THOMAS B. OLSON 19441 Sierra Mia Rd., Irvine CA │ 626.487.7295 │ [email protected] Portfolio: www.ThomasOlson.artstation.com
SUMMARY
Over 15 years of game development experience including ground-floor design and art direction leadership of a #1-ranking game franchise. A habitual cross-functional collaborator, who opens communication channels, builds consensus among divergent thinkers, and partners across departments to drive player focused creativity and production practices to consistently deliver excellence.
Strong project leadership includes managing complex budgets and schedules, accommodating production changes, maximizing resources, mentoring talent, and delivering projects with constrained timelines and budgets.
Specialties: Character design and creation, environmental and effects asset design and creation, vehicle and weapon design and creation, visual and verbal storytelling, rapid ideation.
Experience
Independent Developer, Rockhopper Entertainment, Irvine, CA 2017 – present • Writer, designer, producer, and art director on indie project begun during MFA studies. • Mentored and led undergraduate and graduate students at multiple universities, and freelancers. Tales of the Knight Errant (in production)
Lead Artist, Backflip Studios, Boulder, CO 2011 – 2016 • Developed DragonVale art style, designed and created launch characters, and contributed to all aspects of game development; credited with building interdepartmental consensus among divergent, conflicted teams. • Led internal and offsite artists and animators to add new post-launch content weekly; writing and feature design; game sustained #1 standing in sales and gross revenue for two consecutive years. • Art direction and technical art specs; outsource vendor selection and management on DV World. Production Portfolio: DragonVale World DragonVale
Character Artist, Insomniac Games, Burbank, CA 2005 – 2010 • Created in-game and cinematic characters, an arsenal of weapons, vehicles, and props. • Collaborated with core teams to design custom shaders and refine internal tools and processes. • Shipped 5 console titles including 4 that achieved Sony’s “Greatest Hits” ranking. Production portfolio includes: Resistance 3 Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Resistance 2 Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time Resistance: Fall of Man
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Character Artist, Heavy Iron Studios, Los Angeles, CA 2002 – 2005 • Collaborated as part of a high-performance art team in the designing, modeling, and texturizing of licensed characters, environments, props, and effects for video games. • Designed original characters for Incredibles games in coordination with and approval from Brad Bird and Mark Andrews at Pixar for concurrent release with The Incredibles movie. • Taught internal character modeling classes to colleagues to advance internal artists’ skill sets. Product Portfolio: Ratatouille (pre-production) The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer The Incredibles Spongebob Squarepants: The Battle for Bikini Bottom
Instructor, Art Institute of California, Los Angeles, CA 2001 – 2002 • Taught: Character Maquette Sculpting, Advanced Character Maquette Sculpting, Typography for Animators, Character Design Workshop
Career Note: Earlier tenure includes serving as a Sculptor/mold maker for the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles County; serving as Production Manager for Morpheus International, overseeing all layout and design and production of books, calendars, posters and collectibles locally, in Hong Kong, New York City, and Europe; and an internship at Angel Studios under Steven Olds.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
ZBrush; Maya; Photoshop; Unity 3D; narrative design; game design; Xcel; traditional drawing, painting, and sculpting; creative writing; Trello; Agile development; communication; managing remote workers; teaching; event planning & coordination; public speaking.
EDUCATION
MFA Art of Game Design, Laguna College of Art + Design, Laguna Beach, CA BFA Illustration, Magna cum laude, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA BA English Literature, Cum laude, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Ongoing: Gnomon, Schoolism, UArtsy, and drawing workshops
ADDITIONAL LEADERSHIP
• Vice President for Education, Toastmasters Club #852128 (Speakers by Design). • Currently enrolled in Community Emergency Management Team training with the City of Irvine, CA. • Coached a team of grade-school youths for a creative and technical competition that advanced to state (Colorado).