Nickname or gaming alias: James

Irrational Title: 3D Artist

Qualifications: I did a CIT (Canberra Institute of Technology) course. That is my only real qualification. Originally I was more interested in special effects in film. Micro Forte, my last employer, they had a job advertised and I thought what the hell and applied and got a job. I sort of fell into the industry.

Previous games worked on: The first game I worked on was Fallout Tactics. Hot Wheels Bash Arena which was a budget game, it turned out all right and was kind of fun.

A white Christmas

Hardest moment in development of any game you have worked on: Creating convincing tiled textures that look good from close up and at a distance. I think that is the hardest challenge, making so is doesn't look like carpet from a distance and making it look decent so it actually looks like it is supposed to look like, is always the hardest challenge for me.

First Gaming system: Commodore 64.

Earliest gaming memories: Space Invaders I used play a lot at the shops.

Favourite game of all time and why: ICO. I really like really ambient sort of games. It was beautiful, it was so polished and everything about it was so well done. It was a very pretty and ambient game, really immersive.

Games currently playing: I don't play many games these days, I am playing a bit of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and a bit of Soul Calibre occasionally.

Home PC rig: Yeah it is a bit old; I haven't updated it for a while.

Console or PC: Console now because I really hate having to download all the drivers and have to figure out how to fix my machine just so I can play a game. I like to put the game in and play it; I don't have a lot of time to screw around with computers.

Single player or multi-player or co-op: Multiplayer games, I really like playing co-op games on console.

Exactly what are you working on day to day, mainly texturing, modelling etc? I am mostly texture, I like texturing, I made that clear and they [Irrational] appreciate that. I only do modelling and texturing, I tend not to touch any of the other stuff like effects or animation. I do a reasonable amount of modelling but mostly texturing.

What programs do you use?
I switch between Photoshop and [3D Studio] Max

What size textures are you working with ?
It really depends on how we want to look at them, the maximum is 1024, for anything major that is going to used a lot like a wall we usually keep it 1024. If memory is getting a bit tight we might drop it down to 512, I always work at 1024 and we scale it down.

Is there a favourite thing that you have done? Like a piece of work in any game that you thought looked really good and you were really proud of.
I am happy with one of the vehicles that I am working on, a flying thing. Fortunately I have been given the fun task of doing the vehicles, which is really good. In each vehicle I learn a lot for doing the last one, the last one I made I was quite happy the way it all turned out. It is interesting looking back at all the vehicles and wishing that I had known what I know now, so I could fix stuff up.

Do you get the chance to go back and fix things up?
We do but things are always moving on and there are always mountains of work to keep on top of. We have very well played out schedules so there will be time later for polishing all your stuff that we weren't quite happy with. I think for me the vehicles are all quiet acceptable, it is all the other stuff that I would prefer to fix up. We will have time later in the schedule.

Do you find it hard to balance your artistic desire to make things perfect and the time factor?
Yeah I do

Do you take things home?
I don't have a good enough computer at home, so if I want to work on it I have to stay back late. Sometimes if I really have to get something good I stay back till 9 or 10[pm]. What I usually do is make sure that I have something that is acceptable. I have developed a system, I have this very systematic phase of procedures which I know I can end up with a result that is quite passable and then once I have all that stuff down then I go into polishing and trying experimental stuff. Once I know it is good enough for the game I start experimenting and trying new stuff.

Do you have a set time that you have to create a texture? For example do you have 5 hours to create a texture for a certain object or do you manage your own time?
Mostly I manage my own time, basically I am given an array of tasks which I might have to complete within 3 weeks. I have to manage that myself, there is no really tight schedule that we have to fit into, it is quite flexible but we do have to try and get that stuff done with in the time period. What usually happens if I am perhaps taking a bit long on one thing then Andrew might come along and talk about how we can speed it up or maybe we can divert my workload a bit. That is usually how it works, it is really quiet flexible.

Do you find it difficult to fit into the aesthetic of the game, is it something that you struggle with at the start and become better at as time goes on? Or is it something you picked up naturally?
Because we have an art director [Ben Lee] it makes it a lot easier. We can basically talk to the art director and he can say what he thinks is wrong with it and what is right with it. He gives us very good style guides and there are lots of illustrations. We pretty much refer to all the art work that has been done before and basically use that to try and fit into the over all style of the game.

Do you often have things rejected for not fitting into the aesthetic?
Well, not rejected.

Do you have to change things?
We regularly have to change things, like right now I am redoing something because it wasn't right in the first place and it was something that was very important to be right so Ben [Lee] got me to redo it. I am pretty much going to be doing it from scratch because it is very important.

Thank-you for your time James.