PRINTER FRIENDLY RESUME

J O H N E. G I B S O N I V

ENVIRONMENT ARTIST

13109 DEWEY STREET MAR VISTA, CA 90066 310.926.7921 www.jgibsoniv.com JohnGibson@jgibsoniv.com
OBJECTIVE: To pursue my passion as an environment artist in a progressive company on the cutting edge of the video game industry. QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY:
Possesses a strong sense of visual design and an amazing attention to detail with modeling, lighting, and UV mapping skills with next-gen shaders; excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate productively to meet deadlines.
ENVIRONMENT ARTIST HISTORY
Activision/Treyarch Santa Monica, CA 10/2005 - 03/2007 Spiderman 3: XBox360 PS3 PC. [Environment Artist ] Point Of View, Inc. Irvine, CA 08/2004 - 12/2004
Fear Factor Unleashed, PS2 / XBOX 2005. [Environment Artist]
Black Ops Entertainment Santa Monica, CA 02/2003 - 05/2003 Terminator3: The Rise of the Machines, PS2 Gamecube XBox, [Environment Artist] New World Computing / The 3DO Company Agoura Hills, CA 06/1997 - 07/2001 Might and Magic IX, PC 2001, [Environment Artist] Heroes of Might and Magic, PS2 2001, [Environment Artist] Army Men: Arcade Blast, PS1 2001, [Environment Artist] Legends of Might and Magic, PC 2000, [Environment Artist] Might and Magic VIII, PC 2000, [Environment Artist]
Heroes of Might and Magic 3, PC 1999, [Texture Artist] Might and Magic VI, PC 1998, [Texture Artist]
Walt Disney Imagineering - Glendale, California 5/2004 6/2004 Environment Artist

OTHER ART

CBN Animation- Virginia Beach, VA 10/2008 - 03/2009
Art Asset Production Storytellers Cafe: The House Built on Sand, DVD 2009, [Character Animator]
Plant-It Film Productions Culver City, CA 11/2008 01/2009 FOCUS360 Laguna Niguel, CA 11/2007-6/2008 Architecture Previsualization [Consultant-Contract Artist] New Riders Publishing Indianapolis, IN 02/2004 09/2004 Developing Digital Short Films, ISBN13: 9780735712317 [Technical Editor] Vivendi / Universal Interactive Los Angeles, CA 01/2002 07/2004
Van Helsing, PS2 & XBOX 2004 [Concept Artist/Storyboard Artist] 2 Fast 2 Furious, PS2 & XBOX 2004 [Illustrator] Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, PS2 & XBOX 2002 [Concept Artist/Storyboard Artist]
Film Restoration: Bambi, Fantasia, Lil Mermaid, Dumbo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fun and Fancy Free, Lady and the Tramp, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, Silly Symphonies, Ol Yeller [Digital Artist]
Sony Online Entertainment San Diego, California 8/2002 11/2002 Lords of EverQuest [Storyboards] CELSIUS FILMS Hollywood, California 6/20022002 9/2002 Television Commercial- California Wildlife Center [Animator] Pixel Magic Toluca Lake, CA 01/1995 - 06/1997
Vortex media Arts Burbank, CA 06/1991 07/1995 Mickeys Christmas Carole [2D Character Animator], Mickeys the Prince and the Pauper [2D Character Animator] Whinny the Pooh [2D Character Animator], Madelines European Adventure, PC 1996, [2D Character Animator] Madelines Puppet Show, PC 1995, [2D Character Animator], The Simpsons Virtual Springfield, [Background Artist] Tonka Construction, [Ink and Paint]

EDUCATION:

AnimationMentor.com Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts, American Animation Institute Pierce College, Diploma in Advanced Character Animation Studies, September 2008 Traditional Drawing & Painting Studies, 2001 - present Traditional Animation Studies, 1989 - 1991 Art Studies, 9/1986 6/1988

SOFTWARE EXPERTISE:

Autodesk Maya Autodesk 3D Studio Max Adobe Photoshop Adobe After Effects Pixelogic ZBrush Adobe Premier Adobe Flash PerForce
INDUSTRY RECOGNITION & HONORS
Guest Speaker Focus360 Visual storytelling - seminar series Invited Guest Speaker: NIME99 - Nordic Interactive Multimedia Entertainment Conference 1999 Siggraph 2001 Cinematic work featured in Computer Animation Festival Discreet Games Showreel 2001 Pierce College Deans list 1991-1993

PORTFOLIO / ETC

References furnished upon request; Demo Reel and complete digital and analog portfolios available online at: www.jgibsoniv.com
FULL-TIME PROJECT HISTORY DETAIL ACTIVISION/TREYARCH: 10/2005 03/2007
Title: Spiderman3 (Xbox360, PS3, PC) Position: Environment Artist Textured extensive sewer levels of New York City including city building interiors. Mapping included the use of Diffuse, Specular, Reflection, Opacity, Exponent, Fresnel, Gobo, Height, Micro, and Environmental Reflection Cube maps. Created geometry sets and textured a variety of architectural building styles for the Big Apple, including Beaux-Arts, Brownstone, and Industrial Styles, using proprietary shaders and tools along with 3DSMax. Wrote tutorials and Wiki pages establishing the pipeline for several Next-Gen shaders using 3DSMax, and Zbrush including tutorials on the procedures for the creation of Normal mapping, light mapping, and Ambient Occlusion technology. Responsibilities also included placing Next-Gen particle effects, creating ambient animations, and working within the PerForce utility

POINT OF VIEW, INC.: 8/2004 01/2005
Title: Fear Factor Unleashed (PS2, XBOX) Position: Environment Artist Accomplishments: included, construction and texturing of 3 levels. creating, animating and tagging dynamic objects, setting camera triggers, and adding particle systems, transparency, level lighting, shadow maps, vertex painting, dynamic shadows, created props, and trained junior artists. Additionally created In-Game Cinematics, assisted in motion capture session, assisted in voice over session.
BLACK OPS ENTERTAINMENT: 02/2003 05/2003
Title: Terminator III: Rise of the Machines (PS2, Gamecube, XBox) Position: Environment Artist
Created the "CRS Laboratory" 3D game environment based on the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines. It consisted of sixteen office suites, four state of the art laboratories, connecting hallways and a massive war room complete with 3 scrolling wall monitors, crystal staircases, and an observation deck. It featured the real time particle effects of water, steam and fire, plus destructible objects, and animated doors and elevators
NEW WORLD COMPUTING / THE 3DO COMPANY: 4/1996 9/2001
Title: Title: Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the DragonBone Staff (PS2) 2001 Position: Associate Director/ Environment Artist Wrote win game; lose game, and game introductory cinematics. Designed, modeled and mapped main Intro and Outro cut scene and promotional video environments. Provided significant thematic direction and coaching to Motion Capture Actor. Storyboarded all scene elements and provided animatics to the cinematic team. Worked closely with the team on all aspects of thematics, timing and storytelling.
Title: Army Men: Battle Brats, PS1 2001, Position: Associate Director/ Environment Artist Working off of a campy little ditty provided by our marketing department, I designed a toy store scenario for our baby toy soldiers to romp and march. The sound of a childrens choir singing, we want you as a new recruit! Will be Forever etched into my brain, but this turned out to be one of my favorite promotional videos, sans the audio.
Title: Legends of Might and Magic, PC 2000, Position: Associate Director/ Environment Artist Mark Caldwell, the GM of New World, thought that the art team had evolved to the point of forming our own cinematics team. Under the Art Direction of John Slowsky, a small 4-person team of exceptional artists produced Cinematics and promotional videos for the NWC skews. I wrote, designed., and storyboarded the cinematics as well as created environments and props. I also edited promotional videos for the marketing department, using Director, After Effects, and Premier. Within our first year we had enough material to prepare a cinematic reel and enter it into Siggraph's annual animation festival. What happened was beyond expectation. At the Electronic Theater in 2001, out of all the entrants that were shown that year, two companies were isolated for their yearly contribution and their entire yearly reel shown to the audience. One was Industrial Light and Magic and the other was the New World Computing Cinematic Team! Title: Might and Magic VIII, PC 2000, Position: Environment Artist Working closely with the art lead I designed over 30 in-game looping mini-cut scenes locations. I Conducted on location photo shoots for several in game cut scenes. I storyboarded cut scenes, win game and lose game animatics using Photoshop and Adobe After Effects; I designed motion graphic sequences for teaser cinematic. I provided significant assistance to Art Lead on thematic sensibilities. I designed 5 Dungeon Entrances for gameplay areas. Dungeon Entrance were looped animations, consisting of a high-poly, polished 3D environment, giving the player with tasty hint of spectacular imagery.

Title: Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddons Blade [Expansion Pack] (PC) 1999 Position: Environment Artist
Although I was on another team, I was loaned to the Expansion Pack team to help guide their cinematics. Working alongside their lead animator, we designed all cut scenes and cinematics for this title. and PhotoShop. Created in-game 3D rendered adventure location graphics. Created marketing-rez box cover background image.
Title: Might and Magic VII, PC 2000, Position: Environment Artist Working closely with the art lead, I storyboarded cut scenes, win game and lose game animatics using Photoshop and Adobe After Effects; designed motion graphic sequences for teaser cinematic. I provided significant assistance to Art Lead on thematic sensibilities. I drove the writing into a more cinematic direction and accompanied the Art Director to the contracted cinematic company. This inspired me lead a personal campaign to implement a series of art classes on site. We hired several senior level instructors, a first for NWC.
Title: Heroes of Might and Magic 3, PC 1999, Position: Texture Artist Created tiling texture sets for building interiors and exteriors. Modeled, texture-mapped, game assets and weapon sets using 3D Studio Max. Designed marketing-rez box cover background image. Created painted spell icons for the Spell book. Designed game interfaces.
Title: Might and Magic VI, PC 1998 Position: Texture Artist Created tiling texture sets for building interiors. Designed and painted signature animated loading screen. Worked directly with lead artist to design character classes. Designed, modeled and rendered hi-rez interior environments using 3D Studio MAX for interface graphics. Designed and rendered game interface graphics. I interfaced with the cinematic team contracted to direct them on behalf of NWC to achieve the epic storytelling that our company style demanded.
PIXEL MAGIC: 01/1995 06/1997
Film Restoration: Bambi, Lil Mermaid, Dumbo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fun and Fancy Free, Lady and the Tramp, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, Silly Symphonies, Ol Yeller, Fantasia [Digital Artist] [Domino Computer Operator]
I used a variety of grueling frame-by-frame techniques to restore these Disney classic animated films to near pristine condition. Whether from lack of proper storage and maintenance, mis-handling over the years, or simple decay, most films suffer from aging or abrasion and need to be processed to preserve their place in history. Dust Busting is the process of painting, cloning, or using other more automated methods to remove dirt, pops, flashes and scratches off of an image. Other film defects of aging film such as bad splices, tears, blotches, and even color-faded frames were corrected using high end Quantel Domino computers.

VORTEX MEDIA ARTS: 06/1991 07/1995
Mickeys Christmas Carole online [2D Character Animator] Mickeys the Prince and the Pauperonline [2D Character Animator] Whinny the Pooh and the Blustery Day online [2D Character Animator] Madelines European Adventure, PC 1996, [2D Character Animator] Madelines Puppet Show, PC 1995, [2D Character Animator] The Simpsons Virtual Springfield, [Background Artist] Tonka Construction, [2D Character Animator] This was my first video game job as an animator using D-Paint and Photoshop to create whimsical characters for VMAs AAA client list. Traditional paper animation techniques and digital animation programs were combined to produce the character animation for the online productions of Mickeys Christmas Carole, Mickeys, The Prince and the Pauper, and Whinny the Pooh and the Blustery Day. I handled the digital animation for 2 Madeline titles, and the Tonka Construction title. I was also involved in designing game play and designing levels.

15 June 2007

By: Alexandru Stanescu, Editor, Gaming Reviews (Consoles)
Might and Magic IX Exploit (PC)
Get a head start in this great RPG
Might and Magic IX is a computer role-playing game developed for Microsoft Windows by New World Computing. It was the first installment of the Might and Magic series to feature a significant game engine overhaul since 1998's Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven. Powered by the Lithtech 1.5 engine, it was also the first game in the series to feature fully three-dimensional graphics. During production, it was known by the working title of Might and Magic IX: Writ of Fate. The game's story takes place following the destruction of the world of Enroth and [admark=1]Erathia, the location of Might and Magic VI through Might and Magic VIII, as depicted in Heroes of Might and Magic IV.Might and Magic IX features a party of four player characters, each of whom is selected at the start of the game. Each character has six statistical attributes: might, magic, endurance, accuracy, speed, and luck, and the number of points assigned to each attribute is based upon the race of the character: three of the four available races have both a strong attribute, which reduces the cost of advancement in that area by half and a weak attribute, which doubles the cost of advancement in that area. Exploit - Starter's ChestWhen you are at the first area when you need to find a way off the island, you can exploit the game to get infinite items. There is a chest in the room where you touch a book to escape the Island. Before you touch that book, take all items, spells, skill books etc. in the treasure chest and go in to the dungeon ruins. Leave the ruins and go back to the chest. It should have respawned the items inside. You can repeat this as many times as you desire to get a slight head start early in the game.
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