Jake Kazdal

INTRODUCTION

I have been a concept and production artist/animator in the video game industry for 8 years. I recently spent 4.5 years in Tokyo working as the only non-Japanese artist at Sega in Tokyo. During my time at Sega I worked on two ground breaking heavily design-based games, (Rez and Space Channel 5) both of which won many awards for design excellence and progression in gaming in general. After returning to the United States I attended the Art Center College of Design, studying Industrial Design and Illustration for 7 semesters before returning to the professional world as a concept artist at Electronic Arts in Los Angeles.

Professional Experience

Electronic Arts, Los Angeles, CA March 2006 - Present
Concept artist and visual development on unannounced title

Zombie VR Studios, Seattle, WA August- December 2003
Creative Director, Overseeing all aspects of production for Shadow Ops: Red mercury Xbox

Sega of Japan; United Game Artists Studio Tokyo, Japan January 1999 - April 2003
As only non-Japanese native on team, quickly learned conversational Japanese on the job
Modeler and texture artist for "Astroboy" Playstation 2
Lead concept artist, texture artist and background modeler for cancelled Adventure game Gamecube
Concept artist, modeler and animator on award winning "Rez" Dreamcast, Playstation 2
Animator for "Space Channel 5 part 2" Dreamcast, Playstation 2
Concept artist, modeler and animator on highly acclaimed "Space Channel 5" Dreamcast, Playstation 2

Boss Game Studios; Redmond, WA May 1996 - September 1998
Modeler, level designer and texture artist for World Driver Championship, Nintendo 64
Modeler, level designer and texture artist for Twisted Edge Snowboarding, Nintendo 64
Modeler, level designer and texture artist for SPIDER, Playstation

Education

Art Center College of Design Jan 2004 - May 2006
Product Design, with a minor in Entertainment Design.
Course work: Includes; Industrial Design, Entertainment Design

Workshops; 1994 - Present
Regular attendance at Life Drawing open sessions, open oil painting sessions, animation workshops, Private lessons/tutoring in Russian Impressionist Oil Painting with Henry Stinson

Vancouver Film School, Vancouver, B.C. 1995 - 1996
Graduated from the Classical Animation course
Course work: Includes; Life Drawing, Color theory, Character Design, Perspective

Art Institute of Seattle, Seattle, WA 1994 - 1995
Finished one year of coursework in the newly established multimedia/3D animation course
Course work: Includes; Life Drawing, Color theory, Introduction to Design, Perspective

Shoreline Community College, Seattle, WA 1992 - 1993
Finished two semesters of standard coursework

Computer Skills

Proficient with Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, Softimage 3D