LinkedIn Profile
Contact: jef.johnstone@gmail.com
After taking a personal leave and living in London for 4 years, I'm back in Seattle and applying my experience in the gaming industry as a 3D recruiter and consultant for Aquent. I specialize in connecting talented 3D artist with top-tier Studios and other companies. So, if you're looking to land your next dream gig at a AAA studio or searching for the best creative talent, please don't hesitate to contact me!
PERFORMANCE PROFILE: I am a seasoned veteran with over 8 years experience creating and managing content development for multi-platform video games (XBOX360, PS3, PC). I have been responsible for everything from creating stunning visual effects, atmospheres, complex shaders, textures and modeling to over-seeing an entire game environment and managing a team of artists. Having shipped and worked on numerous AAA game titles, I have a solid understanding of the production process and what it takes to ship a high quality game....on time!
PRODUCTION MANAGER - ENVIRONMENT LEAD - SENIOR VFX ARTIST: Self motivated and results-driven with proven experience developing video games for PS3, XBOX 360 and Windows PC.
Specialties:
- extensive experience creating spectacular and convincing visual FX
- environment lighting and scene layout
- content, asset and team management
- environment visualization and art direction
- technical art and shader creation
- attention to detail
- adaptive problem solver
- self-motivated, task driven and proactive
- ability to work under strict deadlines
- stereo 3D imaging
Title experience:
- Dark Void (XBOX360/PS3/Windows PC)
- Shadow Run (XBOX360/Windows PC)
- Crimson Skies (XBOX)
- Combat Flight Simulator II (Windows PC)
- Combat Flight Simulator (Windows PC)
- Flight Simulator 2002 (Windows PC)
- Flight Simulator 2000 (Windows PC)
DARK VOID: After developing games at Microsoft for 6 years I joined
Airtight Games. Initially hired on as the Senior FX Artist and Technical Art lead, I was promoted to Production Manager/Environment Lead. While still heavily involved in production, I was also managing a team of 7-10 artists. The Environment team was responsible for creating content for just about everything, including: All terrain, buildings, foliage, props, vehicles, weapons, lighting, atmospheric effects and visual fx.
I worked closely with the Art Director and concept team to see that their visions where realized, and possible in game. Some of my production duties included; lighting, visual fx, atmospheric fx, complex shaders, scene layout, textures and more. I was responsible for the look and feel of the entire environment and virtually all game content (excluding all characters, animation and game design).
I also produced and art directed test environments (examples below) to help give the AD and Environment team a clear vision and direction before building a final level. Creating these small-scale environments helped determine if they had the right "look and feel" before going into final production, thus, saving valuable time. They also proved to be a good test bed for creating complex shaders, experimenting with different lighting scenarios, atmospheres and testing new features and tools.
Movie: Examples of work on Dark Void including: asset and production management, acting environment lead, all scene lighting, particle effects, layout, technical shaders, atmospheric effects. High quality version on YouTube
Examples of visual FX, lighting and environments.
This is test work from an early version of Dark Void. The first scene is an Egyptian themed tomb, the second, a night time jungle scene. I managed both and was responsible for the following: lighting, particle and geometry based effects, lighting decals, scene layout, sky dome, environment and particle shaders (ground, rock, fire, smoke). Game Engine: Unreal 3
Environment test simulating a sand & wind storm. The goal was to create an intense wind storm with blowing sand etc. Note the blowing sand (shader) on the ground and swaying palm trees with the random palm fern blowing through the air. Also notice the rapidly moving clouds that help complete the illusion of wind. I put this entire scene together and was responsible for everything you see (with exception of the character). Game Engine: Unreal 3
I created this test environment to see how "The Void" might look and feel. I put this entire scene together on my own and was responsible for everything (with the exception of the ship and rock geometry): lighting, skydome, all particle and geometry (note the swirling plasma) based effects but more importantly, creating the complex shader that helped create the "void". Also note the sense of depth in the ground based "void" shader. It's tough to see in the video but in game, the illusion of depth was quite stunning! The scene proved to be a big success with the studio and was presented at one of our company meetings.
Waterfall test - UE3
I love this one! This was a test for a realistic water fall (the focus was the actual water fall, not the surrounding geo or environment). Seems most water falls you see in games are either from a distance or just falling sprites (or flat piece of geo) and never look "real" when you get up close. I wanted something different, something
believable. I wanted the player to be able to to get up close and go "wow, that looks cool!" Note the transition from the smooth water to where it starts to foam and fall over the rocks (also note the water on the rocks surface). This was a difficult shader to create! I used geometry for the water and then transitioned to sprites. I was responsible for: scene lay out, lighting, all particle effects, geometry and most importantly, the multiple shaders needed to create the water fall. Game Engine: Unreal 3.
Screen shots showing examples of: lighting, scene layout, technical shaders (water, "the void"), atmosphere fx, fog, particle effects and 3D production manager.
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| lighting, layout, art direction, atmosphere and particle fx, skydome, waterfall |
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| lighting, atmosphere, layout, particle fx |
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| "void" shader w/parallax, atmosphere, lighting, all particle fx
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| lighting, scene layout, skydome, particle fx
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lighting, particle fx,layout
lighting - note lanterns on the floor and use of lighting decals |
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| complex water shader, geo, particle fx
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complex water shader, geo, particle fx
Note: water to foam transition |
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| Hand painted diffuse texture - motorcycle
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| lo-res motorcycle - UE3 material, modeled in Maya
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CRIMSON SKIES - HIGH ROAD to REVENGE: Crimson Skies was one of the original launch titles for the XBOX gaming console. It proved to be a very important title for Microsoft as it helped drive sales and create excitement for the platform.....Crimson Skies - High Road to Revenge was a huge success!!
Acting as the SR. FX Artist, I was in charge of everything regarding FX including: muzzle flash, hit-effects, small to massive explosions (see images below), modeling/texturing of damage debris, swirling tornadoes, clouds and large scale visual effects for cinematic's. The effects I produced won "Best Video Game Effects" and not only showcased the capabilities of the XBOX but pushed the limits of what the technology was capable of.
I was also heavily involved with development of the effects tool and production pipeline. Working closely with the development team, we where able to create a productive and efficient tool set and work flow. A good example of this was the cloud generation tool which helped produce very realistic 3D clouds.
Movie: examples of realtime, in-game effects for Crimson Skies. My work included all particle effects, explosions, smoke, damage debris (modeling and texturing), screen based effects (water droplets on screen) and 3D particle based clouds.
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| Texture example 255.0.0 = Brick, 0.0.255 = Wood, 0.255.0 = Glass etc. |
While on Crimson Skies, I came up with a new way of doing impact/hit effects on objects. Instead of using the geometry to flag the desired effect (dirt, glass, metal etc.) we used a ultra-lo resolution image based on RBG values that was also mapped to the geometry. This lo-resolution texture took up virtually no memory and did not affect performance. The code would look at the specified RGB value and play the impact effect that was assigned to that value. Doing this gave us the ability to do multiple effects on the SAME piece of geometry (with no extra collision and/or geo)! It helped add depth and realism to the game gave the player better feedback. When you shot glass, you got glass. Brick, you got brick and so on. This was also used on terrain (water/dirt/rock etc.) A very simple solution to a complex problem!
Screen shots showing particle and geometry effects from Crimson Skies.
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| explosion with debris and particle fx |
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| geometry tornado, lightning, clouds |
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| electricity particle fx |
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| particle fx, damage debris |
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particle fx, damage debris
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particle fx, damage textures
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DARK VOID: After developing games at Microsoft for 6 years I joined Airtight Games. Initially hired on as the Senior FX Artist and Technical Art lead, I was promoted to Production Manager/Environment Lead. While still heavily involved in production, I was also managing a team of 7-10 artists. The Environment team was responsible for creating content for just about everything, including: All terrain, buildings, foliage, props, vehicles, weapons, lighting, atmospheric effects and visual fx.
CRIMSON SKIES - HIGH ROAD to REVENGE: Crimson Skies was one of the original launch titles for the XBOX gaming console. It proved to be a very important title for Microsoft as it helped drive sales and create excitement for the platform.....Crimson Skies - High Road to Revenge was a huge success!!
SHADOWRUN: Shadowrun was important for Microsoft as it was the first console title to use Games for Windows - Live that allowed Windows users to play with Xbox 360 users. I was called upon to deliver real-time visual FX for the original prototype that proved essential in getting the project ‘green-lit’, and was later presented to Bill Gates as an example of what can be achieved in the next generation (ie; next-gen) of “High Definition” games.
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