Matt C. (He/Him)
Lead Technical Artist
In your own words, tell us a little bit about your role and what you do here at the studio.
My role as a Lead Technical Artist basically involves providing Unreal Engine expertise, conducting research on visual features, and making sure we hit frame rate to provide silky smooth experiences.
You studied Interactive Design and Game Development in college, but what drew you to that and when did you decide this is what you wanted to do?
When I was 14, I started making custom maps for Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and never looked back. I always knew I wanted to be a game developer and started learning young. 14 year old me would have been mind blown to know he would end up at Lucasfilm working on Star Wars projects.
With so much of what you’re working on using cutting edge technologies, do you ever have to create new ways of assessing that something is working well?
Absolutely, a lot of the time tech is SO new, there’s nowhere to search, docs to read, or so on. We just have to dig into it ourselves and figure it out.
When you’re working on a project, what are some unique areas that you look at to ensure that everything runs at the target frame rates? Have you run into any surprises?
It’s all about balancing the right things, trimming away the lower priority things and communicating with art directors to make sure the “visual pillars” get the focus and most of the performance budget. We run into surprises all the time.
You also worked on Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition. What are you the most excited for people to see that you were able to do on the project?
I think that we’re one of the first VR deferred rendering titles and one that got to make use of screen space reflections and a lot of some pretty high end visuals that VR hasn’t been able to achieve until now. PS VR2 is amazing.
What’s your favorite part about being at the studio? Is there anything in particular that makes you excited to come to work each week?
The team is the most humble, open-minded, and focused on delivering the coolest things possible of any team I’ve ever worked with. When there’s a shared dedication to our craft, we get really incredible results because it removes a lot of barriers.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever gotten?
If you aren’t constantly learning, you’re going backwards. The industry is constantly evolving, developing new tools and software. At the snap of a finger 5 years have passed and you can find your work falling behind. Also, it’s a really small industry. Always be nice, humble, supportive and leave a positive impression.
For someone interested in a similar career, is there a program or class that you’d recommend taking, or a skill they should learn?
You can learn anything on YouTube nowadays. There’s vast libraries of tutorials for Unreal, and all game/film art-related software packages.
LIGHTSPEED QUESTIONS
Favorite Star Wars movie or TV show?
What do you like to do on your days off?
Relax outside, get a good coffee, unplug
What’s your favorite movie genre?
Anything with a great story/writing and some cool battle scenes/eye candy
Where’s your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
Italy
If you can meet any character in AR, who would it be?
Yoda, to get his sage advice on life