; after perseverance and diligence, Abyss Studios made Tiki Galore available for sale on Steam in October 2015.

Kathy Taslitz Studios         Digital Artist         Los Angeles, CA         May 2014 - February 2015

Worked closely with Kathy Taslitz to help develop and finalize her creation of Emotional Evolution using ZBrush, Maya, Photoshop, and MeshLab; used an in house MakerBot printer or outsourced to the company Solid Concepts to finalize pieces; managed a team of two artists to assist Kathy in the project for the new Manhattan Beach Library's interior sculptures.

Disney Interactive         Environment Artist         North Hollywood, CA         May 2012 - October 2012

Created environments on an unannounced MMO title; the title's scope required all departments to work closely for immersive game play while keeping a cohesive artistic style; integrated new industry techniques of game art asset creation that allowed for more artistic focus; simplified iteration of assets for the environment art team; worked with developers to understand the game play and in turn created a functional pipeline for other artists to import the art; ability to quickly learn how to work in an evolving game development atmosphere with many iterations with the goal of a high quality finished product; created the environments with Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop, xNormals, and various proprietary tools.

High Impact Games         Environment Artist         Burbank, CA         February 2011 - August 2011

Created environments for DreamWorks Super Star Kartz that consisted of DreamWorks movies Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Madagascar, and Monsters vs Aliens; worked on the race tracks for Shrek's Swamp, Dragon's Keep, Isle of Berk, Dragon's Lair, and Far, Far Away; developed concept for final level look and mapped out a plan of action to complete each race track in a timely manner; established a pipeline for creating all assets to meet artistic standard and requirements for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and 3DS; created the environments and assets with Maya and Photoshop and implemented using proprietary tools/engines.

Robomodo         Environment Artist         Chicago, IL         May 2010 - October 2010

Initially worked on the animation team to help create variation for sideline NPC and imposters for Tony Hawk Shred; brought onto the environment art team to assist in asset creation; promoted within Robomodo to take on more responsibility by enhancing resolution of Texel quality, increasing detail and fidelity of existing assets, and creating additional assets to improve the levels; used Softimage XSI, Photoshop, and implemented using proprietary tools/engine.

HughieDM Design Productions         Owner         Chicago, IL         June 2008 - May 2010

Created pre-visualization work for various architectural projects in Chicago and Washington, D.C.; created pre-visualization images of box seat redesign for the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Initiative for Afghan Women         Freelance Architect         Bristol, RI         April 2007 - July 2007

Designed and developed an orphanage for children in Afghanistan with a team of colleagues.

OPX         Summer Intern Architect         Washington, D.C.         2006

Worked on several government architect projects in Washington, D.C. as well as developed conceptual design for architectural competitions.

SethAnne Studios         Summer Intern Architect         Alexandria, VA         2002-2005

Worked on the construction, design/development, and 3D modeling/rendering of houses in Alexandria, VA.

EDUCATION

The Illinois Institute of Art         Chicago, IL

Bachelor of Fine Art in Game Art & Design, June 2010

Graduate Portfolio Show: Best in Show Award – Game Art & Design

Graduated with honors

Roger Williams University         Bristol, RI

Bachelor of Architecture, August 2007

Minor: Visual Arts

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Games + Animation         Los Angeles, CA

Environment Creation for Games, April-July 2012

Digital Painting, April-June 2011

GDC Lectures         San Francisco, CA

Discussions on game development, March 2012,2013

Massive Black Workshop         San Francisco, CA

Workshops for artists from entertainment, games, film, and comics, November 2011