It seemed a huge step backwards from what I was used to, even if many of
the tools it had were pretty advanced.
3ds max has been slow to integrate necessary features, and its reliance on
plug-ins can be a blessing and a curse; but it's still the best all-around pack-
age for what I do. Although it does very few things brilliantly, it does almost
everything pretty well.
Q: How did you get in with LucasArts and Totally Games?
A: I worked for a long-gone division of the Lucas empire called Rebel Art &
Technology. They did location-based attractions and theme park designs,
but were shut down in a big reorganization in 1990. The heads of the art
departments of the other Lucas companies, ILM (Industrial Light and
Magic) and LucasArts, were kind enough to look at my work to see if they
could use me for any projects. They couldn't at the time, but I found out
about a 3D Star Wars game they were working on at LucasArts called Rebel
Assault. I decided my best shot at getting in with them was to get the same
software they were using and teach myself to use it. Even if the LucasArts
job never happened, I loved working on 3D art and was determined to
switch careers when I felt capable enough to make a living at it.
For six grueling months, I worked during the day as an industrial designer,
and then worked long hours on my 3D portfolio at night. Finally, an open-
ing appeared at LucasArts, and I made my move. I was at the right place at
the right time, and had the right skills. I became the third artist in their
tiny 3D department; most of their products used 2D art at the time.
I worked for five years at LucasArts, until I got pretty burned out on the
place. The company had grown very fast, and the office politics had
become intolerable. I was bored with the kind of work we were getting, and
there was an ongoing systematic purge of all the experienced--meaning
expensive--senior artists like me.
I left LucasArts and lazily freelanced under the name Artbot
(
www.artbot.com
) for a year and a half after that. I don't remember how I
heard about it, but one of the clients I got hooked up with was Totally
Games. Several of them had left LucasArts in the late eighties to start their
own company--then called Peregrine--and had developed the hugely suc-
cessful Star Wars X-Wing series of games. I freelanced for them for a few
weeks, doing some wild TIE-fighter designs for the final game in the series,
X-Wing Alliance. I liked the project and the people there, and I felt
refreshed and ready to dive back into that world, so I went to work at
C
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