Eric Iwasaki
Lead Technical Artist at Big Red Button Entertainment, Inc.- Claim this Profile
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Topline Score
Bio
Creath Carter
Eric is one of those Technical Artists that possesses knowledge of the art behind the technology, and can leverage his understanding of both to craft clever solutions to show-stopping problems. Over the course of our work together I saw Eric weave magic with Unreals material and lighting system, crafting graceful solutions to complex problems. His expertise was inspiring to the team, and his ability to communicate showed his thought process, problem-solving, and educated the team at the same time. I can only hope for the chance to work with him again in the future.
Jason Rubin
Eric is a rare talent. There are many good artists, and many good technical people, but few that can seamlessly mold the two together in such a way as to elevate their work far beyond what a team of two people with such talents could ever do in collaboration. Eric is one of those technical artists. I managed Eric for many years at Naughty Dog, and as the team grew, and the assembly line expanded, we always kept him off to the side as a "special ops" of sorts. He created many of the unique effects and memorable moments that defined Naughty Dog games, and helped give the projects their unique quality that helped them stand out. He is able to see beyond the tech of how things are done to what might be done. Eric is a great person, and was always central to the teams spirit. I highly recommend him for your team.
Creath Carter
Eric is one of those Technical Artists that possesses knowledge of the art behind the technology, and can leverage his understanding of both to craft clever solutions to show-stopping problems. Over the course of our work together I saw Eric weave magic with Unreals material and lighting system, crafting graceful solutions to complex problems. His expertise was inspiring to the team, and his ability to communicate showed his thought process, problem-solving, and educated the team at the same time. I can only hope for the chance to work with him again in the future.
Jason Rubin
Eric is a rare talent. There are many good artists, and many good technical people, but few that can seamlessly mold the two together in such a way as to elevate their work far beyond what a team of two people with such talents could ever do in collaboration. Eric is one of those technical artists. I managed Eric for many years at Naughty Dog, and as the team grew, and the assembly line expanded, we always kept him off to the side as a "special ops" of sorts. He created many of the unique effects and memorable moments that defined Naughty Dog games, and helped give the projects their unique quality that helped them stand out. He is able to see beyond the tech of how things are done to what might be done. Eric is a great person, and was always central to the teams spirit. I highly recommend him for your team.
Creath Carter
Eric is one of those Technical Artists that possesses knowledge of the art behind the technology, and can leverage his understanding of both to craft clever solutions to show-stopping problems. Over the course of our work together I saw Eric weave magic with Unreals material and lighting system, crafting graceful solutions to complex problems. His expertise was inspiring to the team, and his ability to communicate showed his thought process, problem-solving, and educated the team at the same time. I can only hope for the chance to work with him again in the future.
Jason Rubin
Eric is a rare talent. There are many good artists, and many good technical people, but few that can seamlessly mold the two together in such a way as to elevate their work far beyond what a team of two people with such talents could ever do in collaboration. Eric is one of those technical artists. I managed Eric for many years at Naughty Dog, and as the team grew, and the assembly line expanded, we always kept him off to the side as a "special ops" of sorts. He created many of the unique effects and memorable moments that defined Naughty Dog games, and helped give the projects their unique quality that helped them stand out. He is able to see beyond the tech of how things are done to what might be done. Eric is a great person, and was always central to the teams spirit. I highly recommend him for your team.
Creath Carter
Eric is one of those Technical Artists that possesses knowledge of the art behind the technology, and can leverage his understanding of both to craft clever solutions to show-stopping problems. Over the course of our work together I saw Eric weave magic with Unreals material and lighting system, crafting graceful solutions to complex problems. His expertise was inspiring to the team, and his ability to communicate showed his thought process, problem-solving, and educated the team at the same time. I can only hope for the chance to work with him again in the future.
Jason Rubin
Eric is a rare talent. There are many good artists, and many good technical people, but few that can seamlessly mold the two together in such a way as to elevate their work far beyond what a team of two people with such talents could ever do in collaboration. Eric is one of those technical artists. I managed Eric for many years at Naughty Dog, and as the team grew, and the assembly line expanded, we always kept him off to the side as a "special ops" of sorts. He created many of the unique effects and memorable moments that defined Naughty Dog games, and helped give the projects their unique quality that helped them stand out. He is able to see beyond the tech of how things are done to what might be done. Eric is a great person, and was always central to the teams spirit. I highly recommend him for your team.
Experience
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Big Red Button Entertainment, Inc.
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United States
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Computer Games
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1 - 100 Employee
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Lead Technical Artist
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Nov 2009 - Present
Real-time rendering focused technical artist and core member of Bob Rafei's game development studio, a collaboration with Naughty Dog's former art director that dates back to 1996. Fully remote since March, 2020. Initial responsibilities: - Research / integrate solutions from Gamebryo, Illuminate Labs, Unity Technologies, Crytek - Build a unified toolset to facilitate digital content creation across projects, engines, asset managers, hardware platforms ranging from mobile to high end PCs - Experiment with shading techniques, augmented reality - Edit rip-o-matics, contribute VFX and lighting for prototypes, provide AAA production-quality polish for visual look targets, concept trailers...contributions that helped sell two IPs, secure (and eventually ship) studio's first title During production, responsibilities expanded to include: - Customize CryEngine 3 (HLSL and C++ rendering code) while lighting Sonic Boom, first CryEngine 3 title to ship on Nintendo's Wii U - Develop an automated Maya (Python) to Unity 5 (C#) asset pipeline capable of converting and customizing 150 Pokémon characters originally animated for an external partner's proprietary engine; work with Niantic Labs and Creatures to create a visual style that could be supported across a range of Android and iOS devices; write C# and mobile-optimized HLSL to achieve target appearance while supporting run-time time-of-day lighting, dynamic weather, and effects that mimic previous titles in the franchise - Write C#, HLSL to stylize and optimize Mapbox/Google Map API generated assets for unreleased geo-location mobile games - Learn Unreal Engine 4's Material Editor, Cascade, Matinee, Blueprint while polishing Allegiant: VR Experience (VIVE), Lightmass, research limitations with UE4 in mobile VR projects, handle lighting and optimize materials for The ArcSlinger (Daydream, VIVE, Oculus Rift, PSVR) - Customize UE4 & UE5 (HLSL, C++, Materials, Blueprint) for Together Labs' WithMe (iOS, Android) Show less
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Naughty Dog
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United States
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Computer Games
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500 - 600 Employee
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Senior Artist
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Nov 1996 - Apr 2009
"Jak" of all trades digital artist responsible for wide range of characters, bosses, vehicles, environments, lighting and effects appearing within nine multi-million selling Sony-exclusive titles starting with Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PlayStation) and ending with 2009's Game of the Year Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3). Assisted development of visual technologies and techniques often while in full production: - First Naughty Dog artist to learn Cg, contributing all shaders used by particle effects, waterfalls, and some lighting effects in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - First to use baked vertex lighting; lead lighting artist for Jak Trilogy, sole lighter on Precursor Legacy - One of two tasked to learn Maya ahead of the art team (initially to produce high resolution versions of Crash assets for promotional materials, but eventually to facilitate team's transition from PowerAnimator) - First to learn MEL script, writing hundreds of tools to establish and streamline the production pipeline - First involved with R&D for PS2 and among first for PS3 (including collaboration with Sony's ICE Team) - Created base rig (and scripts to support it) used by all bipedal characters in the Jak Trilogy, but rigged and animated bosses with many more limbs Show less
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Staff Artist
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May 1994 - Oct 1996
Now full time with Western Technologies' newly formed game division, contributed 2D side-scrolling environments and animated sprites for Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Genesis, SNES). Helped art staff learn 3D Studio during transition from 2D. Established pipeline for batch converting 3D rendered 32-bit image sequences to indexed sprites. Learned PowerAnimator while modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, lighting, and rendering characters for an unreleased multimedia PC project. Now full time with Western Technologies' newly formed game division, contributed 2D side-scrolling environments and animated sprites for Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Genesis, SNES). Helped art staff learn 3D Studio during transition from 2D. Established pipeline for batch converting 3D rendered 32-bit image sequences to indexed sprites. Learned PowerAnimator while modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, lighting, and rendering characters for an unreleased multimedia PC project.
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Part-time Artist
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Jun 1990 - May 1994
Company's first dedicated video game artist. Despite working summers-only before Fall 1993, made immediate and significant contributions including pixel-pushed 2D animated sprites appearing within SEGA's million-plus selling X-Men for Genesis. Team's first 3D artist - learned 3D Studio Release 3 on personal time, volunteering rendered elements for Trivial Pursuit titles on SEGA CD and Windows. Company's first dedicated video game artist. Despite working summers-only before Fall 1993, made immediate and significant contributions including pixel-pushed 2D animated sprites appearing within SEGA's million-plus selling X-Men for Genesis. Team's first 3D artist - learned 3D Studio Release 3 on personal time, volunteering rendered elements for Trivial Pursuit titles on SEGA CD and Windows.
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Education
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1990 - 1994
University of Southern California
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Cinematography and Film/Video Production
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