ABOUT ME
 
Here you can learn a little bit more about me, including information about my background, education, and projects I have worked on.

 

PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS 12.12.08
 
DAMNATION - BLUE OMEGA OCT 2007 - DECEMBER 2008
 

Damnation represents the first professional forray into gaming by Blue Omega Entertainment, who won the Make Something Unreal contest with Damnation the mod some years prior. Damnation is "shooter gone vertical" built on the Unreal 3 Engine and completed almost entirely using outsourcing studios, including Liquid Development.

This was my first full time project back at Liquid following my stint in Basic Training and I continued working on it along with other projects for over a year. Initially, and for much of the time, I was a Visual Effects Artist, later graduating to Effects Manager. I also did some animation and skybox work, along with an extended period of AI scripting as the project wrapped up.

 

BORDERLANDS - GEARBOX SPRING 2008
 

Borderlands is a sci-fi co-op shooter set on a far off planet currently in development by Gearbox Software. Liquid Development completed a substantial amount of asset production and a limited run of visual effects.

I began work on Borderlands as an Effects Artist and later graduated to Effects Manager at the same time as I did on Damnation.

 

OTHER PROJECTS 2007 - 2008
 

While at Liquid Development I also filled multiple short term roles on a number of other projects:

Warhawk - Incognito Games: Building LOD Modeler

Aliens: Colonial Marines - Gearbox Software: Character Animator

Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway - Gearbox Software: Texture Artist

 

UNNANNOUNCED PROJECTS 2008
 

In addition to the projects mentioned above, I was also a Visual Effects Artist, Effects Art Manager, and AI Scripter on three differant unnannounced projects.

 

ABOUT ME 12.12.08
 

I was born and raised in Oregon in 1983. Since a young age I have had a love of video games which started with the NES and extended through all the major consoles. In my most recent years, I have struggled with my love and appreciation for all games PC with the platforms inherent strengths, versus the console's casual ease with which software "just works" on it without hassel

Besides gaming all my life, I studied martial arts (Wu Ying Tao) for a number of years, eventually leading to an assistant instructor position with Northwest Martial Arts and, when a new branch opened, I was the primary instructor for the first nine months of its operation. Additionally I wrestled for two years in high school and then studied Jujitsu at American Freestyle Academy for a short time after that. I also enjoyed a year of rock climbing and look forward to opportunities to pick it up again.

My father is a UNIX systems administrator and I anticipated, growing up, that I would follow fairly closely to his career choices and theat I would end up studying Computer Science or a similar field in college. As a result I have ended up with a strong technical upbringing, especially in regards to logical process of thought. My subsequent decision to attend an art school has resulted in my understanding both the artistic aspects of production as well as the technical and has proved especially useful in working between artists and programmers as well as coming up with technically based solutions to artist demands.

At the begginning of 2007 I made the choice to persue something very differant from my professional career, but something I had considered for a long time. I joined the United States Army Reserve. I spent two and a half months, starting in March, at Fort Jackson in South Carolina for Basic Combat Training. After that, I completed Advanced Individual Training at the Quartermaster School in Fort Lee, VA, finishing up in July. I am now attached to the 396th Combat Support Hospital Reserve Unit stationed in Vancouver, WA. It was a decision that I worried might adversely affect my proffessional life in the games industry, but one I am ultimately glad I made.

 

EDUCATION 07.17.06
 

After graduating high school in 2002, I enrolled at the Art Institute of Portland and began attending that Fall. Originally enrolled the Media Arts and Animation program, focused on 3D work for films and similar media, I changed majors as soon as the Game Art and Design program became available.

My education is grounded in traditional art. I have studied and worked with traditional drawing (pencil, pen, charcoal), worked with clay sculpture, and studied the human anatomy and movement. Additionally, I have studied traditional forms of electronic presentation such as video, sound design, 2D animation, web design, and graphic design.

My work in 3D was focused around animation for the majority of my time at the Art Institute, though I took many classes on modeling, texturing, and other aspects of a 3D pipeline. Over the last year of my education I have focused more heavily on the technical aspects of production. Initially this began with character rigging and has since expanded to working on the production pipeline, game engine investigation, and art implementation in a game production

I graduated from the Art Institute of Portland in March of 2006 with a BS in Game Art and Design.

 

SCHOOL PROJECTS 12.12.08
 
TWENTY 84 WINTER 2006
 

Twenty84 was a one term project on the Half-Life 2 engine. It was a single player mod involving 20 students as well as a graduate of the school. The project was rapidly produced in only 12 weeks.

I filled the roll of Technical Director on this project and was responsible for character rigging, investigating the Source engine, developing the production pipeline, and implementing models, characters, animations, and textures into the mod.

 

DISSIDENT AGRESSOR FALL 2005
 

Started during the second half of Afflicted, Dissident Agressor was a project put together by a few students to counter the short comings of the game project in terms of quality, style, and content. It was a two minute video designed as an intro or "To Be Continued..." cinematic for a project that would later evolve into the mod Twenty84.

The team for this project consisted of seven people. One character modeler, one set modeler, and five animators. From the pool of animators came additional work including textures, models, and concept art.

In addition to animating for this project I was also the character rigger, in charge of establishing the production pipeline, integrating dynamics, and establishing the rendering process. In all I rigged a vehicle and seven characters for the project.

 

AFFLICTED SUMMER/FALL 2005
 

Afflicted was a school developed project, a collaberation of eighteen people, two classes a term, for two terms (about 6 months). The project was a single player, total convesion of Unreal Tournament 2004.

I officially played the role of Lead Animator on this project. Halfway through the first term I had also taken over the responsibilities of character rigging on the team. I also took on the task of setting up the in-game cinematics as well as some level design as the project came to a close.

 

All work, unless otherwise noted, is the sole property of Geoffrey Rich.
No work may be posted on other sites or used without permission unless otherwise noted.
You may contact me by e-mail at any time.