Ben Mathis - resume

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About me:

My name is Ben Mathis and I'm 26 years old. I've been working in the game industry since 2003. I've contributed to ten shipped titles, and worked for numerous studios both in-house and remote. I specialize in creating characters, animals, weapons, and vehicles, for any generation of system. I 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. I'm a fast worker, knowledgeable and constantly learning, as well as experienced.

I'm currently working as a freelance artist, roaming about the globe. I'm available primarily for remote work, but I can sometimes be bolted down for short periods to help a studio come up with a solid pipeline for their project. Be it bringing an entire team into a new technology pipeline, or optimizing an existing pipeline. I'm also able to provide extensive documentation to ensure the process is repeatable by current artists, and to be used in training new hires.

Shipped Titles:

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: Numerous character assets, helped create skin shader used on all characters in-game PC, 360, PS3, PS2, Xbox
Hellgate London : Created several in game statues, plus accessories for an NPC. PC

Industry Experience:

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 hi 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 model 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)

Teaching and Conference Experience

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'm currently a remote teacher for UAT, teaching two full time classes each semester. 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.