Tabula Rasa : Illumination - Jonathan

Hometown
Norman , OK

Favorite games
Medal of Honor Series, Rainbow Six series, Ghost Recon, most any tactical shooter. I loved both No One Lives Forever 1 and 2. I enjoyed Warcraft 2 a lot along with Total Annihilation, Dark Reign and recently C&C Generals.

Favorite books
The Diamond Age, Blackhawk Down, Bravo Two Zero, The Killer Angels, Hyperion, Armor, Vampires

Favorite movies
Star Wars Trilogy, most of Arnold's flicks, Romero's zombie trilogy, Blazing Saddles, The Abyss, The Thing, Logan's Run, The Warriors, The Dirty Dozen, The Re-Animator trilogy, Nightmare on Elm Street 1-3, Conan the Barbarian, and yes, Megaforce.

Favorite websites
Fark, Portal of Evil, The Onion, Drudge Report, IMDB, Google, IH8mud.com

Favorite bands or songs
Descendents, Lagwagon, lot's of old (read: late 80's early 90's) hip-hop. Labels that have bands I like: Victory, Hopeless, Ferret, Trustkill, Reprise, Equal Vision, Fat Wreckords.

Previous projects
Ultima VIII, Ultima IX, Ultima Online, some contract stuff on various products, dead projects at dead companies.

Describe your job
I model, texture map, do some animation as required, mostly on environmental architecture and objects, handle some technical pipeline stuff, constant on-the-job learning.

How did you get into the industry?
I was 19 in 1993 and moved to Austin to take an internship at Origin for $5 an hour. It was only supposed to be for the summer, then back to college. They offered me a permanent position at the end of the internship and I took it. Sorry, college!

What do you like most about your job?
As corny as it sounds, I like working with a team. I contracted for about a year and I started to go stir-crazy. Doing your job in your underwear is cool, but I needed to be integrated into a well-run team with all the dynamics and learning that goes with it.

What sources have inspired you?
Movies, books, but mostly the great people I've worked with and the great art I get exposed to.

What tools or software do you use most often?
3DS Max, Photoshop

Describe your current pc and/or tell about your "dream machine."
I have an 1.7gb Athalon, 512mb ram, 80 gig drive, CDRW, DVD, ZIP, GeForce TI 4400 64mb, and a bunch of blue cathodes. Dream machine? Whatever is the latest and fastest while being rock-stable..and it would magically upgrade itself for free...and gold bars would come out..and there'd be a beer tap...mmmmm.beer...