Summary

Christopher Miller / Everett / WA

WEBSITE: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVMGZZ-AE=/?share_link_id=367968954645

https://pixelpatron.artstation.com/

ART DIRECTOR / SENIOR 3-D ARTIST / LEVEL DESIGNER/ LEAD ENVIRONMENT ARTIST / LIGHTING

SKILLS:

Art Direction
Visual prototyping
Assisting with asset pipeline creation/best practices/documentation
Level-blockout/multiplayer map design/player spawn solutions, and game-play iteration
Visual roadmaps and pitch decks/retro's
Gameplay puzzle planning ideation and implementation
Mood boards/style exploration/style guide creation
Asset management
Asset creation (mobile all the way to full next-gen high to low poly PBR workflows)
Signage
Graffiti and stylized or hand painted textures
Distant terrain creation with world creator/sky-domes
Outsourcing documentation/management
Beautiful corner/vertical slice creation
Environment modeling/lighting/world building
Level optimization
Art management/hiring/terminations/reviews/career path planning/training

SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE:

Maya (10 years) / Misc. In-House World Editors (15 years) / ZBrush (2 years) / Substance Painter/Designer (1 year) / 3D-Coat (8 months) / Unity (3 years) / Unreal Engine (2 years) Photoshop (14 years) / Freehand (7 years) / Quake3 Radiant (4 years) Per-Force (14 years)

SHIPPED TITLES & EXPERIENCE

‘the Walking Dead Empires’ (PC / Mobile): Gala Games / Ember Entertainment, Current

Art Director for project, responsible for title visual development, mood boards, art Bible and project artistic vision. Team assembly/hiring. Project scheduling, outsource management, asset creation, level design and creation, game lighting, UI content, collision, polish and VFX. Creation of marketing deliverables and AppStore banners/socials/icons/.

‘SurvivalZ’ (Apple Arcade): Ember Entertainment, Current

Art Director for SurvivalZ, responsible for title development, mood boards, art Bible and project artistic vision. Project scheduling, outsource management, asset creation, level design and creation, final lighting, collision, polish and VFX. Creation of marketing deliverables and AppStore fronts imagery and social media images.

'Paradise Bay' (Mobile): King Digital - March, 2015 to April, 2019

Lead artist/Art Manager responsible for leading team of 7 artists for artistic style and direction. Asset creation and asset pipeline/deadline management. Level block-outs, assets, optimization, and character/animal creations. Lighting and textures. Comps for marketing deliverables, and studio sprint review presentations. Full management and implementation of outsourcing with multiple vendors, bids, and scheduling.

'Metalstorm: DUELS' (Mobile): Z2 Live - March, 2014 to March, 2015

Lead artist/Art Manager, responsible for setting artistic style and direction of title. Creation of mood boards, set lighting, skydome creation, textures, asset creation, outsourcing sheets and vendor management. Team assignments and scheduling; unconventional templates for visual roadmaps for team and studio heads to track progress and direction. Feedback loops for UI and marketing to aid in reaching visual standards for project. Environment creation, final modeling, texturing, lighting & level layouts, and optimizations.

'Ascend: Hand of Kul‘ (Xbox Live Arcade): Signal Studios - April, 2012 to Aug, 2013

Lead on dungeons, worked with tools engineers to develop a tool to quickly randomize dungeons based on "tiled" art pieces. Environment art creation for tiles and layouts. Part of two-man team to build all dungeons for Ascend. Final, modeling, texturing, lighting for dungeons.

'Unit 13'(Vita): Zipper Interactive - July, 2008 to April, 2012

Level Lead: Unit 13 was built from start to finish in eight months, it was an extremely aggressive schedule with almost impossible deadlines. Utilizing our knowledge of our tools and lessons learned from previous cycles we were able to ship on time to make the Vita launch. Responsibilities included overseeing all level block-outs, design layout for airbase level. Final modeling/texturing/lighting for airbase level, as well as support and lighting of other environments. This project utilized real time lighting conditions and limits. Responsible for outsource sheets, models, textures, final lighting across multiple levels and level population/set decoration/polish.

'Socom 4' (PS3): Zipper Interactive – Cont.

Multiplayer Level Lead: Socom 4 is aimed at competing with some of the best in the industry and thus the visual bar was raised beyond the bar set for MAG. We're pushing our engine to its limits and really striving to achieve AAA. Main responsibilities include placing assets in our in-house level editor, essentially, I was a “World builder “.

Creation of high-level Block-outs for structures for play-testing and game-play refinement. Final polish using terrain painting and foliage. Main level artist responsible for multiple levels including assembly, lighting, occluders, framerate optimization, memory, and final polish.

'M.A.G.' (PS3): Zipper Interactive - Cont.

Responsible for the creation of environments, block-in to completion MAYA/Photoshop/In-house editor. I was a key part of a team responsible for the creation of multiple levels; largest environments I've worked on, tight streaming conditions, memory constraints considered to allow maps to accommodate 256 on-line players.

Multiple revisions during development meant working fast, yet still maintaining a high visual quality that sustains playability.

'Destroy All Humans 3' (X-Box 360): Sandblast Games - July, 2006 to May, 2008

Level Designer/Environment artist: Environment Artist responsible for the initial Block-in of 3 of our 5 worlds. Collaborated with Design/Engineering/Artists to achieve a layout that would work well for the needs of all three teams. Created over 60 + unique destructible buildings using in house tools to populate worlds quickly. Helped technical artist with feedback to improve tools. Trained new artists on production pipeline for getting assets into unreal. Final responsibilities included the design and final modeling/texturing/lighting for environments using MAYA/Photoshop/Unreal 3.

'Metroid Prime - Hunters' (Nintendo DS): Nintendo - Nov, 2004 to June, 2006

Level Designer/Environment artist: Key artist on team responsible for the design and final modeling/ texturing/ lighting for environments using MAYA and Photoshop for Metroid Prime Hunters. Baked vertex lighting using turtle. Worked with designers in implementing morph ball challenges and puzzles; as well as item placement, AI paths, and triggers using in-house level editor.

'Backyard Skateboarding' (PC): Humongous Entertainment - Jan, 1998 to Nov, 2004

Lead level Designer: Responsible for design of backyard skateboarding levels. Setup of challenge triggers and use of in-house level editing tools to add: ambient animations, triggers, paths, grind paths for skater, challenge design and structure, and scripting with preset templates. Final modeling/texture/lighting.

'Backyard – baseball - basketball - Hockey' (PC/ GameCube): Humongous Entertainment

Character modeler/texture artist and misc. interface art. Misc. 3-d art and icons. Interface lead/artist for interface menus. Logo artist, misc. 2-d Photoshop textures/art.

'Freddi Fish 3 the Case of the Stolen Conch Shell' (PC): Humongous Entertainment

Character designer/concept artist for all secondary characters to appear in game.

'Blue’s Clues ABC Time Activities', ’Blue’s Treasure Hunt’, Blue’s Reading Time’ (PC) Humongous Entertainment

Interface lead and artist, activities artist, logo artist. Background artist. Click-point animations for felt friend's activity, click-point artist and splash screen artist.

'Pajama Sam - Rainy Day Activities' (PC): Humongous Entertainment

Interface lead/artist for interface menus. Logo artist, misc. 2-d Photoshop textures/art. Click-point artist/animator.

Satisfied Sport: Seattle, Washington - Sep 1996 to June 1997

Illustration/Graphic Design. Various applications: Screen printing, embroidery design, Merchandise Design. Various product Design & packaging for: Hard Rock Cafe, Disney's Copperfield Magic Underground, No Fear. Lines included: watches, hats, shopping bags, CD's, full clothing line, greeting cards, boxers, clocks, enamel pins, & key chains.

Skills

Software proficiency

Maya

Photoshop

Unreal Engine

ZBrush

Unity

TopoGun

3DCoat

xNormal

Quixel Suite

CrazyBump