David Astley
31 Hawkswood, Eccleston, Preston, UK
07809871873
Portfolio:
http://davidastley118.wix.com/portfolio
SUMMARY
As a highly motivated and very capable Level Artist, my goal is to create some of the best looking environments that inspire others to make their own. I enjoy working in a team environment where I am surrounded by other talented individuals who can push me to improve my own ability. Tight deadlines don't phase me and I pride myself on the organisational skills I have developed to ensure I always deliver on time. I have worked on a variety of very different tasks through all phases of a games production from initial blockout/whiteboxing of the level, outsourcing preparation for assets all the way to finalising and maintaining complete environments. Throughout my time within the industry I have learnt that games development is a complex process; which is why I always endeavour to communicate my ideas and feedback with honesty and clarity.
Artistic and Technical Expertise:
- Level building
- 3D Modelling
- Texture creation
- Experience in Unreal Engine 3 and 4
- Expert Knowledge of 3dsMax, Photoshop, Crazybump, dDo
- Substance Designer/Painter
- Basic Knowledge of Zbrush
- Comfortable working with Perforce, Hansoft, Testtrack Pro
Work Experience
Yager Development
Aug 2013 – Oct 2015
Dead Island 2
Level Artist
- Part of the team responsible for the open world of Dead Island 2
- Responsibilities include set dressing the world, building shell houses and enterable buildings with interiors, performance optimizations etc.
- Responsible for about 70% of the buildings in the game, including helping develop a modular system that allowed quick changes if needed as well as building interiors
- Some asset work, wherever needed but mainly whiteboxing and outsourcing prep
- Prototyping new games and systems
- Working inside a flat hierarchy team without leads (meaning organisation, planning, prioritisation etc. are being done by the individual artist himself/herself)
Jan 2013 – March 2013
Unannounced iPad Game
Freelance Environment Artist
I was contacted and asked if I wanted to help out on an unannounced iPad racing game. In the time I was helping, I contributed around 30 – 35 different buildings in around 6 weeks for the prototype level, which was then taken to GDC 2013.
Rockstar North – Edinburgh
Jan 2012 – June 2012
GTA V
QA Technician
Part of a small team of 8 testers who concentrate on ‘More Information’ bugs directly for the developers. This includes testing bugs which are already in the database and trying to achieve solid reproduction steps to help the developers see the problem more clearly and fix the problem faster. Other daily tasks include entering bugs into the database using Bugstar.
Codemasters – Leamington Spa
Nov 2010 – Oct 2011
DiRT3 and F1 2011
QA Technician
Daily tasks include the use of JIRA bug database, testing functionality of the game and reporting any bugs that I may find. Other testing experience includes; resolves, not checks, re-verifications and also testing a range of hardware, e.g. steering wheels and there compatibility.
2009 – 2010
AV and IT Technician
Installation and maintenance of IT systems, medical centre IT systems, digital operating theatres and AV technology.
2007
Runshaw Adult College
This work placement developed my skills and involved designing a scaled down bird’s eye floor plan of a working IT suite, installing and preparing a number of different computers, which could then be connected to an existing network.
Additional Experience
- Part of the modding community for Cities: Skylines on the Steam Workshop with a total download rate of around 70,000 for 3 buildings
​- Freelance work modelling a Daytona Coupe for Alan Mann Racing (AMR) to be used in a brochure and rendering
Education
2005 – 2007 FDND Degree: Computer Technology
Cisco CCNA Network Level 1
2004 – 2005 Foundation Certificate: Computer Games Design
2002 – 2004 AVCEs: Electronics and Engineering
Information Technology
1997 – 2002 9 GCSEs – 1B, 7C's, 1D