Q: What is your job at Harmonix?

A: My job at Harmonix is that of a UI Artist. I mainly design the art and animation on the menu systems and screen select areas of the game. My job is to bring the classic look and feel of rock-n-roll into our game and make it kick total ass with some of my artwork.

Q: How long have you worked at Harmonix?

A: I started at the end of April 2006, and was placed into the concept and mechanics of the track system. Basically I helped out in getting things running correctly on the track system and tried coming up with new ways of making our game awesome. Throughout Rock Band's development I also worked lightly on GH2 360 build adding new hi-res textures .

Q: How did you get into the video game industry?  What is your background?

A: I graduated from Ringling School of Art and Design with a major in Illustration. I ended up
getting a job at a small edutainment game developer in Canton Connecticut animating on Fisher Price type games. It sucked, but I realized I was gaining the experience that I was going need to get a better job even though I was animating Barbie and Friends.

I kept at it and continued to paint on the side just to improve my painting techniques. I did that for about 4 years before I left for New York City to give it shot as a Illustrator. I found out the hard way that making a living as a illustrator in NYC is hard as ****, especially when you are up against the best of the best. I started to take on any work to keep my head above the water. I ended up scoring a job at MTV as an inker slowly moving into animation and design. I slowly jumped around from studio to studio working on animated commercials to television shows for another 8 years.

During that time I took lot of crap. I mean tons of it. But during the workloads I was nominated for a day-time Emmy for the work that I was doing. That was a cool bonus!

Q: Who are some of the artists whose work influenced you?

A: I'm a big fan of Mark Ryden, Jeff Soto, Shepard Fairey, and Peter Michail (the Flash Master)...that's
just a few. I was college roommates with Scott Sinclair and Shawn Robertson of Bioshock fame, So a lot of my progression and inspiration in illustration came from both of these guys.

Q: What is the coolest part of your job?

A: Getting paid to paint and animate my stuff. I always hoped to have my paintings in a gallery and have some of my animated stuff included in my body of work. Here at Harmonix, I'm getting paid to make my stylized paintings come to life through animation and design. It's pretty rad because it's really the best of both worlds for me as an artist.

Q: What is the hardest part?

A: Trying to envision what the non-visions can't vision. Basically trying to create something that someone else is thinking and getting it right in a couple of times.

Q: How does a drawing start for you?

A: It really depends on what I'm working on. For our game, I try and think of the spirit of rock-n-roll
and what that means for me as a artist. I tend to rough out my designs in Flash on my Wacom monitor, this helps cut down time in scanning and running around setting stuff up. I brainstorm a lot with reference books and internet images for help on the design direction. A lot of the work I put into the game was a reflection of all the cool black light posters I had growing up as a kid. This was a huge inspiration for the look and feel of the shell for Rock Band.

Q: What is the process?

A: Basically I kind of had to re-learn the way 2D things animate in a 3D world. This was the biggest thing for me to understand as a animator. The way things are set up in our game system, I needed to find a way to bring over my traditional animation skills and apply them in a very unique way and make it work. Tons of trial and error.

Q: How would you describe the look of your work?

A: Dark and surreal with just a touch of Gary Coleman. I have been trying to do my own thing and get
inspired from everyday life. The ornate design work I have been doing in the game has floated over into my everyday work and vice versa. That's the cool part about bringing your own style into the game...it's awesome to share the designs in both of my art endeavors.

Q: Will you design Melissa's tattoo?

A: Yes if time permits. Does she still want the ornate "THUG LIFE" stomach tat with the eagle grabbing the letters?

Q: When you were a little kid did you color inside or outside the lines?

A: Mainly outside of the lines. I think it had something to do with my characters being engulfed in
flames while running and screaming.