So did your parents sit you in front of cartoons as a child or what?

Yeah, I used to watch cartoons every Saturday morning for hours! My faves were Smurfs, Transformers, Strawberry Shortcake…all of those old ones. I really loved watching them and I used to look forward to every Saturday morning when I could just sit and watch them!

Any favorites of today's animation styles?

I am a big fan of Japanese animation. I like the artistic styles that differ so much from what we see in television’s mainstream animation.

What was your education like?

I went to Otis College of Art and Design for 4 years and graduated with my BFA in Digital Media Design in 2000. I always knew I wanted to go to art school for as long as I can remember, so all throughout junior high and high school, I really focused on getting there. I always took as many art classes as they would allow me to!

Did you begin in 2-D and switch to 3-D as the technology presented itself?

I originally went to Otis with the mindset that I wanted to be a 2-D animator. Then as I began to realize that the technology was growing so rapidly I got more and more interested in the 3-D field. I knew it would be something that would evolve because the field was fairly new, and that really interested me.

How many artists are you working with when you create a video game?

The team sizes can vary depending on the project, but our last game—Medal of Honor 3: Rising Sun—had a team that was about 150+ people total and about 25-30 of those were artists; from the background artists, to character artists, to animators.

What did you learn about combat fighting for all those Army simulators?

Well we had a lot of training of real life war tactics and battle strategies from real military personnel and historians. This was to help us understand real life reasons for the ways battles are fought. For MOH3: Rising Sun, we learned a great deal about Japanese and American war strategies of World War II. We also had a great abundance of WWII historical footage and books that we were able to immerse ourselves in to make our game that much more realistic.

What's the most difficult thing you've had to recreate in 3D?

I think the most challenging thing for me personally are vehicles. They are something that have always been a bit challenging for me as an artist as opposed to organic things.

Some of the details in your images are amazing. What's going to be the next big breakthrough in technology?

I think some of the next big breakthroughs will give us artists much more freedom to create higher resolution art for games, and not be so limited in our textures and polygons...at least that’s what we’re hoping for!!

You've got your hands in two of the most lucrative entertainment industries--Pixar is the most successful studio in history and video games surpassed movies in revenue last year. What do you think that says about us?

I think that video games will continue to grow and expand in popularity. The technology is constantly evolving and getting better with each game that comes out, and for us artists that will allow us much more freedom to make things look that much cooler!! Games are an art form. I believe they will definitely keep making the consumer come back for more!

Do you play the games you work on?

I play them here at work when we are in production, mainly to check my work and see how it looks...but I honestly don’t own a game system at home! I get to play a lot here with my coworkers at work and that is much more fun!

What's your dream project?

Definitely to work on my own game! That would be something I would really love to do.