-originally published November 17th, 2008-
Within the first year of your career you became a senior-artist at Raven Software, when most people are looking to just break in the industry. What was the experience like?
Well, to clarify, I started at Raven Software a month after graduating, as a 3D artist on the sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I was promoted about 6 months later to senior artist. The success I experienced early in my career had a lot to do with timing: I think if I had graduated even a year earlier, I would have had a much harder time breaking into games, since my skill-set was primarily focused on cinematic resolution poly modeling, texturing, etc. Around the time I graduated, the games industry was making the jump into the next-gen arena, normal maps were becoming commonplace for character & environment-art. As a result there was a huge demand for people who were comfortable with the toolset (Zbrush especially), and could create hi-poly source models for normal mapping.

Breaking into the industry as a character artist on AAA-title with no professional games-industry experience was pretty daunting – there was a lot to learn – but the character-artists at Raven were very generous with their knowledge – guys like Shaun Absher (www.requestdenied.com) and Djordje Cakovan (www.cakovan.com) really saved my ass, I owe a lot to those guys. In an attempt to kind of play catch-up with the talent at Raven, I worked like crazy for the first 6 or 8 months, making personal art in my evening and weekend hours. I must have crammed like 2 years worth of working into that first 6 months. It was around that time that I started to get really comfortable with the toolset, and got over those technical hurdles that really plagued me when I first started. So I guess, the short answer is: hard-work and opportunity.

At 25, you have already produced character-art for more than twenty next-gen console & PC games working with many of the industry’s top developers and publishers. How is all of this possible with only five years experience! What is the secret?

I think at last count I’ve made characters for about 23 or 25 games, something in that range, the majority of that within the last 2.5 years. I’ve been really fortunate. Making the jump into freelancing was a kind of natural next step for me: Since my first day at school, I had been really active in the online CG community, forging relationships with other artists. After a few months at Raven, I decided to start a little phpBB forum attached to my portfolio website. That community grew exponentially over the next few years, and eventually became a popular online hangout for some of the best character-artists in the industry. My online presence and reputation is really what allowed me to break into the freelance game and stay busy. I was fortunate not to have to look for clients, and never really experienced any of the famine associated with being a freelance artist – typically I was busy 24/7. There was much demand, I actually worked for about two years straight without a weekend off. So, again, short answer is: hard-work and opportunity.

Having started your own successful forum, beta-tested new software, managed a career in studio and out, in addition to working with Dark Horse and DC Comics on collectible lines for major movies like ‘The Spirit’ and ‘The Dark Knight’. I guess asking you about personal art would be a waste considering the time you are involved with work. What about personal life… have you found a decent balance, friends, family?

Personal art has always been passion of mine, but it’s definitely taken a back seat over the past couple years. I’m hoping now that I’m back to working a 9 – 5, I’ll have time for it again. When I was freelancing, I was all work – all the time, it was pretty miserable sometimes. Thankfully that stress is now a thing of the past, and I have plenty of free time for my wife and friends.