Tabula Rasa : Illumination - Jim

Hometown
Appleton, Wisconsin

Favorite games
Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker, Knights of the Old Republic, Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters, Resident Evil 2, Call of Duty, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Quake 3, Tron 2.0, and just about any first-person shooter.

Favorite books
I don't read much fiction outside of comics. The Watchmen, Give me Liberty, Martha Washington Saves the World, Death: The High Cost of Living, Akira, Usagi Yo Jimbo, Hellboy, The Authority, Preacher, 100 Bullets, The Waters of Deadmoon, Tank Girl, The Incal, and Metabarons are some of my favorite stories. I also read as many "art of" books, usually related to film or animation, as I can get my hands on.

Favorite movies
The escapism short list would be: The Star Wars Trilogy, Bladerunner, The Dark Crystal, The Fifth Element, Better off Dead, True Romance, Trainspotting, The LOTR Trilogy, Aliens, Superman, Rushmore, Home for the Holidays, The Professional, The Big Lebowski, Spiderman 2, Enter the Dragon, and anything by Hayao Miyazaki.

Favorite bands or songs
Live, Soul Coughing, The Gufs, Luscious Jackson, Foo Fighters, Cake, Nick Cave, Vangelis, Jonatha Brooke, Jamariquai, DJ Shadow, Plaid, Jeff Buckley, Van Halen, No Doubt, The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Rush, Dave Matthews, 1980's pop music and the A-Team theme song.

Favorite quote or personal mantra
"Voilà, the ZF.1. It's light, handle's adjustable for easy carrying, good for righties and lefties, breaks down into four parts, undetectable by x-ray, ideal for quick discreet interventions. A word on firepower, titanium recharger, 3,000 round clip with bursts of 3 to 300, with a Replay button--another Zorg invention--it's even easier. One shot and Replay sends every following shot to the same location. And, to finish the job, all the Zorg oldies but goldies: rocket launcher; arrow launcher, with exploding or poisonous gas heads; our famous net launcher; and, the always efficient flame thrower--my favorite; and, for the grand finale, the all new Ice Cube System."

-Gary Oldman (The Fifth Element)

Previous projects
Ghost Rider 2099, Marvel Comics: What- if?, X-Men Chillers, various White Wolf Games paper RPG's, Transformers: Beast Wars, Daikatana, Deus Ex, Anachronox, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3, Monster Truck Madness (N64), Spiderman (N64), Tony Hawk: Pro Skater (N64), Earth and Beyond, and Will Rock.

Describe your job
Guided by originality in the art direction, production, game design, and within the boundaries of our technology, I work to conceptualize the visual style of Tabula Rasa. Creating concepts for: fashion, fauna, flora, terra and architecture, my job is putting the vision of this world on paper. Watching it all come to life in the game is the best part for me, and my job is essentially creating strange, beautiful, dangerous things every day with amazing people.

How did you get into the industry?
I had been freelancing in illustration, primarily for Marvel Comics and White Wolf Games, since shortly after high school. I was pretty much focused on a career in comics, but my brother began working in video games and was having a blast. I eventually took a tour of his studio in Dallas.Shortly after, he told me about doing conceptual design for games and an open position working with a friend of his at Ion Storm. I jumped at the chance to escape snowy Wisconsin, and have been in love with doing conceptual work ever since.