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3DTotal: You say in your biography that your ambition was to work in the games industry. Why this area in particular?
John: The main reason why I chose a career in the video games industry, was because I simply love video games. I grew up during the days of Karateka, “Rescue Raiders”, “Dune 2”, and “X-COM:UFO”, but it wasn't until my later years in college that I started to think about the career in video games more seriously. The computer graphics during the late nineties was just starting to look good, and the industry wasn’t as glamorous as it is today. Many of the artists I knew of only wanted to become illustrators, or break into the film industry. So that left many opportunities for folks like me, who had a passion for games. It was an untapped market and I was fortunate enough to have entered it the right time.
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3DTotal: Were there any particular games that made you realise that there was more scope opening up for artistic freedom within an industry that existed, before the main 3D packages arrived?
John:
There were two games that collectively made me pursue a gaming career; the first was “StarCraft”, and the second was the “Street Fighter” games. StarCraft, in particular, made a bigger impact on my decision mainly because of their cinematics. Street Fighter on the other hand, got me excited on the animation front. I must have spent a years worth of lunch money playing it. The Street Fighter games, in my opinion, had the best timing and rhythm in terms of combos. Martial-Arts choreography is like a dance, and the “Street Fighter” brand made every combo memorable. And since I adored video games, anime for its tech designs, and Hong Kong action films, I felt it was a career move that would fulfil most of my passions.
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3DTotal: Your break into the industry came in 2001, when you started as a Texture Artist at “Insomniac Games”. Over the following five years, what areas of game development did you work in, and which were your favourite disciplines?
John:
I started my gaming career as a Character Texture Artist at Insomniac Games. Day in and day out, I would unwrap UVs and texture characters, weapons, and gadgets. Since the company was very small at the time, with approximately thirty people, I got the chance to learn everything about video game production. From modelling, rigging, animation, level building, storyboards, visual effects, HUD design, to game design, I had the greatest opportunity anyone can ask for. And after five intensive years of making triple A titles , I think I got the art production pipeline pretty much nailed down.
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3DTotal: Have you seen much change in the development process in those five years ?
John:
Video game production has definitely changed over the past five years. The artists today are more specialized, and they work in an assembly line fashion for efficiency. One person will model and another would texture. It’s hard to imagine that only a few years ago, an artist would texture their own models, or rig them for that matter. But, because of the demand of higher quality art, and the available technology that supports it, an artist will need to spend longer hours refining their art. Before the normal map craze, game assets would only have the basic shaders like diffuse, specular, or bump. Today the art pipeline has gotten a whole lot more complicated, thus time consuming.
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3DTotal: Which games do you enjoy playing, and why ?
John: I
enjoy games that have great replay-ability, and most importantly a lot of fun factor. I care more about game play than I do art, which is ironic considering my line of work. The truth is, art gets boring
after a few days game play. Take for instance, games like “Grand Theft Auto”, “Katamari”, and even
“World of WarCraft”, they may not have the greatest graphics in the world, but they make it up with great game play..
3DTotal: Which games do you feel have showcased some of the best artwork?
John:
Many games have shown breathtaking artwork. The list of games could go on forever, but right off the top of my head, I can think of a few that are worth mentioning. A few of my favourites are “Gears of War”, “Gran Turismo 3” (and up), “Kingdom Hearts”, “Silent Hill 4”, “Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter”, “Ace Combat”, “Rainbow Six: Vegas”, and especially “Call of Duty 4”, are all games that have great art direction. |
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