Tabula Rasa : Illumination - Victor

Hometown
New Orleans, Louisiana

Favorite games
At the moment: Raven Shield, Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor. I love Chess and PacMan (see Disco below...)

Favorite books
Baltisar y Blimunda, Jose' Saramago; White Spider, Heinrich Herrer; The Civil War, Shelby Foote; A Pattern Language & A Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander; Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson; anything by Russel Banks

Favorite movies
Impossible... but some memorable ones: Killing Zoe, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Royal Tenembaums, goods from Jet Li, Coen Brothers, Atom Egoyan. Das Boot, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Favorite bands or songs
Paulo Conti, Tom Waites, Minor Threat, Thelonious Monk, Pixies, Mel Torme', Led Zeppelin, Astor Piazola, Nino Nardini, Abba, Cat Power, Orb...and I will shamelessly state here and now that I love Disco, and anything I can Karaoke to.

Favorite quote or personal mantra
The obstacle is the path

Previous projects
Ultima Online II, Ultima 9 Ascension, Wing Commander Prophecy, No Remorse... Technosaur!

Describe your job
As Art Director on TR my primary mission is two-fold; part creative, part technical. I am responsible for guiding the art vision for the product. I also hold a fairly technical role in defining and guiding art technologies and our overall production pipeline. In addition to that is the standard list of managerial responsibilities associated with leading an art team of 11 direct reports...hiring, salaries, desk lamps, disputes, schedules, software/hardware purchasing, practical jokes, etc.

What do you like most about your job?
It is highly creative, constantly challenging and tons of fun. I grow and learn every single day, and having a good time at work is a special fortune. I still, on a regular basis am humbled and jazzed by the fact that I am getting paid to be an artist in a highly technical, well respected field.

How did you get into the industry?
Back in the early 90's I was doing metal-smithing and black-smithing, creating sculpture and architectural elements...(read: struggling as an artist :) ) when my friend Elizabeth Pugh mentioned to me over a beer that the place where she worked had an Intern Program and that I should check it out, no experience necessary. So, armed with a roll of drawings, sketches and photos of my work, from life drawing to architectural detail drawings to images of my metal works I plopped them on a table with Whitney Ayres and few others and took a chance. Within a few days I was an Origin employee and on for the ride of my life.

What tools or software do you use most often?
I mostly use our propriety toolset for art asset management as well as world building. Unfortunately I use Excel and Outlook quite a bit as well. Photoshop, ACDSee, Perforce, Flash, la-la-la...