Ben Droste | Environment Art and Design

Ben Droste - Curriculum Vitae

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Benjamin M Droste
29 January, 1984
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
+(61)421 150 500
bendroste@gmail.com
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	Personal Summary
	Games have always been a driving force in my life and game development is something I have been passionate about from a very young age. I am an avid gamer indulging in all genres from action console games, to PC MMOs, to quirky iPhone apps. I attend conferences, listen extensively to GDC lectures and also enjoy studying games from a cultural perspective, seeking to understand where games sit in society and popular culture. Making games is something I take great pleasure in, particularly in a team of like-minded and passionate people.



	Abilities and Experience
	Senior Environment Artist Over 6 years professional game development experience 7 published titles on a variety of platforms including: GameCube, PS2, Xbox, PS3, Xbox360, Wii and PC Experience in a variety of environment types include room-corridor-room platformers, single set fighters, race courses, and open world height-map based environments Actively involved in level design on several titles (see below) Actively involved in game design on several pitches. Experience in pre-production and prototyping



	Software Experience
	Maya - Extensive experience 3DS MAX - Extensive experience Photoshop - Extensive experience for texture creation Realistic, natural terrain sculpting using Grome, a heightmap sculpting program Experience with Xnormal, Crazybump and nDo2 from creating normal maps Moderate experience with the Unreal Development Kit Moderate experience with Unity 3D


Game Development History
November 2010 – July 2011
Company: Position: Titles:	KMM Games Senior Environment Artist Happy Feet 2	(2011)
May 2005 – October 2010
Company: Position: Titles:	Krome Studios Senior Environment Artist Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels Viva Piñata: Party Animals The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night	(2010) (2009) (2008) (2007) (2007) (2006)

Artist Responsibilities
As a Senior Environment Artist I have primarily been responsible for the construction of high quality 3D environments, including mesh construction, UV mapping, texturing, lighting and environmental settings, material creation, and large scale level construction. As second-most senior environment artist I was also tasked with overseeing the environment team whenever our lead was absent.

Legend of the Guardians made extensive use of Grome terrain editor to sculpt large scale heightmaps, and Krome’s proprietary level editor to dress and populate the vast openworld levels.

On Lightsaber Duels, in addition to mesh construction I was responsible for the development and creation of Wii-efficient fire and atmospheric effects.

Design Responsibilities
I greatly enjoy design work in addition to my role as an artist.

All of the race courses in Viva Piñata: Party Animals were designed and grey boxed by the environment team before being approved by design. The environment layout in Legend of the Guardians was also designed entirely by the environment team while working closely with the level designers to incorporate missions.

On Lightsaber Duels I proposed the spectacular Space Station arena transition event, where by the arena platform separates from the station and falls away into space. I was tasked with creating a pre-vis of the effect as proof of concept, which was then greenlit and developed into what is seen in the final game.

After KMM I moved into a game design roll for the production of a project pitch. The game was conceived by me and a demo built was by a number of former KMM employees, while I worked with the former KMM Lead Designer on all aspects of the game design.



	Qualifications
	2004/2005	Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment – Animation Major QANTM College, Brisbane Two year course Major Project: Multiplayer cart racer Team of 10 people over three months Roles: Lead Environment Artist. Character Artist, Animator, Designer Winner of 'Best Unsigned Game – Independent' Award at the 2004 Australian Game Developer’s Conference
	2003	Diploma of Screen – Animation Major QANTM College, Brisbane One year course Major Project: 3rd person Multiplayer Espionage game Team of 6 people over three months Roles: Lead Artist, Environment Artist. Character Artist, Animator, Designer



	Referees
	Name: Position: Company: Email: Website: Name: Position: Company: Email: Website:	Jason Stark Art Director Formally of KMM Games and Krome Studios actuallystarky@gmail.com http://actuallystarky.com/ Brent Waller Lead Environment Artist Formally of KMM Games and Krome Studios wetwired@gmail.com http://www.brentwaller.com/

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