Ray Lederer

Ray Lederer

Concept Illustrator & Game Artist

Summary

As a game artist, I've worked in almost every aspect of game production including concept art, modeling, texture art, animation, environments, effects and everything in between. As a seasoned professional, my knowledge of what it takes to produce art and ship a game on time has been tested thoroughly over the years.

Materials* Software: Photoshop, Maya, Painter IX, Perforce, After Effects, Premiere, DreamWeaver, Markers, Paint, Pencils, Ink * OS experience: UNIX (IRIX), Windows, Mac, Linux

Employment History Bethesda Softworks, Rockville, MD

December 2008 - Present

Concept Artist

TBA

Gas Powered Games, Kirkland, WA

Jul 2006 - Oct 2008

Concept Artist

Space Siege NetDevil, Louisville, CO

Jan 2006 - May 2006

General Artist

Auto Assault (PC)* Designed and texture mapped various paint schemes for vehicles. * Painted skybox. * Provided concept art for future projects. * Provided input for future direction of projects.

Idol Minds L.L.C., Louisville, CO
Jul 2004 - Jan 2006
PS2 Character Artist, Modeler, Texture Artist, Animation, Concept Artist, and Environment Artist
NeoPets: The Darkest Faerie (PS2)* Sub animations for characters. * Exported animations to game engine * Poly Modeled and Textured some Characters and objects for placement in levels. * Designed and built a level for the game. * Concept art for some environment revamping.

Jaleco Entertainment, Boulder, CO
Apr 1998 - Mar 2004
A-Team Texture Artist for PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC

Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde (PS2, Xbox, GameCube)* Textured 1/3 of all characters for Goblin Commander. * Worked with exporter to ensure correct incorporation into game engine. * Created multiple versions of same characters for different platforms.

Concept Artist

Rising Sun (Xbox)* Provided Character designs and Architectural renderings. * Provided input towards direction of game.

Concept Artist, Senior Animator

Lost Continents (PC)* Short stint as Concept Artist and Character Designer. * Modeling, Texturing, and Animation of ambient AI.

Animation Lead

Nightcaster II: Equinox (Xbox)* Guided animators often acting out sequences to determine look and feel of animations. * Directed animation of all characters for game. * Worked with Concept Artists to refine character to match design. * Worked with AI Programmers to implement animations and develop pipeline.

Senior Animator, Concept Artist, Modeler, Texture Art

NightCaster: Defeat the Darkness (Xbox)* Modeling, Texturing, and Animations for Main Characters in the NightCaster series. * Ensured smooth implementation of Art Assets into the Game Engine.

Senior Character Artist, Modeler, Texture Art, Animation.
Hired Guns (PC - Unreal Engine)* Modeling, Texturing, Animation, and implementation of all characters for Unreal squad based FPS.

Mindesign Limited, Sarasota, FL
Dec 1995 - Apr 1998
Senior Animator, Concept Artist, Designer, Editor
We worked on a variety of projects ranging from Games to Film and Animated Short Stories.* This was my real training ground in CG. * I worked with SGI machines almost exclusively during this period. * A majority of my time was spent on an 8 processor rack Onyx learning Power Animator and maintaining a small render farm of 4 Max Impacts. * Editing and output was done using Media 100 on a Mac.

Contract illustration work (1994 - 1997)

West End Games/LucasFilm LLC* Full Page and Spot illustrations for various Star Wars and Tales from the Crypt RPG books.

FASA Corporation* Full Page and Spot illustrations for various Battletech and Mechwarrior RPG books.

Comic Book Inker Assistant (1991-1992)

Ink and Background assists for various DC and Marvel comics. As an inker assistant I wasn't credited for the work in the books, however shadowing an inker was a great experience.* Superman, Man of Steel - Annual #1 * Incredible Hulk - Annual #17 * Fantastic Four - Citizen Kang Annual * Doom Force - #1 * Daredevil - System Bytes Annual (Cover) * X-Force - Shattershot Annual * Silver Sable - #1

Michael Kent Productions (1991)

Costume and Prosthetic Artist

Superboy TV series* Tasked with building costumes for actors and duplicate costumes for stunt doubles. This involved sculpting, casting, and pouring foam to create armor plates etc…

Volunteer activities* 2004: Guest Speaker at an ASIFA Colorado Chapter event at the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design - Animation Art in Games. * 2003: Guest Speaker for a 3D art class taught by instructor Kevin Ryan at Denver University. * 2002: Guest Speaker at Lake Highland HS AP Art History class. * 2001: Major Damage! Cloth Simulation Artist - Volunteered to model and animate capes for the hero in a couple of scenes. + Best Children's Short Subject, Silver Sprocket International Film Festival, Major Damage, 2002 + 5th Annual Magnolia Independent Film festival, Best Animated Short, Major Damage, 2002 + Winchester County Film Festival, Best Animated Short, Major Damage, 2002

Education* Alias Certified Level 1 Training (1996) * Ringling School of Art and Design (1992 - 1993) * Studied Foundation Illustration & Computer Graphics

Interests

Playing outside with my wife and our dog, Drawing, Painting, Mountain Biking, Snowboarding, Hiking, Camping, Live Music, Sushi, Sharks, Marine Biology, Cartoons, Comic Books, Patrick O’Brien novels lately, Conan, Futurama, Great & Terrible films, Battlefield 2 and of course Star Wars!

Endorsements “I worked with Ray on numerous projects while at Jaleco/VR-1 and let me tell you: Ray was one of the first people I requested on my team every time. Ray has incredible artistic vision coupled with a rare ego-free personality that makes him incredibly easy to work with. The results of working with never disappoint, either.”

Adam Maxwell – Senior Designer – The Collective

“Ray is an all around extremely versatile artist and animator. I had the great pleasure of working with Ray and I would highly recommend him for any game art or animation duties. He is a valuable asset to any team, capable of leadership roles within the Game Industry.”

David Franks - President at U.S.Animation Sales and Owner, U.S.Animation Sales

“I've worked with Ray since his Devil's Thumb days - to simply say he is 'versatile' sells short his monsterous talent. Ray has nothing short of complete mastery of every link in Art Asset production: concept renderings, modelling (low poly and otherwise), texturing (including a thorough understanding of shaders and thier creation), and animation. A professional of this calibre is a rare discovery.”

Dennis Dryden – Level Designer – Mythic Entertainment

“One of the strongest all-around game artists I have worked with yet. Aside from his strong artistic abilities, Ray has the kind of personality that is wonderful to work with.”

Jim Stigall - Graphic/UI Artist at NetDevil

“I worked with Ray for many years at Jaleco and recently at Idol Minds. Ray is a great guy to work with, and very talented artist. He leads by example with high-quality art and work ethic. It has been a pleasure to work with him.”

Jason Anderson – Senior Environment Artist – Smart Bomb Interactive