ART OF JOHN SHROADES
John W. Shroades
www.johnshroadesart.com | www.linkedin.com/johnshroades
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Characters, Environments, Concepts, UI, Marketing Art, Management, Scheduling, Agile Development, Interviewing, Style Evaluation and Outsource Management.
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TOOLS
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Photoshop, Blender, 3D Studio, Maya, Illustrator, Unity, Flash, Marmoset
EXPERIENCE
Freelance Illustration — Illustrator
JUNE 2004 - PRESENT
Client List Includes: Harper Collins, Scholastic, Random House, Disney, Blue Sky Studios, Highlights Magazine, Upperdeck, Wizkids, Oxford Press, Dutton and many others.
Represented by Shannon Associates for over 10 years.
Job types include: 32 page picture books, teen novels, periodicals and card game art.
PopCap-EA, Seattle, WA — Senior Concept Artist
JUNE 2018 - PRESENT
Sci-Fi 4x game, Plants vs. Zombies Projects: Tower Defense mobile game.
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Concepts for characters, vehicles, structures and environments.
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UI and Marketing art.
Jam City, Bellevue, WA — Principle Artist
MAY 2016 - MARCH 2018
Kitty City: Mobile builder game and other mobile game prototypes.
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Art styles and trends evaluation.
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Concepts for over 60 characters and isometric environments and structures.
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Logos, banners, icons and other marketing art.
Glu Mobile, Bellevue, WA — Senior Environment Artist
AUGUST 2015 - MAY 2016
Nicki Minaj The Empire: Celebrity role playing mobile game
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Research, concepts, game asset art in Photoshop for isometric exterior environments.
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Implemented environment art and executed prop animations in Unity.
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Provided technical and artistic guidance to environment art team.
Amazon Game Studio, Seattle, WA — Senior Artist / Art Director / Manager
APRIL 2012 - APRIL 2015
The Unmaking: Castle defense game for Kindle using AppStream.
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Art Direction: Led a team of nine in-house artists.
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Created style guides and character concepts in Photoshop.
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Produced marketing materials, banners and icons.
Photo Agent: Facebook photo puzzle game.
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Characters, UI, logo and promotional art in Photoshop and Illustrator.
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Managed image acquisition for puzzles.
Gazillion, Issaquah, WA — Senior 3D Character Artist
AUGUST 2008 - MARCH 2012
Super Hero Squad Online : Persistent Marvel MMO squad building game.
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Characters: Concepts, Models, UVs and textures using 3D Studio, Photoshop, Unity.
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Art direction of outsourced freelance artists for in-game digital card art.
Vivendi Games, Issaquah, WA — Senior 3D Character Artist / Outsource Manager
MARCH 2006 - JULY 2008
Creature Hunter Persistent MMO pet collecting roleplaying game for China market.
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Directed and taught external character art team in China remotely.
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Created, scheduled, and managed creature and avatar production pipeline.
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Created concept art and 3D models and textures using 3D Studio Max and Photoshop.
Microsoft Games Studio, Redmond, WA — Senior Artist / Art Director / Manager
JUNE 1997 - APRIL 2004
Assisted in interviewing and acclimating artists through two acquisitions, FASA and Bungie.
Mythica: Fantasy MMORPG in a Norse mythology universe using a proprietary game engine.
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Directed, managed internal and external character artists and 3D modelers.
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Created character and environment concept art, modeling and texturing.
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UI/UX early development.
Prototype Development: Ideas and game pitch art.
Pandora’s Box: 2D and 3D puzzle game collection designed by Alexey Pajitnov designer of Tetris.
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Art director, puzzle art and UI elements using 3D Studio Max, Photoshop.
Sierra On-Line, Oakhurst, CA — Art Lead
MAY 1991 - MAY 1996
Environment, character and UI art for King’s Quest 6 and 8, Space Quest 5 and 6, Gabriel Knight 1 and 2, Ecoquest 1 and 2 and contributions to many other titles and marketing. Traditional media and DePaint.
EDUCATION
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA — Bachelor of Fine Arts: Illustration
SEPTEMBER 1988 - APRIL 1991
Won Art Center Scholarship, graduated with distinction.