I’m an animator who has worked professionally within the video games industry for the past 26 years. I’ve worked on many titles over this period spanning many genres and have experience with many gaming platforms and technologies.
I feel quite privileged to have had professional hands-on experience working with some of the era defining, classic technologies of video gaming over the past 2 decades, from creating sprite based character animation for Doom style engined shooters through to modern day high-end blockbuster mocap driven character work and I am excited more than ever to see where it will go in the next 2 decades with technologies such as VR and AR now ‘finally’ within our grasp.
I’m also a game junkie.. I love all things ‘video games’ and have done since my early childhood experiencing Scott Adams ‘Adventure’ on a friends Vic-20. I later acquired my own computer in the shape of the then powerful Sinclair Spectrum 48k (thanks Clive, you are Legend) and spent one of the best Christmas’s ever laid on the carpet in front of the living room TV glued to Matthew Smiths master-piece Jet Set Willy; but it wasn’t until I saw Ultimate’s ‘Knight Lore’ in a small computer shop in my home town of Halifax (West Yorkshire) that I truly became hooked.. Myself and 2 friends pooled all the money we had, including bus fare, to buy the game and then walked the 6 miles home at break-neck speed to get the game loaded.
I later discovered the newly flourishing PC gaming scene whilst at the University of Bradford when a certain ground breaking game called ‘Doom’ appeared on the campus network.. it was free :O but better still it was 3D AND Virtual reality (at least it was as VR as anything prior back then).. it also had demons and shotguns and you could set up the LAN so you and your friends could all join in.. (Thanks ID, you are Legend).
ID Software’s seminal title was the catalyst to launch me down the road on a career in video games.