QUALIFICATIONS
- Award-winning Art Director with over 13 years experience in the games industry in both Japan
and the US.
- Deep knowledge of entire game production cycle gained from developing variations
of games and leading teams of up to 70 employees.
- Held a variety of roles including Art Director, Creative Director and Producer;
each of these positions contributed to an increase in creativity and the
overall ability to make production more realistic.
SKILLS
Core
Competencies: Senior-level Art Direction , Concept
illustration, 3D modeling and animation, high
quality art and finish, Project Planning/Scheduling, strong work ethic.
Software expert: Maya, Lightwave, Softimage3D, Photoshop, ZBrush
Software intermediate: 3ds Max, Illustrator,
After Effects, Unreal 3, painter, Vue,
Software Business: MS Project, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Word
EMPLOYMENT
HISTORY
Applied Research Associates, Virtual Heroes Serious game Division
Art
Director (2007/6 - present
- Responsible for all aspect of artistic designs for all projects. Led concept
team and conducted designing effort myself. Achieved client's exceptional
satisfaction.
- Responsible for scheduling/planning and
successfully delivered various projects which range from $100k to $3million. Delivered over 20 games within 2years.
- Achieved unbelievable visual quality for
serious games utilizing Unreal 3 engine.
- Spearheading, discovering this new genre of
"Serious games". Helped clients to define learning objective and fun
factor.
Electronic
Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Producer (2006/8
– 2007/5) 10months
Tiberium (Xbox 360,
PS3) canceled one year after I left EA
- Responsible for creation and completion for the half of game missions.
- Maganes assets, resources and budgets.
- Worked with the Central Technology Group and craft leads to manage new
technologies and establish pipelines.
Art
Director (2003/2
- 2006/8) 3years 6months
Tiberium (Xbox 360,
PS3) (2005 - 2006) canceled one year after I left EA
- Led the Art Team to create complete a bland new universe as well as being
responsible for the quality.
- Worked with Character technical director to set the studio's standard rig
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (Playstation2, Xbox, Game Cube) (2003 – 2004)
- Led efforts to translate ambitious ideas of 6 creative producers into captivation
artwork completing the project within 19months
- Hired and Art Directed a team of 70 and collaborated with renowned international
designers to generate high-quality visuals
- Only 4 months before the shipping , managed the hige re-design of whole
art content demanded by the new Executive Producer.
Konami
Corporation
Studio Creative
Director, Konami of America (2002/1 – 2003/2) 1year 1month
- Streamlined and redirected staff to position studio to produce executable
ideas. Designed mind map chart used at all meetings to focus on essential
game-play features and pre-production organization.
- Guided American studio and creative team to meet needs and expectations
of Japanese head quarters
- Initiated first-ever incorporation of marketing ideas and research into
product development in the company's history.
CGI
Director, Konami, Tokyo and Konami of America (1999/6 – 2001/12)
2years 6months
Silent Hill 2 (Playstation 2, Xbox, PC)
- Took initiative to lead both art direction and creative direction. Pursued relocation to the U.S. to spearhead development of international best selling games.
- Challenged to focus creative team of Silent Hill 2 on creating strong game
design with profit potential. Composed story line, game system, and earned
a large fan base. The game has spawned 6 sequals and subsequently been
made into a feature-length film.
CGI Director/CGI Artist Konami, Tokyo (1996/9 – 1999/6) 2years 9months
Silent Hill (PS1)
- Played key role in character design. environment/mood design, story creation
for the ground-breaking 3D game, SIlent Hill which has sold over 2million
copies.
- In 2.5 years without staff assistance, completed award-winning all CGI
cut scenes singlehandedly. The work includes high-rez characters, environment
modeling, texturing, animating, lighting, all aspects of Computer Graphics.
Artist/Animator, Konami, Tokyo (1996/4 - 1996/8) 5months
Sexy Parodius (PS1,
Sega Saturn)
- Led and participate creating animation for porting Sexy Parodius game for
Playstation and Sega Saturn, maintaining high art Quality despite significantly
reduced specifications.
EDUCATION
Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan
Bachelor of Fine Art / Oil Painting
INTERVIEWS,
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, AND ART EXHIBITS
- 2009: Feature article "The art of character building"for Game
Developer Magazine 2009 December issue
- 2009: Panelist for panel discussion "future of serious games"
for NHK (Japanese government owned TV station)
- 2009: Character design for "Fem-fatale", an indy game for Tale
of Tales, Belgium based company.
- 2007:Speaker at Digital Game Expo
- 2006 Guest Teacher at TrueMax CG Animation school in Denmark
- 2005: Maya Master Class, Siggraph,
- 2001: Speaker at SoftImage User's Meeting,
- 1999: "CG's Worth in the Future" at Osaka Digital Arts Festival,
- 1999:Feature article, Graphics World,
- Led and perticipated Art Exhibit, Tama Vavin, Tokyo 1996; Tama Vavin Art
Exhibits, Tokyo 1994 and 1995; Sixibition Art Exhibit, Tokyo 1993.
Interviewed by hundreds of gaming magazines and publications including
The LA Times, Gamers Republic, Official Playstation Magazine, IGN, Next
Gen, Edge, Official X-Box Magazine, Joypad, CG World, Nikkei CG, Flickers,
Famitsu, Graphic World, Gamasutra.com, and the book Game Design: Secrets
of the Sages.
Three most recent web interviews
http://coregamer.web.simplesnet.pt/sato.html
http://tale-of-tales.com/blog/interviews/interview-with-takayoshi-sato/
AWARDS