Resumé

Andrew Gerard

Summary

Versatile game artist with close to five years of professional experience and is familiar with all game art disciplines. Technically inclined and team-oriented, communicates well with programmers, artists, and designers and contributes to cohesive team performance. Reliable and resourceful; always meeting and exceeding set goals and continually seeking paths towards smarter and faster development.

Software

Maya, MEL Script, Python Script, Photoshop, Motion Builder, After Effects, Mudbox, ZBrush, 3D Studio Max, Deep Paint, Flash, Illustrator

Skills

Rigging, Scripting, Animation, Particles Effects, Materials/Shaders, Modeling, Unwrapping, Texturing, Documentation, Training, Video Editing, Web Development

Experience

01/2008 – PresentSenior Technical Artist
Rainbow Studios, Phoenix, AZ

Creates Maya tools and scripts for artists to accelerate their workflow.

08/2006 – 12/2007Technical/VFX Artist
Nintendo Software Technology, Redmond, WA

Wrote MEL and Python scripts to interface with in-house tools, working with multiple art teams to minimize redundancies in production for artists.
Scripted MEL procedures and expressions to improve work flow for particle effects development in Maya, removing mundane steps and making common attributes easily accessible.
Rigged characters and machines with consistent setups and animation control schemes allowing animators to more quickly pose and animate a wide variety of characters.
Created particle effects for a wide variety of scenes and situations including cinematic explosions, player power-ups, enemies, weapons, and more.
Built material animations for game objects and characters to add visual dimension and style.
Contributed to game scripting and works with full-time scripters to effectively implement art assets and game-play elements.

06/2004 – 07/2006Senior Artist
01/2004Character Artist/Animator
02/2003Interface Artist
Tulga Games (Artifact Entertainment), Mesa, AZ

Production and Post-Production of MMORPG Horizons: Empire of Istaria (released 12/2003)
Began as the Interface Artist then earned a Character Artist and Animator position and finally served as Senior Artist with responsibilities in all art development aspects.
Animated characters of wide varieties of body and motion types, building personality into their movements to create much more memorable characters.
Rigged characters and provides flexible and intuitive control schemes to allow creative animations to more easily be achieved.
Scripted MEL procedures to enhance and accelerate rigging and animating, contributing to the quicker development of characters and animation sequences.
Modeled and textured organic and inorganic characters and objects; adhering to established art styles, resulting in more cohesive sets of art assets.
Wrote documentation and tutorials and trained other team members on art development processes, empowering them to be more productive sooner.
Acted as liaison between creative and technical teams to resolve technical issues and to identify better solutions for implementing new game additions and features.
Worked with designers to balance design goals within technical limitations and development constraints and to set priorities for more accurate development schedules.
Designed the game's graphical user interface and collaborated with interface programmer to create a very usable and intuitive interface celebrated by players.
Established visual styles for interface icons and single-handedly made hundreds of unique graphics and tints resulting in thousands of unique icon combinations.
Composed multiple video trailers for a marketing campaign advertising core game features.

09/1999 – PresentWeb Site Developer
Freelance Web Development, Mesa, AZ

Communicates with clients to determine goals and needs for best presenting their businesses and information on their web site.
Maintains client relationships, making web site additions and adjustments to their satisfaction.
Organizes site information and designs and develops front-end artwork and interface layouts for more user-friendly web sites.
Develops dynamic web sites using HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, Flash, and MySQL databases while ensuring cross-browser compatibilities.

Extended Experience

Adjunct Instructor at Collins College, Tempe, AZ
Academic Advisory Board for Collins College
Academic Advisory Board for The Art Institute of Phoenix
MEL Workshop for The Art Institute of Phoenix
Student Question/Answer Panels for Collins College
Student artwork featured on Collins College TV commercials and magazine ads
Bio and artwork featured in The Game Artist's Guide To Maya by Michael McKinley

Education

01/2003B.A., Computer Animation
Collins College, Tempe, AZ

Honors for Writing/Composition

12/2001A.A., Visual Communications
Collins College, Tempe, AZ

Honors for Grade Point Average

06/2000High School Diploma
Ulysses High School, Ulysses, KS