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More PhotosAiD Alum Praises His Education
Posted: 03/05/2008
The following interview with AiD alum Danny Rodriguez can be found on cgchannel.com. He makes some great references to The Art Institute and to Mike Eudy!
"A true ZBrush artist, if there was an Olympus of ZBrush artist I believe Danny Rodriguez would be part of it. His raw talent lead him to work at one of the most prestigious video game companies in the world such as Sony, ID Software, Midway, Epic Games. His background include numerous triple A titles such as Gears of War, unannounced PS3 title from the team that brought you God of War 1 & 2 and currently working on ID’s next big next-gen title ‘RAGE’."
Can you tell us about your education and background, and how you originally got into games?
In the year 2000, I graduated from the Art Institute of Dallas with an associates degree in Computer Animation with an emphasis in 3D modeling/Texturing. Prior to the Art Institute, I was attending San Antonio Community College where I was majoring in fine arts and minoring in math. As a young kid I grew up playing the atari. The first game I played was E.T., but it wasn't until after the NES came out, that I realized I loved video games for the simple idea of feeling immersed in a world or situation driven by creativity. That is fascinating to me. More so was the feeling of creating a WORLD that you can walk around in and interact with, from the leaves on the ground, to the uncharted urban decayed streets of a city is where beauty is found in ordinary things. This is where my passion for environments was born.
What kind of training do you have?
I have had training in 2d animation, Character Development, 3d Modeling, tons of Photoshop classes, fine arts and math, which plays a lot into what I model, but most importantly is the self training I gave myself with finding and doing every tutorial I had available to me on the internet and in 3dsMax. I have to say that I learned most of my early skills from nothing but tutorials and one very important teacher in my life, Mr. Eudy at the Art Institute of Dallas. I remember when he told me that if I wanted to be a modeler I had to model everything I saw. From the large facades to the smallest of bolts and seams in a model. Thank you very much Mr. Eudy!
What do you think you would like to improve about your work and how do you plan to achieve these goals?
As an artist, I always strived to make assets faster and more efficiently with given respect to the style you are working on. So in order to progress I must always find new ways of making something by researching and studying what ever I work on. My plan to achieving these goals is to study the skills of artists around me and techniques as well. At the same time, I want to understand the management of a project a lot more by supporting the decisions made by my Directors and Producers. This I believe will give me a certain balance in making better judgements in the pipeline of my work.
One immediate goal of mine, is to learn more level design in the game I am working on. So my plan is to learn on my own what it takes to make levels for id software outside of asset creation.Where do you see yourself in about 10 years from now, and how to you see the video game industry evolving throughout that period of time?
In the next 10 years from now anything could happen, but I don't plan on leaving id software anytime soon, so I see myself here in Texas kicking ass and making awesome contributions for the games id creates! I see the video game industry evolving to a much more immersive and movie-like experience. With 64 bit technology knocking at consoles doors, I think that in ten years we will see game play driven by environments a lot more than we have before in the past. The game Fracture has done something to this extent by allowing the gamer to change their game play through destructing or fracturing their environment.
For the complete interview, visit cgchannel.com.
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