About Me
I was born and raised in Sweden and after being an exchange student in Solon, Ohio, I decided to pursue higher education in the states partly because 3d graphics education was non-existent in Swedish schools at the time.
So in 1994 I ventured to Santa Monica where I attended Santa Monica College, a community college where I did most of my general education.
Being really eager to get into 3d, I went in on a Mac with my room mate and picked up Strata Studio PRO, and started learning outside of school.
In 1997, I transfered to East Tennessee State University, where they had 2 Alias certified instructors and the Advanced Visualization Lab, which had unrestricted student hours, and was jammed packed full of Silicon Graphics O2 workstations.
In 1999, I began my first 3d classes after going through all prerequisite classes, the school had just transitioned away from Power animator to a new product called Maya. When I graduated with my Master Degree 12/2000, I had LIVED and breathed Maya for 2.5 years in that lab.
Shortly after finishing school, I moved back to California and started looking for jobs in the movie industry, but on the road trip back, I stopped by Idol Minds in Boulder, Colorado to say hello to some alumni and check out the company. I was blown away by their work flow and the level of graphics in game and started re-evaluating my goals.
When in California, I landed an interview with Sony Online Entertainment, and was simply floored with what I saw of Everquest 2 that was under development at the time. I managed to get a job as an associate artist working on that game.
The gaming industry was a better fit for me because I really enjoy all aspects of 3d (modeling, lighting, animation, texturing, etc), and in this industry I have been given the opportunity to do it all. I highly enjoy technical problem solving and working out pipeline solutions, but I also thrive in creating art.
In 2003, I left SOE to go work on Vanguard at Sigil Games Online. Sigil was a start up company and I was hired on as a Senior Artist. Vanguard is a 3rd gen. fantasy Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. I thoroughly enjoy this genre because it is such a challenge due to the scope and size of MMORPGs.
I have never been able to settle and just do one thing. I am still given the opportunity to do it all, and while on Vanguard I worked on characters (technical and art), terrain, architectural and object modeling, texturing, lighting, and MEL scripting workflow enhancing tools.
I worked on Vanguard until May, 2010; applying all that we have learned along the way. I’ve come full circle as I am again working for Sony Online Entertainment since Sigil was acquired by SOE in 2007. The last few years, I was lead artist on the Vanguard project.
Today I am identifying, researching and implementing pipelines and workflows at Daybreak Games (formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment). I’ve made the full transition from MEL scripting to object oriented programming with PyMel, PyQt, and Python both inside Maya and outside. I compile my own programs from Python code, all in the name of better pipelines. I’ve definitely veered more towards the tech art side of things and I highly enjoy it. I’ve also created a global pipeline solution for all of SOE Art that I am busy maintaining, updating and iterating upon. After shipping Planetside 2, I went back to Landmark & EQ Next.