Well I guess I have been given the honor of writing an update today so here goes...
I will be writing about my favorite topic; myself. I thought I would fill you in on my journey through the halls of Interplay and how I became a member of the Planescape: Torment team...
Episode Four
It all started one day four years ago when I bought a computer, at least it was kind of a computer (Acer SX2/50). I tweaked and hacked at that thing for hours and days on end. One of my good friends (mentor) Darren saw that I was a natural at it so he offered me a job in the QA department here at good ol' Interplay. I did the testing thing for about four months then moved to a highly specialized job called "Win95 Tester". I know, I know big woop. The cool thing about the new jobbie was that I had a chance to test and work with this "new and improved" (eh eh) technology months before it was on the market. I did that for another four or five months.
Episode Five
At this point I had a good knowledge base dealing with computers and differing operating systems. Now I know you are asking. "What did you do then Captain A?" The Compatibility Dept (wazup Werner, wazup Dano)! Interplay was looking for a way to get really good feedback and testing from all sorts of hardware and software so we started a compatibility department with a few of the testers that had a solid knowledge of computers. I just happen to be one of the lucky few to get the opportunity. This was my first experience with building and configuring every sound, video, SCSI card not to mention every chip on the market at that time. Needless to say, so I shall say it, I learned a lot during that time.
Episode Six
Having established that, I was getting bored moving jumpers and dealing with hardware specific issues so I went back to the QA Dept as an IS Tech (wazup Delk). My duties included keeping the QA machines up and running so testing could get done in a timely efficient manner. Again I learned more about computers but this time it was in a working environment with end users, producers and programmers. I think I did this for about 9 months before I moved over to the art side...
Episode Seven
So here I am. I have been doing the art thing for about two years and am loving it. I started using 3DSr4 a few months before coming over to development so I had little knowledge of texturing, lighting and modeling. As soon as I was put in this project Seņor Timmy D said "We are using Lightwave but you can use Max". That lasted a day because it was a hassle to convert back and forth from the two so I learned Lightwave. Over the past 2 years I have been making geometry, texturing, lighting, painting, and currently doing some cool ambient animations for Torment. It has been a long road but it really feels good to see the level of detail and artwork we have busted out. Looking at some old stills and roughs of the levels shows that we have been kicking ass and will be getting the goods to the gamers! I guess that's it, thanks for your time peeps...
Aaron
Artist
ameyers at interplay.com
