In this episode: Matt’s taken on the noble job of delving a little into what it’s been like for our intrepid hero, Stephen G. Tucker, career wise as a VFX artist with over a decade of working in the film and game industries around the world.
Through his career, he’s worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from working a Houdini VFX Artist/Technical Director on fully CG (Gnomeo and Juliet, Happy Feet 2) and live action (Jack the Giant Slayer, Ender’s Game) films, to competitive multi-player (Gears of War 4, Darwin Project), and single-player games (Shape of The World, Mass Effect Andromeda, Battlefront II, Battlefield V, Season). He enjoys variety, and has on occasion branched outside VFX, hence his current assortment of job titles.
As a UX / Gameplay Designer, he focuses on designing, prototyping, and polishing various areas that contribute to the game’s overall feel, including camera behaviour, controls, haptic feedback, UI navigation, and ergonomics while constantly striving to improve the fun factor.
As a Technical Artist, he acts as a problem-solver and focus on providing and iterating on tools for the artists on the team using a combination of Houdini, Houdini Engine, Visual Studio, and Unreal Engine. Such tools may range from improving workflows for LOD and Collision Geometry generation, texture generation, to tools for generating environmental effects.
As Lead VFX Artist, he applies a range of technical and artistic skills along with personnel and project management abilities in order to drive the visual quality of a project and ensure that the game is engaging, satisfying, and eye catching, while overseeing other artists on the creation and polish of a variety of game effects.
Is it arrogant to host an interview with himself on his own website? You betcha. Is it thematical with the rest of the Vagabond Gamecast? Yeah!
If you’re interested in checking out a more technical presentation that this cat has given, his 2019 Houdini Hive presentation is still available for consumption. https://vimeo.com/326620994
