User:Matthew Medina
From Guild Wars Wiki
Greetings, programs!
Contents |
[edit] Personal
My name is Matthew Medina, and I'm the Art Process Manager at ArenaNet. I'm one of the old dogs around here, having the distinction of being a part of the GW craziness since early 2003, and a 10 year career at various other companies in the Seattle area before that.
[edit] Just what the heck is an "Art Process Manager" anyway?
Heh. Well, the best way I describe it to people is that I act as the ArenaNet police and fire departments, as it relates to the art pipeline. It's my job to ensure that the gorgeous environment art that gets generated by our team of brilliant artists fits within the technical requirements of our engine, and that we optimize those assets as much as possible so that we can keep our data streaming to a minimum (that's the police part of my job). It's also my responsibility to oversee many technical issues, resolve difficult art bugs, and just generally try to "manage the chaos" of the game development process by spotting and putting out fires. I also do a fair amount of environmental prop art on each project.
[edit] My Current Tasklist
I'm currently working on building more advanced shaders, playing with new toys like Mudbox, and exterminating the last of the art bugs prior to GW:EN hitting store shelves August 31! ;-)
[edit] A small list of work I'm proud of
- Font design for Guild Wars logo (pic coming soon)
- Initial ArenaNet logo (pic coming soon)
- Creation of various written languages used throughout the GW universe (Canthan is the best example)
- The Northern Wall and canal system of Ascalon
- The Hall of Ascension in Prophecies (can you spot the sacred geometry references?)
- The Tomb of the Primeval Kings (pre-destruction)
- Huts and Temple on Shing Jea Island
- Petrified Root Bridges in Kurzick territory
- The DX9 shader materials introduced in Nightfall (and improved upon for GW:EN).
[edit] Errata
- I am married, with a 3 year old son. My wife finished Prophecies and got halfway through Nightfall with me, and my son likes to watch.
- I am addicted to spicy chicken teriyaki.
- I always play female avatars.
- I started in the game industry as a QA tester, and my first art job was to convert backgrounds to 16 color palettes for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
- The 7th Guest was the game that inspired me to get into the industry - I saw those 3D graphics and knew immediately that I wanted to do that.
- I am an atheist in a family of devout Roman Catholics.
- I fight against breast cancer and leukemia wherever and however I can, in memory of my mother.
- I am always in flip flops, or preferably barefoot, year round.
[edit] My characters on Live
I don't really play one particular class more than any other, although if I had to choose the most satisfying character of mine so far, it would have to be my Dervish because of her excellent animations and the multi-hit scythe attacks.
- Matthew Medina - My Tank
- Barefoot Contessa - Mesmer\Ranger
- Barefoot Devotee - All Scythe Dervish
- Barefoot Curate - Healing Monk
- Barefoot Elemental - Nuker Elly
- Barefoot Paladin (seeing a pattern?) - Paragon
- Elspeth Roiann - Ranger
- Raina Roiann - Warrior
[edit] Contacting Me
If you have any questions about our art process, or you know of any outstanding art bugs that need to be looked at, feel free to post them on my talk page. I'm not quite as active on the wiki as some of the devs, but I will do my best to try and check in at least once a week.
