Anywhere you look these days you will find some story boasting the fact that game budgets are increasing and matching those of movies. You will also, by now, be familiar with the fact that the game industry is challenging Hollywood for worldwide entertainment dominance. As proof of those industry achievements however, you will almost certainly get a set of figures which, in most cases, may be manipulated and which usually cause more confusion than enlightment.
If you were in any doubt as to the scale of the gaming industry's progress, look no further than EALA, the L.A. division of the biggest game's publishers in the world. EA have been consistently turning to the movie industry in order to look for talent for almost every aspect of game development. Their considerable list of transfers includes music score composers, special effects wizzards and people that do anything from lighting to make-up on movie sets.
EA is continually on the look out for fresh talent and the this recruitmnet blitz can certainly account for a large part of the rising cost of game development, since all of those movie experts have to be enticed by the use of hefty pay packages.
Among those recruited by EA are people that worked on the visual effects on Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, Walt Disney effects animators, a Weapons Modeler from The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions and a CG supervisor from Gone in 60 Seconds and Unbreakable.
The full list of EALA's most recent movie industry transfers is provided, courtesy of XenGGamers.com:
David Wainstain: Senior Cinematics Supervisor, comes to EA with over eight years experience in feature film visual effects. While at Dream Quest Images, he created effects for such films as Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Flubber and ConAir. Prior to Dream Quest, David did effects animation for episodic television, including work for Babylon 5 and Hypernauts. David has been responsible for lighting, modeling, texturing and effects throughout his career.
Charles Anderson: Effects Animator, most recently served as the Atmospheric FX Supervisor at Centropolis where he worked on Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. Anderson was a partner and the director of Professional Services at Steamboat Software, and spent three years at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was the CG supervisor on Gone in 60 Seconds and Unbreakable. He was also the technical director on Dinosaur, ConAir, Flubber and Armageddon.
Kevin Lee: Effects Animator, previously worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation as a visual effects animator on such films as Treasure Planet and Atlantis. Other film credits include senior animator on Mission to Mars and animator on Inspector Gadget at Dream Quest Images. Lee's game experience includes animation on six games at Kronos Digital Entertainment and art direction on 11 games at Sega Interactive Development Division.
Larry White: Character Animator, has an extensive background in character animation. His work at Walt Disney Studios included Treasure Planet, The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Dinosaur. Other credits include Scooby Doo and The Wild Thornberry's Movie.
James Dargie: Weapons Modeler, brings to EALA a high level of cross-disciplinary experience in both film and games. Dargie most recently worked as a modeler for ESC Entertainment on the feature films Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions; and as a lead CG artist on the feature film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He also worked on Metroid Prime for Retro Studios as a senior artist, and as a senior modeler at LucasArts.
Dr. Andrew Garrett: Joins EALA from Dragonstone Software, where he developed scientific engines for moving hair and clothes on game characters, and artificial intelligence routines for more than 35 creatures in the Dragon's Lair 3D game.
Jimmy Alamparambil: Comes to EALA from Check Six Studios, where he was the director of computer graphics technology. While at Check Six, he wrote most of the graphics engine for Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly for the PlayStation 2. He also ported the Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly graphics engine to the Nintendo GameCube. Alamparambil was also a software engineer for ATI, where he worked with third-party developers.
Michael Myles: Brings to EALA extensive experience as a sound designer and recording engineer. He was nominated for a MPSE Golden Reel award for his work as dialogue editor on Rugrats, The Movie. He also has worked at Vivendi Universal Net as a senior sound engineer, as well as MP3.com and Klasky Csupo.