Thomas Hamilton

714-277-5003 | Middleton, WI

Objective: Seeking a Senior Artist position in a creative and energetic environment with people who are passionate about making games. I want to pass on what I have learned in my 11 years of experience in the industry, and continue to learn alongside a staff of my peers. I not only love to create inspiring environments, but take great pride in my technical problem solving skills and ability to help others optimize their artwork for the rigorous demands of console development.

Software: Maya | 3D Studio Max | MudBox | SpeedTree | Lightwave | Photoshop | MEL(C++) | Radient | After Effects | AlienBrain | Perforce | Premiere | Vegas | CrazyBump | Xnormal | RoadKill | Mental Ray | ZBrush trainingin progress

Skills:

-Multi-Platform Console development-Management experience-Scrum Project Management

-High to Low poly Normal Transfer-Organic & Architectural Modeling-Texture Artist/UV Mapping

-Baked & Real-time Lighting-Image Based Lighting -Material & Shader Creation

-MEL scripting-Technical Problem Solving-Strong Traditional Art Background

Experience:

Raven Software (Activision/Blizzard) Middleton, WI Oct 2011- Present

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DLC (Maya/Max)

  • Senior Environment Artist
  • Environment art level team lead.

______

Double Helix Games/Foundation 9 Entertainment Irvine, CA Oct 2007-Sept 2011

Battleship(X360/PS3/PC) (Maya)

  • CG Supervisor & Lead Environment Artist:
  • Created 2 full production levels.
  • Modeled and textured the majority of all organic terrain, architectural structures, and set props.
  • Created texture and material sets. Established and refined level lighting and postFX.
  • Utilized speedtree to create a lush optimized forest.
  • Constructed and transferred normal maps for primary fps weapon and set props.
  • Mentored and managed junior/mid level artists.
  • Optimized levels for memory and framerate.
  • Worked closely with art director to establish and maintain the artistic vision.
  • Worked closely with lead graphics programmer to ensure optimal art creation, improvement of art creation techniques, advancement of our renderer, and collaborated in bug fixing and optimization.

Front Mission: Evolved(X360/PS3/PC published 2010 Square Enix) (Maya/Edward)

  • Lead Environment Artist:
  • Created 3 full production levels.
  • Mentored and managed a team of 10 artists.
  • Modeled and textured organic terrain, architectural structures, and set props.
  • Created texture and material sets. Established level lighting and postFX.
  • Constructed high poly meshes and transferred normal maps for set props.
  • Instigated and lead a quality initiative for a struggling project. Personally reworked hundreds of assets across the game, improved postFX and lighting across almost all levels, put on training art clinics for the art team, and optimized every level for framerate and memory.

G.I. Joe : The Rise of Cobra (X360/PS3/Wii/PS2/PSP published 2009 EA) (Maya/Max/Edward)

  • Lead Environment Artist:
  • Created 3 full production levels
  • Mentored and managed a team of 10 artists
  • Modeled and textured organic terrain, architectural structures, set props, vehicles, and weapons
  • Created level textures, materials, level lighting, and postFX.
  • Constructed high poly meshes and transferred normal maps for set props, vehicles, and weapons.
  • Established the art production practices to ensure the day and date delivery of a 5 SKU project in 16 months on a completely new engine.
  • Optimized many levels beyond my own for memory and performance.

______

Shiny Entertainment Newport Beach, CA Nov 2006-Oct 2007

The Golden Compass (X360/PS3/PC/Wii/PS2/PSP published 2007 Sega) (3DS Max/Edward)

  • Senior Environment Artist:
  • While still employed by The Collective, I worked as a Senior Artist for our sister company, Shiny Entertainment. I served as Technical Advisor to facilitate the collaboration and cross-company sharing of tools and technology in preparation for their eventual merger.

______

The Collective Newport Beach, CA Jan 2003-Nov 2006

The Da Vinci Code (PS2/Xbox/PC published 2006 TakeTwo) (Maya/SlayEd)

  • Lead Environment Artist:
  • Created 3 full production levels.
  • Mentored and managed a team of 6 artists.
  • Modeled textured complex architectural structures like Gothic cathedrals & numerous set props.
  • Established level lighting and ambient effects.
  • Created the level texture sets.
  • Devised a proprietary method of utilizing real-time lights to cast pixel perfect multi-colored light from stained glass windows on a PS2.
  • Optimized many levels beyond my own for memory and performance.

Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith (PS2/Xbox published 2005 LucasArts) (Maya/SlayEd)

  • Senior Environment Artist:
  • Created 4 full production levels
  • Modeled and textured architectural structures, set props, and vehicles.
  • Established level lighting, ambient effects, level and prop textures.
  • Created and set up technically complex gameplay assets. (e.g. Doors that your lightsaber could cut through or exploding star destroyers.)
  • Trained both The Collective LucasArts staff on our tools, in optimized art creation techniques.
  • Optimized many levels beyond my own for memory and performance.

______

CinemawareBurlingame, CA Sept 2002-Jan 2003

Defender of the Crown (PS2 published 2003 Capcom) (3DS Max)

  • Environmental Artist/Lighter:
  • Created various props and textures.
  • Designed, modeled, lit, and texturedlayered skydomes.
  • Lighting for 4 levels.

______

Page 44 Studios San Francisco, CA April 2001-Sept 2002

Freekstyle (PS2/GameCube published 2002 EA) (Maya)

  • Environmental Artist/Level Designer:
  • Created 3 full production levels.
  • Modeled and textured organic terrain, architectural structures, and set props.
  • Setup collision detection. Optimize polycount for framerate.
  • Manage bit depth, resolution, and quantizers for optimal texture compression.
  • Wrote over 20 proprietary MEL scripts to maximize workflow for the artists, and to ease the integration of our assets into the game engine.

______

Communities.com Cupertino, CA Sept 2000-Feb 2001

Project Passport (Online Visual Chat) (Lightwave)

  • Artist:
  • Designed, created, and lit pre-rendered 3d environments for a visual chat system.
  • Integrated 3d into 2d web based graphics

______

Jordan Valley Park Springfield, MO Nov 1999-Jun 2000

JVP Visualization Project (3D Architectural Reconstruction) (Lightwave)

  • Art/Technical Director:
  • Created a 3d visualization animation of downtown Springfield, Missouri.
  • Devised a proprietary universal scaling system based on aerial photographs to ensure architectural accuracy.
  • Triangulated building heights, captured scene reference textures, worked from professional project blueprints.
  • Worked with city officials, professional engineers, and architects.
  • Upon completion was required to speak before the mayor and city council to receive final approval before visualization was released to the public.

______

Awards: Summa Cum Laude graduate, Phi Eta Sigma Honors, Golden Key Honor Society, 10 semesters on Dean’s List, National Honor Society, Honor’s Diploma, Freshman Academic Scholarship, Academic Letter, and Seals of Excellence in Math, English, and Foreign Language.

Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts, May 2000, Cumulative 3.91 GPA, Summa Cum Laude

MissouriStateUniversity, Springfield, MO. References available upon request.

1
Thomas Hamilton