JOE W. JING

joewamp@hotmail.com

PROFILE               

Dynamic 10+ year game career as a versatile and creative Lead Designer and Senior CharacterArtist. With a deep understanding of how a game comes together from a “big picture” vantage down to the trenches of detail, contributions include participation and leadership in every stage from pitching new IPs to keeping the team focused and inspired in the often chaotic final stages of the product.

  • Extensive, multi-skilled background garnering great success and respect in team management and building.
  • Outstanding creative problem solver with exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
  • Expert in character creation and direction utilizing cutting-edge technology with incredible attention to detail.
  • Avid gamer still passionate about work, with a track record demonstrating self-motivation and no fear of breaking a sweat or losing sleep for a project.

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Jun 2008 – Present              Cryptic Studios, Los Gatos, CA
SENIOR CHARACTER ARTIST
Game: Champions Online
Key Achievements:

  • Elaborate and unique design (including function, movement, special abilities, weapons, etc), concepts, modeling, normal map generation, and texturing for characters.
  • Insane quantities of character generation – at times up to 15 similar, yet unique characters per week – achieved through asset reuse and focusing on important details.
  • Skill in following concept art or generating assets on-the-fly.

Mar 2007 - Apr 2008            Stormfront Studios, San Rafael, CA
LEAD DESIGNER, LEAD/SENIOR CHARACTER ARTIST
Games: Unannounced 360/PS3 Game, Unannounced 360/PS3 Pitch, The Spiderwick Chronicles
Key Achievements:

  • Smooth transitions to different roles between titles demonstrates recognition achieved for a wide range of possessed skills.
  • Lead Design included directing and managing the team on the creative side of production and all aspects of game design.
  • Interfaced directly with high level producers at the publisher and the creative director at the company to present and hear ideas and direction.
  • Innovated and organized designs for hero abilities, character concepts, button configuration, story, enemies, AI, level objectives, boss battles, puzzles, and sequential events.
  • While hitting high pressure design deadlines, still contributed some of the most important and successful concepts and art, helping drive the art direction for the entire project.
  • Work as Lead and Senior Character Artist included fresh and creative design (function, movement, special abilities, weapons, etc), concept, modeling, normal map generation, and texturing - all utilizing 360/PS3 technology.
  • During all roles, continued to function as a general support CG artist for the Spiderwick game doing extra tasks as time permitted.

Jan 2003 – Nov 2006           3D Realms, Garland, TX
SENIOR CG ARTIST (LEAD CHARACTER ARTIST)
Game: Duke Nukem Forever
Key Achievements:

  • Impressive responsibility as the sole character artist for the majority of employment and created elaborate and unique design (including function, movement, special abilities, weapons, etc), concepts, modeling, normal map generation, and texturing for characters.
  • Limited character outsourcing management, including supplying examples, directions, review, edits, and implementation into the game engine.

Nov 1998 - Dec 2002            Terminal Reality Inc., Lewisville, TX
LEAD DESIGNER
Games: BloodRayne 2, BloodRayne, Blair Witch: Rustin Parr, Nocturne
Key Achievements:

  • Acted in both roles of Creative Director and Lead Designer simultaneously, as the Creative Director role did not exist at the company. Answered directly to the president and executive producer of the company.
  • Interfaced directly with high level producers at the publisher to present and hear ideas and direction.
  • Directed and managed the team on the creative side of production and all aspects of game design.
  • Innovated and organized designs for hero abilities, character concepts, button configuration, story, enemies, AI, level objectives, boss battles, puzzles, and sequential events.
  • Primary screenplay writer for every game except BloodRayne 2. Generated hundreds of pages of screenplay complete with dialogue trees for the adventure style Blair Witch game.
  • While hitting tight design deadlines, still created characters for all projects, including more than 1/3 of all of the characters for BloodRayne.  
  • Finally, also in addition to design tasks, functioned as supporting character animator in BloodRayne, and primary character animator in Blair Witch.

EDUCATION

  • High School Valedictorian (1994)
  • B.A. Graphic Design; Minor: Marketing at The University of North Texas in Denton (1998)

TECHNICAL SKILLS          

  • Expert knowledge in Photoshop 4-CS, 3D Studio Max2.5-9, Zbrush 1-3, Kaldera, Character Studio, Deep UV, Adobe After Effects, Premiere, Freehand 5.5, Word, and Dreamweaver.
  • Intermediate knowledge of V-Ray, Mental Ray, Lightwave, Illustrator, Quark Xpress, Poser, and Mudbox.
  • Basic knowledge of UnrealED