The Academy realtime (not concept)

[Zoso Fan]

Mikey Spano is one of the level designers/artist for gears of war. You all have probaly seen the concept art for the academy environment of gears well here is it all in realtime on Mikey's website:
http://www.mikeyspano.com/3d-high%20page%201.htm

[jsh2006]

Mikey Spano is one of the level designers/artist for gears of war. You all have probaly seen the concept art for the academy environment of gears well here is it all in realtime on Mikey's website:
http://www.mikeyspano.com/3d-high%20page%201.htm

Nice find Zoso!

[Uday23]

so beautiful, too bad im going to have to destroy it all!

[Britainz-Finest]

Sweet..
Realtime, does that mean what it looks like running on a console in game?
And it that it is in game graphics. Becuase i've seen some of the trailers for Ps3 and there are people saying its not real time or in game...

[Zoso Fan]

PS3 is questionable but everything using the Unreal Engine 3 (including gears of war) has all been real-time, no cg exists. The game actually looks this insanely good!:) Ill Pm you some examples!

[ChaosKnight]

That looks awesome but you can tell its not concept if you look at it.

[Zoso Fan]

i know, its just concept art is out there of the academy (the building in the pictures

[Mikey]

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that those images aren't actually from Gears of War. When I was trying to get a job over here (about 7 months ago or so) I did a test for our Art Director and Lead Artist (Jerry O'Flaherty and Chris Perna, respectively) to try to prove that I was Epic material. It turned out ok, but I assure you Danny Rodriguez' model (the one that is actually used in the game) is about 100x better :) . The artists on this team are absolutely amazing, I'm floored on a daily basis!

Anyway, thanks for the positive comments; and hopefully soon you will actually be able to see some real Gears art!

|| Mikey Spano || Artist || Epic Games ||

[danrod15]

Ahaha Just saw this thread Mikey!! Hey yo Mikey! Dude yours rocks to man!! Just as good brotha!

[UnrealWars]

Ahaha Just saw this thread Mikey!! Hey yo Mikey! Dude yours rocks to man!! Just as good brotha!

Im going to put two and two together and say that you know Mikey.:D

[Zoso Fan]

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that those images aren't actually from Gears of War. When I was trying to get a job over here (about 7 months ago or so) I did a test for our Art Director and Lead Artist (Jerry O'Flaherty and Chris Perna, respectively) to try to prove that I was Epic material. It turned out ok, but I assure you Danny Rodriguez' model (the one that is actually used in the game) is about 100x better :) . The artists on this team are absolutely amazing, I'm floored on a daily basis!

Anyway, thanks for the positive comments; and hopefully soon you will actually be able to see some real Gears art!

|| Mikey Spano || Artist || Epic Games ||

Wow, thanks for postin man! :) Good thing you got the job, that sounds like a difficult test to me. Cool that the game looks even better!

[Mikey]

Ahaha Just saw this thread Mikey!! Hey yo Mikey! Dude yours rocks to man!! Just as good brotha!
Haha.. Danny, you need to get the Epic shield!

[Mikey]

Wow, thanks for postin man! :) Good thing you got the job, that sounds like a difficult test to me. Cool that the game looks even better!
Hey, thanks.. Yeah it was definitely a learning experience. The detail that Jerry and Chris look for is insane, and it really shows in the game. I find myself running through a level and not even paying attention to what's going on because I'm too busy drooling over all the crazy architecture! You will not be disappointed!

|| Mikey Spano || Artist || Epic Games ||

[David]

Mikey got skill-z

[DarkHero 1]

Looks awesome.

[SkateXer99]

screenshots page is awesome.


TOO. MUCH. DETAIL.

[Mikey]

screenshots page is awesome.


TOO. MUCH. DETAIL.
that was rainbow six 4 for the PC.. Decent Graphics, but not too much fun to play :)

[SkateXer99]

I wanna know, how did you come across EPIC and just how did you send them a resume for a mapper? Were they hiring and saw something you made that interested them, or did you send them work yourself?

[DarkHero 1]

Nice find.

[cUnNiNg_StUnTs]

Mikey, what about any of the art on the 3D low pages like the lion head door knocker and the fountain?

Did any of your original concepts make it into Gears or UT2007?

[Mikey]

I wanna know, how did you come across EPIC and just how did you send them a resume for a mapper? Were they hiring and saw something you made that interested them, or did you send them work yourself?
I always wanted to work at Epic, but I knew I wasn't good enough when I started out. So I worked at another great company (Red Storm/Ubisoft) for about 4 years or so until I felt like I needed to move on. Once I decided I was ready I put together a quick portfolio and sent it over to the HR department here. I landed an on-site art test, which was basically a day of just hanging out and working in the engine trying to prove that I could do the job (I ended up going out to lunch with Cliff and a bunch of the Level designers, which was awesome). So, after the test I got an interview, I met just about everyone in the company, and I even got to go to lunch with all the big guys over here (Lee Perry, Jim Brown, and Mike Capps - all of them are awesome, BTW). After that, I was called back in for another test, and BAM the next day I found out I DIDN'T get the job! I was devastated, but level design was really my backup plan all along - I really wanted to do Environment art/modeling; so I immediately mailed Jerry (whom I met on the first interview) to tell him I was not deterred and that he would hear from me soon :)
So I dug around and found some nice Gears concept art and just started trucking away on the high poly model. When I was all finished, I sent my renders over to Jerry, Chris, and Paul (lead artist on UT2k7) and landed another interview. The interview went well (again) and a few weeks later I got the offer. I couldn't stop smiling and shaking for a few days, and when I started over here, I never looked back :)

[Mikey]

Mikey, what about any of the art on the 3D low pages like the lion head door knocker and the fountain?

Did any of your original concepts make it into Gears or UT2007?
All of that stuff was from Rainbow Six 4 for the PC. At this point I have a ton of stuff in Gears, I'll post it all on my web site whenever I'm allowed :)

Mikey

[SkateXer99]

I always wanted to work at Epic, but I knew I wasn't good enough when I started out. So I worked at another great company (Red Storm/Ubisoft) for about 4 years or so until I felt like I needed to move on. Once I decided I was ready I put together a quick portfolio and sent it over to the HR department here. I landed an on-site art test, which was basically a day of just hanging out and working in the engine trying to prove that I could do the job (I ended up going out to lunch with Cliff and a bunch of the Level designers, which was awesome). So, after the test I got an interview, I met just about everyone in the company, and I even got to go to lunch with all the big guys over here (Lee Perry, Jim Brown, and Mike Capps - all of them are awesome, BTW). After that, I was called back in for another test, and BAM the next day I found out I DIDN'T get the job! I was devastated, but level design was really my backup plan all along - I really wanted to do Environment art/modeling; so I immediately mailed Jerry (whom I met on the first interview) to tell him I was not deterred and that he would hear from me soon :)
So I dug around and found some nice Gears concept art and just started trucking away on the high poly model. When I was all finished, I sent my renders over to Jerry, Chris, and Paul (lead artist on UT2k7) and landed another interview. The interview went well (again) and a few weeks later I got the offer. I couldn't stop smiling and shaking for a few days, and when I started over here, I never looked back :)

The very beginning part about wanting to work at EPIC was probably the only thing I have in common with all that. I'd love to work for EPIC, it's my favorite company and all their games are awesome thus far, and ever since I got the first UT (2000 I think I got it) I've done nothing but mess with the unreal editor. Although a real problem happened when I was never able to keep a version of UT2003/2004 (played it at houses and looked at the editor once) and I was never able to make anything for those UT's.

Plus, I don't have any modeling experience, which also dampens the mapping ways. But I guess if I save up money from work, buy a modelling program and the custom edition UT2004 and just map and model for a few years, the vision of having my name under mappers in the credits of an EPIC game may one day come true, but it's a real long ways away.

But it's cool to know how you got in, especially the lunch with EPIC's biggest.

[cUnNiNg_StUnTs]

All of that stuff was from Rainbow Six 4 for the PC. At this point I have a ton of stuff in Gears, I'll post it all on my web site whenever I'm allowed :)

Mikey

Awesome thanks for the reply. :)