Matt Brunner
Program Director and Senior Lecturer: Game Art Development, VFX, Houdini
Creative Director and Art Director: narrative direction / cinematics / art direction / animation and mocap direction
____________________________________________________________
[email protected]
(425) 466-7347
Overview
Creative lead / team manager in the games and animation industry for 20 years
Work Experience
DigiPen Institute of Technology, Redmond, WA (November 2015 - Present)
Program Director, MA in Real-Time VFX (August 2020 - Present)
Senior Lecturer in Production and Animation
PerBlue Entertainment, Madison, WI: (November 2014 - November (2015)
Creative Director
Airtight Games, Redmond, WA: (March 2005 – May 2014)
Chief Creative Officer/VP
Murdered: Soul Suspect – Square Enix (2014 - PC, XBOX 360, PS3, XBOX One, PS4)
Game Director / Cinematics and Animation Director / Interim Art Director
Dark Void – Capcom USA (2009 - PC, XBOX 360, PS3)
Art Director / Game Director / Cinematics and Animation Director
Games created within Airtight Games where I acted as an advisor and support manager:
Microsoft Games Studios / FASA (June 1999 – Dec 2005)
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (2003, Xbox)
Cinematics and Animation Director / Story Director
Dante (2000– an unpublished third person action/adventure Xbox title)
Art Director, Animation and Cinemtics director, acting Creative Director
Blood Wake (developer - Stormfront Studios, 2001)
3rd party art director
Will Vinton Studios, Portland, Oregon (1993-1999)
Director (1997-1999)
Director of Digital Production (1993-1997)
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. (1991 -1993)
Video production professor and video director/editor
Chapter One Television, Houston, Texas (1987-1990)
Art Director
Education
Master of Science in Visualization Sciences, Texas A&M University Visualization Lab (1990-1993)
Tech art with a heavy dose of 3D animation, digital effects, modeling, texturing, audio and video production, post production techniques, graphics programming
B.F.A. painting/sculpture, University of Colorado, Boulder (1975-1979)
Software Experience
Program Director and Senior Lecturer: Game Art Development, VFX, Houdini
Creative Director and Art Director: narrative direction / cinematics / art direction / animation and mocap direction
____________________________________________________________
[email protected]
(425) 466-7347
Overview
Creative lead / team manager in the games and animation industry for 20 years
- Houdini generalist - dynamics, simulations, pyro, particle systems, look dev, motion design
- Creative Director - developing new IP, look and feel, and game design approaches
- Game direction: creative vision and consistency of games as an integrated experience.
- Animation and cinematics direction
- Art direction
- Mocap and voice/acting direction
- Narrative Direction: Story, world and IP development
- Team building, management, project organization, and strategic planning
Work Experience
DigiPen Institute of Technology, Redmond, WA (November 2015 - Present)
Program Director, MA in Real-Time VFX (August 2020 - Present)
- Oversee the Masters program in Visual Effects for Real-Time Engines
- Primary focus is on Unreal, Niagara, and Houdini pipelines and workflows
Senior Lecturer in Production and Animation
- Procedural Art and Tech art (Houdini)
- Developed and taught new courses in production and game art creation for games
- Work closely with up to 50 teams of students, each team making a game from start to finish
- Interconnect the different faculty from diverse areas of expertise including programming, design, audio and art
- Mentor MFA students on their thesis projects
- Teach art production software (Houdini,Photoshop, Maya, Spine, Unity, Premiere, After Effects)
PerBlue Entertainment, Madison, WI: (November 2014 - November (2015)
Creative Director
- Responsible for the creative vision of new products, primarily the mobile RPG, Dragonsoul
- Developed a new IP and creative approach for Dragonsoul
- Worked closely with a large team of internal and external artists to prototype and realize a new look and feel for a mobile RPG
- Worked closely with the Design and Tech teams as well as Marketing, Publishing, and Management
- Supervised and gave direct feedback to the entire art team and collaborated closely with game design
- Created the most successful game at PerBlue to date
Airtight Games, Redmond, WA: (March 2005 – May 2014)
Chief Creative Officer/VP
- Shared the responsibilities of upper management: oversight of our projects, budgeting, scheduling, new IP and pitching, publishing and 3rd party relations, facilities, HR and recruiting.
- Reviewed the overall creative direction and consistency of our games
- Game Director: Reviewed the overall creative direction and consistency of our games, making sure that all the teams were in sync and aligned with the primary design goals and story
- Art Director and Cinematics/Animation Director on most projects
- Story and Narrative design/direction on all AAA titles
- Total number of employees: 85 + external outsource
Murdered: Soul Suspect – Square Enix (2014 - PC, XBOX 360, PS3, XBOX One, PS4)
Game Director / Cinematics and Animation Director / Interim Art Director
- Directed in-game animation, scripted events, and approximately half of the final cinematics
- Directed and coordinated the overall integration and continuity of the narrative entertainment and gameplay experience, acting as the primary liaison between the Creative Director from Square Enix and the rest of the team.
- Directed motion capture, VO sessions and storyboard creation
- Supervised and guided the foundational art direction and story development
- Acted as a spokesperson for the product to the media and outside facing marketing and PR.
Dark Void – Capcom USA (2009 - PC, XBOX 360, PS3)
Art Director / Game Director / Cinematics and Animation Director
- Oversaw and directed the art, animation and cinematic teams
- Supervised and guided story development, mission structure, and narrative dependent level design
- Directed the integration of gameplay into the narrative experience,
- Creative guidance and integration of core gameplay design and mechanics.
Games created within Airtight Games where I acted as an advisor and support manager:
- Quantum Conundrum (PC, XBOX Live, Playstation network ), Soul Fjord (Ouja), Pixl’d Bits (Mobile), Monmo (Sony, unpublished), Renegade (Airtight internal)
Microsoft Games Studios / FASA (June 1999 – Dec 2005)
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (2003, Xbox)
Cinematics and Animation Director / Story Director
- Directed all cinematics and animation in the game including mocap and VO
- Directed and coordinated the story and narrative level design
- Coordinating the integration of art, cinematics, story, UI and game design into a cohesive whole
Dante (2000– an unpublished third person action/adventure Xbox title)
Art Director, Animation and Cinemtics director, acting Creative Director
Blood Wake (developer - Stormfront Studios, 2001)
3rd party art director
Will Vinton Studios, Portland, Oregon (1993-1999)
Director (1997-1999)
- Directed character animation based commercials in both computer and stop motion for national brand clients including: 3Musketeers, M&M’s, Clorox, Chili’s, Pepcid AC, Puffs, and NesQuik
- Headed the character development process for several brands including: 3Musketeers, Puffs, Pepcid AC, and NesQuik
- Creative and storyboard development, strong experience in pitching ideas to clients
- Oversaw live action and VO shoots, pre-production, production, and post-production on all commercials I directed
Director of Digital Production (1993-1997)
- Developed the computer animation department from its conception to a large, successful character animation facility with over 45 animation, technical, and support staff.
- I continued to work as both an animator and technical director while managing the facility. My responsibilities were broad, self defined and self directed. Projects which I worked directly with included M&M's, Chips Ahoy, Glade, Burger King, and Warner Brothers' “Marvin the Martian in the 3rd Dimension”.
- Assembled a large staff of full time and free lance talent, developed training mechanisms, implemented scheduling procedures, managed the work flow, supervised the staff on a one-to-one basis (including performance reviews), resolved conflicts and issues, maintained communications across many groups, oversaw planning meetings, devised and managed budgets and managed the IT dept.
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. (1991 -1993)
Video production professor and video director/editor
- Taught undergraduate courses in basic video production.
- Produced and directed a documentary video for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to secure funding for community centers being built in the Colonias along the Texas/Mexico border.
Chapter One Television, Houston, Texas (1987-1990)
Art Director
- Responsible for all visual materials for two live, weekly, educational programs. This included animation, video effects, special effects, graphics, sets, props, costumes and puppets.
Education
Master of Science in Visualization Sciences, Texas A&M University Visualization Lab (1990-1993)
Tech art with a heavy dose of 3D animation, digital effects, modeling, texturing, audio and video production, post production techniques, graphics programming
B.F.A. painting/sculpture, University of Colorado, Boulder (1975-1979)
Software Experience
- Maya, Unreal 3 and 4, Unity, FaceFx, Creative Cloud, Premiere, After Effects, Spine
- Code education: Pascal, C, C++
- Management and production: Jira, Powerpoint, Excel, Word, Perforce, SVN, Redmine, Slack
- Microsoft's proprietary game engines