About Me
3D artist with over 10 years experience
Looking for a 3D freelance artist? Contact me and tell me about your project.
My name is Ben Mathis and I'm an experienced 3D freelance artist. I've been working in the game industry since 2003. I've contributed to eleven shipped titles in the game industry, and one feature film as a modeler and lighting artist.
I've also worked for several years in conjunction with different toy companies to make digital sculpts that have been turned into toys. I've worked for numerous studios both in-house and remote.
I specialize in creating characters, animals, weapons, and vehicles, for any generation of system, though I've also contributed to level design, lighting, and compositingI also create training material and pipeline enhancement.
I enjoy coming up with new tools and processes, and then sharing them with the rest of my team. When possible, I also enjoy showing those results to the rest of the world, so that the video game industry as a whole can benefit and move forward with better art.
For more info check out my LinkedIn profile.
Contact Info
Ben Mathis
Email: bjmfoto@gmail.com
Shipped Titles
Ghost Recon 2
Remote, modeled one high poly weapon for the in game cinematics. PS2, Xbox
BloodRayne 2
In-house, modeled and textured numerous in game characters and environment props. PS2, Xbox, PC
Dark Age of Camelot
Catacombs Expansion: In-house, modeled and textured the majority of the new player hairs and hats. PC
Fate
Remote, modeled and textured a player pet, and one monster. PC
GUN
In-house, modeled, textured, and rigged four in game characters, one cinematic character. PS2, Xbox, GC, PC, PSP, Xbox 360
Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
Remote, modeled and textured two in game statues. PC, Xbox 360
Rise of Legends
Remote, created one in game character that was used in promotional material and E3 demo. PC
Titan Quest
Remote, created NPC's for early prototypes of the game. PC
Tony Hawk Project 8
In-house, Numerous character assets, helped create skin shader PC, 360, PS3, PS2, Xbox
Hellgate London
Remote, Created several in game statues, plus accessories for an NPC. PC
The Settlers 7 (Paths to a Kingdom)
In-house, ground textures, vegetation, animals, level design and creation. PC
Legends of Valhalla
Thor: In-house, modeling, lighting, and compositing. Feature film
Hungry Sharks Evolution
Remote, modeling and texturing the majority of the character assets and pickups. iOS and Android
Lazytown Series 3
In-house, modeling, lighting, compositing, 2D animation, motion tracking. Television series
Industry Experience
Modeler and Lighting Artist at Lazytown Entertainment
Lazytown is a kid´s show made in Iceland. Real sets and actors are filmed on greenscreen, and the sets extended and special effects added in post. I was brought on for the final two months of production to finish various shots and background plates. I did traditional 2D animation, matte painting, set extension, digital prop addition into live plates, motion tracking, and helped some of the outsourcers with technical requirements.
Contract Artist for Future Games of London (FGOL)
Future Games of London is a mobile game developer. They have shipped several versions of Hungry Sharks using only 2D assets, and their latest version was to be done all in 3D. I created the majority of the main character sharks, human characters, treasure pickups, and shark customization items.
Modeler and Lighting Artist at CAOZ Hf
The first half of production I modeled several high resolution characters and props used in the film. The second half I lit numerous scenes, managed the renders, and did the compositing of those same scenes.
Contract Artist for McFarlane Toys
Responsible for creating highly detailed, water-tight meshes for use in creating toys. The majority of my contributions have been for the Halo toy line, where I receive in game low poly models with textures, and must create a more detailed version for mold making purposes.
Level Artist at Blue Byte Gmbh
As a level artist I created multiple tiling ground textures used on every level by the proprietary editor. In addition designed and finalized art on one full level in the game, as well as arted a gameplay final level from another designer.
Technical Artist at CCP Games
Technical artist contributing in the area of characters for the upcoming expansion for Eve Online, Ambulation.
Contract Artist for Flagship Studios
Helped remotely to create several in game statues, and create portions of an NPC variation.
Character Artist at Neversoft Entertainment
Character artist for GUN a new wild west game from Neversoft due out Q4 of 2005.
Contract Artist for Big Huge Games
Helped remotely to create an in game character with diffuse/normal/specular maps. Character was used in promotional material and in game cinematics, as well as the E3 2005 demo of Rise of Legends.
Character Artist at Mythic Entertainment
Character artist for Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs expansion. Various character art on the expansion.
Contract Artist for Streamline
Modeled high resolution weaponry for the cinematic's of Ghost Recon 2. I created several gun models in the 100,000+poly range and UV mapped them.
Character Art on MTV
MTV decided to create an Evanescence video using the characters from Bloodrayne 2. One of my characters, the "shadow legion" played drums for the video. The video played the month of November, 2004.
Character artist at Terminal Reality
Character Artist for Blood Rayne 2. We use normal maps and full color Specular maps. I create Character Models as well as Physique them, and rig their facial animations. I am also helping the animators for the animations. I know how to work with motion capture, as well as animate from scratch.
Contract Artist for Ironlore Entertainment
Contracted to model characters, including specular maps, and hi-poly models for baked normal maps. I also was responsible for rigging my own characters.
Contract Artist for Sony Online Entertainment
Contracted to model environment assets for an unannounced title.
Junior Artist at Warthog Texas
I modeled environments, characters, and carryables; off of concept sketches. We are using normal mapping technology, so I am familiar with the process of generating normal maps.
Accolades (awards, frontpages, interviews)
Ten Ton Hammer Interview (video)
Maxon 3d Attack interview and that months magazine cover.
UAT Interview and Lecture Photo
Russian Interview #2 and Photo
Russian Interview #1 and Photo
Gamasutra Frontpage: Featured Artist
Teaching and Conference Experience
IADT Detroit: Interfaces Conference
Gave a lecture on creating believable material types, and general industry experience. Attendance was around fifty students, and I also participated in a portfolio review of student's work.
GDC 2010
Maxon asked me to do a demo using Bodypaint at GDC. The lecture was off-site, at the W Hotel right across from the convention center, in a large conference room. 60 or so people attended, and several let the Maxon representative know they enjoyed the information presented. I covered using Bodypaint to create next-gen materials and textures.
GDC Online 2008
Maxon asked me to do a demo using Bodypaint at GDC. This was on-site as a sponsored lecture. 60-70 people attended. I covered using Bodypaint to create next-gen materials and textures.
Demontfort University
Demontfort University in Leicester, England flew me in for a week long workshop and a lecture on Creativity in Gaming. The workshop covered next-gen asset creation, general portfolio tips, and industry Q&A. There were about 45 students during the workshop, which was four sessions of six hours each, and there were about 60 people present in the creativity lecture.
University of Advancing Technology
I taught a total of four different remote classes. Each class has 18 students, and I'm in charge of all teaching and grading aspects. As part of UAT's Tech Forum, in Phoenix, AZ, I gave an hour long lecture on "Next-Gen Asset Production". I covered my workflow in creating a character using digital sculpting, post-work for fine details, and creating a diffuse, normal, and specular map that all work together. It was followed by a Q&A session. There were about sixty students in attendance of my lecture
Virginia Commonwealth University
I was asked to lecture at VCU, which is where I attended college my freshman year. I gave a general overview of strategies to follow while in school to prepare for the job market, as well as to prepare a quality portfolio. The session was held in an open Q&A style where the students were encouraged to ask questions throughout the presentation which guided the direction of it. There were about thirty students in attendance.
Carnegie Melon: Entertainment Technology Center
I was asked into the ETC to lecture on Normal maps and general industry experience. A Q&A session was also included to allow the students to guide the lecture.
Art Institute of Pittsburgh
I was asked into the A.I. of Pittsburgh to lecture on Normal maps and general industry experience. Over one-hundred students attended.
Art Institute of Washington D.C.
I was asked into the A.I. of D.C. on four separate occasions. The first two were for a multi-part lecture, the first was on modeling and UVing, and the second was on texture painting. My third visit was to speak to a visiting group of high school students interested in majoring in game art, and the fourth visit was a general lecture on normal mapping and high poly workflow.
Seattle Games Conference
Seattle Games Conference invited me to sit on two panels. I shared the panel with producers from Oberon and Obliss, Head engineer of SOE, a manager from Valve Software, and a representative from Mary Margaret. I sat on the Transferable skills panel, and the Resume Workshop panel. There were about 400 people in attendance.
Digipen Institute of Technology
I gave a three hour lecture covering general game art principles, general game art theory, and self promotion. I talked about how to get the most out of your education while in school, and how to get a job in your chosen field. There were about 40 people in attendance.
Full Sail Real World Education
Full Sail flew me in for a day and had me give a two hour lecture on general game art theory, and a Q&A session on the industry. There were about 50 people in attendance.