As Art Director on the Sims Delivery Express team, I focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives within The Sims franchise, expanding our Base Game and creating new opportunities for storytelling and authentic representation.

I stepped into the role of Craft Director to empower my teammates and represent the Environment Team at a leadership level through risk assessments, staffing plans, removing roadblocks, and advocating for the needs of my team.

One of the great things about being a World Builder on The Sims 4 is being able to approach level creation from a Design perspective. Building upon many years of Environment Art experience, I worked to become familiar with how our players interact with the environments, what the possibilities and expectations are for gameplay, and collaborate with Art Direction, Design, Production, and Tech Art to create outstanding Environments that are beautiful, enjoyable and performant.

A short contract period at Maxis, prior to being converted to full-time.

Working at a startup means wearing many hats, and Super Evil Megacorp was no exception. Being there at the inception, I had a hand in guiding the aesthetic of the environment. Vainglory was developed for the mobile device platform, where players would be in direct contact with their screens, tapping and sliding to control their characters. We sought to evoke this tactile experience with the aesthetic and created a unique look for a MOBA with rich textural quality, vibrant hues, and bold lighting. As SEMC grew, so did my responsibilities. I created a staffing plan, interviewed and hired several Environment Artists, trained the artists on the pipeline and proprietary engine, onboarded an outsourcing studio, and had direct oversight of the direction and feedback for the creation of the second, larger 5v5 level.

At Sanzaru, my role was focused on Texture Painting. Here I was able to push and refine my hand painted texture skills, and found my niche in the hand-painted style of Sly Cooper. I worked on a few other titles as well, including a found object title with a slightly more realistic style and an open world FPS title, with a very gritty, textural style.

At Backbone, I had the opportunity to work on many different titles, with a variety of art styles, pipelines and performance constraints. The titles ran the gamut from Nintendo DS to XBox. I was able to impress with the speed and fidelity of my assets, my drive and focus as an individual contributor, and my ability to inspire and guide others, and I quickly moved up from Junior Artist to Lead ArtistSome of the Titles I worked on at Backbone were:Commando 3 Wolf of the Battlefield - XBox 360 & Playstation 31942: Joint Strike - XBox 360 & Playstation 3Gauntlet - Nintendo DSRock Band 3 - Nintendo DSRock Band Unplugged - PSPLego Rock Band - Nintendo DSMechAssault: Phantom War - Nintendo DS

During my stint at Tiburon, I learned a great deal and expanded my knowledge of game development. I had the opportunity to work both as a Texture Artist, where I leveled up my painting skills, and as an Environment Artist, where I learned about the Playstation and PSP pipeline, technical limitations and learned to match the existing style of the Madden Franchise.I was only at Tiburon for a very short time. On opportunity opened up and I chose to move on. I still value the connections I made there and the wealth of experience I gained even in such a short time at a studio.

Mythic Entertainment was my first job at a game studio, and I’m forever grateful to them for taking achance on me. I learned much during my time there, and it served as the foundation for the rest of my career. It was my first introduction to the world of MMO’s, open world environment creation, and working with a development team. I worked on several Dark Age of Camelot expansion packs, including the Trials of Atlantis, New Frontiers and Catacombs.

I had the opportunity to teach a Continuing Education Course entitled - Motion Graphics: Adobe After Effects, which covered the fundamentals of creating motion graphics for television, film and streaming services. It was a great opportunity, and I was invited back the following semester, but decided that it was too much of a distraction from my studies.