CÉSAR ALTAGRACIA [3D ENVIRONMENT ARTIST]

www.cesaraltagracia.com

kaiser@cesaraltagracia.com

 

DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION HERE:

 

SKILLS
• High polygon, low polygon and hard surface modeling
• 3D sculpting and normal map creation
• Unwrapping and texturing
• Importing art assets into Unreal Engine 3
• Knowledge of the Unreal Engine 3 Material Editor
• Rigging and animation
• 2D sprite creation and animation
• Traditional and digital drawing skills
• Ability to work with tight deadlines and long hours
• Fully bilingual (English-Spanish)		 TOOLS
• Autodesk 3DS Max 2009
• Autodesk Maya 2009
• Autodesk Mudbox 2009
• Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Adobe Illustrator CS3
• Adobe Flash CS3
• Adobe InDesign CS
• MS Office 2007 Suite
• Tortoise SVN		 ENGINES
• Unreal 3 Editor
• Unity Engine
• Torque Game Builder



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXPERIENCE

3D Artist - “Charlie Church Mouse”                                                                                 March 2010 – Current
Lifeline Studios, Corsicana, Texas

  • Currently working part-time as a contract 3D artist and graphic designer for an educational children’s game.
  • Designing the look of several graphical user interfaces.
  • Optimizing assets originally made in Lightwave to be used and edited in 3DS Max.
  • Rebuilding, unwrapping and texturing static environment assets.  


Environment/Character Artist – “Primae Noctis”                                        August 2009 – December 2009
The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, Plano, Texas

  • Sketched, modeled and textured assorted interior set pieces and decal textures as part of a 17 member team. 
  • Made sure all produced assets maintained the required art style and were within technical specifications.
  • Worked closely with designers in order to provide visual passes for their levels, suggesting and producing assets that improved their creations.
  • Conceptualized and modeled two of the game’s main characters, along with all their textures and normal maps generated from their high polygon versions.
  • Created illustrations for the game’s box art, poster, and promotional banner.

 

Environment/Character Artist – “Harvest”                                                                    May 2009– July 2009
The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, Plano, Texas

  • Created concept art and modeled, unwrapped and textured environment assets and buildings in a 9 member team.
  • Produced orthographic views for one of the main characters and the game’s villain, as well as modeling their meshes.
  • Optimized the characters’ polygon count to facilitate a cel-shading effect with the Unreal Engine 3’s Material Editor.
  • Made sure that all characters and assets maintained a consistent and distinctive “steampunk” art style.

Lead Artist – “The Galatea Effect”                                                              October 2008 – December 2008
The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, Plano, Texas

  • As the single artist in a four man team, created concept art and sprite sheets for a 2D action game in the Torque Game Builder engine.
  • Produced all animation sprites for the main character, three enemy types, particle effects, pick-ups and HUD elements.
  • Drew static art for backgrounds, splash screens, end-game screens, box art and booklet
  • Worked closely with the game designer to keep the art style as similar to his vision as possible.
  • Consulted frequently with the programmer to keep our game within technical scope for visuals and particle effects.

 

EDUCATION

Masters of Interactive Technology in Digital game Development
The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, Plano, Texas                                August 2008 – Present

I am currently pursuing a Masters degree while working as an environment artist for our final capstone project: “Primae Noctis”, an Unreal Tournament 3 total conversion.

 


B.A., Digital Graphic Design                                                                                     February 2002 – May 2004
Atlantic College, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Completed a Bachelor of Arts specialized in print and web design, with a minor focus on 3D modeling with Maya and Lightwave.

 

WORK EXPERIENCE

Graphic Designer                                                                                                           March 2004 – May 2008
Primera Hora, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

• Arranged articles, images and advertisements on the newspaper’s sales supplements.
• Created covers from photographic reference or vector illustrations.
• Designed info graphics.
• Assisted creating in-house advertisements.
• Wrote articles and reviews for their monthly video game section.

English Tutor                                                                                                                 January 2000 – May 2001
University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón Campus, Bayamón, Puerto Rico

• Assisted freshmen students with their English assignments.
• Helped students with class reviews and homework.
• Graded their English lab assignments.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Online Portfolio: http://www.cesaraltagracia.com
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cesaralt