Resume PDF

 

Senior and Lead Artist
SkyVu Entertainment
2009 - 2014 5.5 Years

Worked with and managed the art team of a moderately sized indie studio releasing 8 games. I managed projects and team members while contribtuing  a wide range of assets including  concept art, UI art, and UX design. I also worked with and managed outsourcers when needed to help boost production in a number of projects.  Many of our games hit and stayed within the top 10 for multiple weeks.

Duties

  • Created concepts, thumbnails, orthographics, illustrations, UX prototypes and UI assets for mobile and computer games. 
  • Spearheaded UX prototyping and development for majority of projects worked on. Pioneered use of development tools, conducted AB testing, created final assets and implemented them into Unity with aid from the developers. 
  • Guided development and software quality assurance to ensure optimal progress and product stability for end users. 
  • Established company branding and oversaw marketing on the iTunes Store and Android Marketplace. 
  • Attended the yearly conferences on behalf of the company and brought back information to the team for deconstruction. 
  • Built an art department from the ground up - researching and implementing application and asset management pipelines before they were needed. 
  • Trained new team members on the company’s intranet, practices and conventions. 
  • Gathered and produced style guides and created thumbnails, callouts, reference models, orthographics and illustrations.
  • Created and edited levels, effects and lighting and game objects in Unity.
  • Strove to make the team as efficient as possible in all things and implemented changes to software, pipeline and project management techniques. 
  • Headed up postmortems, documented discussions and worked tirelessly to avoid retreading trouble areas and implement suggestions when possible. 
  • Liaised with remote outsourcers and clients over multiple projects where I managed assets, cross team communication, requirements, documentation and troubleshooting. 
  • Oversaw multiple, simultaneous projects across all phases of development. 
  • Collaborated with the development team to plan project sprints, manage scrum and document retros. 
 

Contract Artist
2014 - Present

  • I contact and coordinate with clients to gather requirements, communicate progress and manage expectations. 
  • Create concepts, thumbnails, orthographics, Illustrations, UX prototypes and UI assets for a wide range of entertainment types, including but not limited to mobile games, apps, web applications and marketing campaigns. 
  • A big first step is always planning out what the end user needs to see and what the stakeholder wants to see. I love planning out the user’s experience and working with ever-shifting prototypes and wireframes to nail the design. 
  • For each client I am able to work within their budget and schedule delivering the highest quality content working within the client's constraints. 
  • As a freelance artist I utilize the client’s project management tools or, if none are present propose my own that are suited to the client and work. No job is too small to give up efficiency. 

Much of my work cannot be shown publicly however some can be displayed on request if you are looking for certain subject content or style. Some of my clients and projects include:

  • Wargaming
  • Complex Games
  • JB Gaming
  • Bots Battleground
  • Scrap Station Sigma
  • Idol Minds
  • Hull Breach
 

COO and Project Manager
Anvilhead Studios
2015 - Present

A small group of colleagues are looking into starting a small entertainment studio and have finally cleared the last legal hurdles and have gotten ourselves incorporated. We meet weekly and are beginning the long road of pitching to investors! 

  • As the COO I accomplish human resource objectives by recruiting, orienting, assigning, scheduling, coaching, counseling, and mentoring team members. 
  • Communicate job expectations by planning, appraising, and reviewing contributions. 
  • I discuss and set quality standards and am constantly balancing the unlimited time sink of perfection against finite time and money. 
  • Forecast financial requirements; preparing an annual budget; tracking expenditures; analyzing variances; initiating corrective actions. 
  • Set and adjust project milestones 
 

Adjunct Faculty
Metropolitan Community College
2013 - Present

 

  • Modernized all applicable syllabi and integrated them into Google Documents for easy manipulation and use. Connected all class documents into a webpage that could be accessed off site by students. 
  • Cleaned up and removed antiquated document structures for easy sharing between faculty. 
  • Utilize a variety of technologies and instructional methodologies to keep courses updated, fun and engaging. 
  • Spend one-on-one time mentoring students outside of class hours and on a continuing basis once their class has completed. 

Proficiencies and Tools

Concept Design, Thumbnailing, Orthographics, Reference Modeling, Illustration, Graphic Design, Marketing

  • Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Sketchup Pro, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Illustrator, Sketchbook Pro, Keyshot

UX, UI, Wireframing, Low/High Fidelity Prototyping, A/B Testing, Asset Creation / Management/ Optimization / Implementation

  • InVision, Illustrator, Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Texture Packer, Unity 3D (NGUI / UGUI), Google Documents

Game Development, GUI Implementation, Particle Effects, Level Setup, Lighting, Occlusion Culling

  • Unity 3D

Documentation, Design Proposals

● Office, Word, Google Documents, Spreadsheets, File Structuring

Project Management, Agile, Scrum, Retros, Kanban, Git, Mentoring

  • JIRA, YODIZ, Trello, Sourcetree, Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, Basecamp



Education:

Associates in Digital Media
Metropolitan Community College
Completion Date: 02/2008

My time at MCC was really encouraging to me, and the freedom I had to explore 2D, 3D and Animation helped me gain the fundamentals I use daily.

  • For my final project I proposed taking part in weekly design challenge that required one composition and exploration every 6 days. 
  • I’ve lead up multiple group projects that all worked out! 
  • Brought in specialty hardware which allowed me to work throughout the day in standard lab when the design lab was occupied. 

Groups and Volunteer Work

Organizer and Administrator
Omaha Game Developer Association
2009 - Present

Over the past year the OGDA has thrived within the stability and increased presence that I have helped provide. By reaching out and finding venues to meet in we have increased monthly attendance back from a low of 5 to an average of 20.

Organizer
Omaha Digital Artist Meetup
2015 - Present

I took over management of the group after 3 months of it being founded and have helped grow our numbers from 10-160 with an average of 30 in attendance each month. We meet and discuss our work, learn new techniques, share advice and network. Members also have branched out to meet more regularly in weekly field sketches and movie viewings. 

A few of my favorite games:

I play what I feel is a very wide variety of game genres. The games presented in alphabetical order below are ones that for a number of reasons stood out to me the most. With this wide backdrop I can quickly align myself to the vision of a game even as its design changes dramatically as prototypes are released.

  • Brave Fencer Musashi
  • Clash of Clans
  • DOOM 2016
  • DOTA 2
  • EVE Online
  • Gauntlet Dark Legacy - The reason I owned a PS2 Multitap
  • Kingdom Rush - Perfect tower defence
  • Lumines - A puzzle game I first played on the PSP
  • Metro 2033 / Last Light
  • Minecraft
  • MotorStorm - Perfect arcade racing on the PS3
  • Project Reality - This is a Mod for Battlefield 2 and my longest played game by years
  • Shadow of the Colossus 
  • Shattered Horizon - Nobody played it but me :/
  • SOCOM 2 > Counterstrike > Insurgency
  • SSX Tricky
  • Team Fortress 2 - Almost exclusively as Medic
  • Vigilante 8 - Somehow I played this instead of Twisted Metal. I stand by my choice.
  • World of Tanks
  • Zelda: Breath of the Wild