After twenty years experience in the art department, I find myself in a unique position that combines the desire to Create with a fascination of mathematics and logic.
I manage technical art teams usually comprising VFX artists, animators, lighting artists and rendering specialists as well as maintaining my own production workload.
Here are some examples of my production technical art from various game projects.
◘ Manager of a central team providing technical art for 3 studios
◘ Specialist in rendering techniques for realtime graphics
◘ Designing and implementing art pipelines for console and mobile projects
◘ Prolific experience with multiple game engines including Unreal and Unity
◘ Familiar with Agile scrum and Free-To-Play production methods
◘ Art Dept. Hardware/Software and colour policy management
◘ Former lecturer for 3D animation at Solent University
◘ Presented a talk at Siggraph 2015 as part of the mobile graphics seminar
◘ Implementation of Geomerics Enlighten within an internal game engine
◘ Member of a multiplatform Engine development team
◘ Augmented reality experience
◘ Part of the team responsible for fast, high quality graphics on mobile in F1:2016
A selection of some of my shader techniques. The work is either personal or from abandoned or prototype titles.
A mobile conversion of codemasters F1 2016 to be released shortly after the Console product. Created in XGS engine using our racing technology for Android and IOS. I personally provided art pipeline support and shader creation. Highlights include the vehicle rendering system, Environment management tools, and key environmental shaders.
I lead the Creative services team on this project, consisting of VFX, lighting, Shaders and technical art
Based on early project consultations and in conjunction with the engine programming team, we made the decision to refactor the rendering system to support Geomerics Enlighten. I was also responsible for the fur rendering system, art pipeline support and the majority of shaders in the game
A particular challenge was to render fur on up to 8 characters simultaneously on iPhone5S or comparible devices. Early tests showed that while the devices could support traditional shell based hair rendering the biggest bottleneck was limited support for the number of skinned vertices required for multiple shells on multiple characters.
I Lead the creative services team providing visual polish for this title developed in XGS engine. I was personally responsible for Lighting and shader design.
Developed by Exient using our proprietary game Engine. I worked as Lead technical artist
Developed by Exient using our proprietary game Engine. I worked as Lead technical artist for this atmospheric, noire inspired Playstation wonderbook game. Working in conjunction with Sony UK and the US animation house, Moonbot studios I was responsible for the shaders and rendering for all the levels. Key points were the Bookfolding animations, Wonderbook projection, lighting and incidental gameplay effects work.
An original game developed using Exient's proprietry game engine in just 6 months. Intended as a sequel to NFS:Nitro but rebranded as Hot Pursuit for marketing reasons. I lead the art team and developed the Dubai tracks and environment art pipeline.
Responsible for managing the creation and conversion of all art assets for Wii and Ps2. Liaised with the clients at Freestyle Games and Activision to successfully create a faithful reproduction of the products HD platform visuals.
Showcase of scripts developed for various project pipelines in 3d Studio Max
About me....
I'm a veteran game developer with a career history that has spanned most genres and platforms.
I have experience in many art disiplines including characters, vehicles, environments, animation and art direction. I'm at my happiest when helping artists and programmers to work together to create something special.
A technical artist in the truest sense of the role, I write shaders, create tools, and push graphics engines to the limit to solve realtime performance issues and artistic problems.
"Simon is a very capable technical artist with a good understanding of shader languages and modern lighting models."
Jason Fielder
Technical Director Exient Ltd
"Simon is one of the most knowledgeable and talented artists I've know, his dedication and experience are second to none."
Steven Huckle
Art Director Exient Ltd
"His talent as a technical artist is formidable. A great artist and rare find!"
Lee Bamber
Founder at The Game Creators
Based in Southampton UK
Contact me via Linkedin
