Industry Veteran

Anatole has worked in the video game industry since 1996, a veteran generalist, his worked has ranged from animating dragons, and monsters to motion capture cleanup. Texturing from 8 bit graphics for the Game Boy Color, to high resolution textures map elements. After moving to New York, Anatole added Visual Effects and high-res renderings to his range of skills.

Work History

Anatole first started building and animating low poly characters in the late 90’s, working at a company called Microtime, where he found his feet in the industry.
He later went on to start his own game company ‘Pukka Games’ with his brother Damon, having built a team and established funding with a publisher ‘Telstar’, he lead the art direction on ‘The Ravaging’ and  later lead on other titles, ‘Digital Road’ for the Ford Motor company (via Imagination, a large London design house). He Also directed art for many Game Boy Color titles.

Anatole went on to work for Kuju Entertainment as a senior artist on EA’s ‘Rail Simulator’. There he worked on modelling, animating, texturing real world elements for the game. Some of this included very precise measuring of Engines, Cabs, and Stations.

After moving to New York City in 2007 he worked for various Visual Effects houses such as ‘1st Ave Machine’ and ‘Edgeworx’ as a contract artist. He also worked at Tim Hunter Designs as a lead artist on their Exxonmobil Alternative energies campaign.

Through his work for Getty Images, Anatole worked on their internal ‘Future Homes’ series and would later work as a 3D artist creating images for their ‘Stone Collection’ series, Anatole gained a reputation for detailed and high quality lighting and rendering.

In 2009 Anatole started working as the Art director on the unique title ‘Organic Panic’ – after 8 years, a successful kickstarter campaign, getting greenlit on Steam, and working with 2 publishers, thes game was released in 2016 on Xbox One, PS4.

Anatole took a break from the industry for a couple of years to start a family, but now he is back, and ready to rock and roll.

Skills

• 3ds Max – Modeling, texturing, animation, rigging, skinning, lighting, and rendering
• MotionBuilder – Character rigging and animation
• Unity – Texturing, real-world lighting, animation exporting to in Unity
• VR & AR – Creating high-res immersive content for new worlds
• Vray – Texturing, lighting, real world lighting and rendering
• Real-World Renders – Rendering through cpu and gpu real-world lighting and rendering
• Adobe Photoshop – Full texture layers, image retouching, Art painting, compositing, logo design and branding, 8bit sprite editing.
• Adobe After Effects/Premiere – Animation and Film editing and effects for promotional videos, and cinematics

People Skills

• Leadership – ‘Creating Team Cohesion’ rhythm, and flow! I believe in blending traditional leadership roles with new dynamic models of team motivation, lead from the front not the back
• Efficiency – ‘Oiling the Gears’ Meetings are good, we need plans, now it’s time to take steps! I think efficiency means balancing planning with getting our feet wet. Reality has a way of kicking butt and we can’t plan for unknown unknowns! except to be aware they are coming. Have a strong goal, make a rough plan, (it will be refined later) then take real steps. Also let the concept people get rolling early, let them play, experiment and have fun, but these are the pointers on the mission and crucial for its success
• People Power – ‘Tag Team’ It’s always been about people, now more than ever, I think it’s good to empower each other, (I don’t believe in competing within a team) which brings people together. Be serious but fun, real but imaginative, give space for ego but don’t let it run the show, it’s ok to be a hero and nobody at the same time
• Finding Nemo – ‘Problem Hunter’ It’s good to get your feet wet, but it’s also important to find out early what’s missing, where extra work, effort or people will be needed and where. Brainstorming can really help a project find its feet, everyone can help with it, let’s work out what can go wrong so we’re prepared
• Planning – ‘Grand Plans’ Yes getting our feet wet is important, but planning, tactics, team players, equipement, outsourcing, creativity, timelines, coffee, all make important planning elements. I’m all for planning, rock solid designs, storyboards, concepts, artwork, inspiration, goals, way points, all go into a great plan
• Passion and Creativity – ‘Finding Time’ We want a product, something solid at the end, but without passion, care, creativity, personal involvement, the end doesn’t justify the means and it will show. When a team creates, passionately, and really cares, the results will shine, yes there is a balance, we need results, but I believe quality first, quantity second then you have a winner, then the world is your oyster!