CONTACT DETAILS

Email: benjdarling [AT] gmail.com

LinkedIn: Benjamin Darling (all recommendations are listed here)

PERSONAL SUMMARY

With over 8 years games industry experience, I am an experienced Technical Artist (shader programming), 3D Artist (environments, props and speciality in high poly hard surface modeling) and Level Designer, dedicated to quality and productivity. I am both an active leader and a team player, and due to my previous experiences with art/level design/programming, I am able to communicate excellently between both technical and non-technical individuals.

I am experienced in the development of both next-gen (HD) and previous generation (SD) art and pipelines. I have an extensive understanding of per-pixel, lightmap and vertex based lighting solutions. I am able to create efficient models while obtaining neat polygon flow and triangulation.

I take pride in my creative and logical problem solving abilities, assessing new technology as soon as it becomes readily available. I am an effecient worker, and produce quality results within limited time constraints.

I have a great understanding of hardware limitations and art optimisations from a technical perspective to be able to ensure content is running as optimially as possible.

I am an avid and passionate gamer who enjoys a wide variety of games. My favourite genres are 1st Person Shooters, 3rd Person Shooters, Sidescrolling Platformers (any action game really!) and Racing.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Euclideon
[ 2012 to 2013 ]
Artist
Various Projects (NDA restricted) - Environment/Prop modeling/texturing - Assisting with Shaders - Maxscript tools - Art pipeline workflow - 3D Laser Scanning

Sega Australia
[ 2011 to 2012 ]
Senior Environment Artist
2012 London Olympics (PS3/Xbox360/PC) - Environment/Prop modeling/texturing - Assisting with Shaders - Maxscript tools - Performance analysis and optimisations

Krome Studios
[ 2006 to 2010 ]
Senior Artist
Legends of the Guardians: Owls Of Gahoole (PS3/Xbox360) - Shaders - Technical Consultant - Environment modeling/textures/lighting - Assisting all artists when needed (creation + technically)   Engine Assistance (PS3/Xbox360/Wii) - Technical Artist - Feedback for tools pipelines - Bridge between programmers and artists - Prop modeling/textures   Engine Tech Demos (PS3/Xbox360) - Art Direction/Style - Environment modeling/textures/lighting - Character modeling/textures - Prop modeling/textures   Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii/PS2/PSP) - Env Artist (In-game Cutscenes, Misc level work) - Additional prop modeling (Props in cutscenes)   Hellboy (PS3/Xbox360) - Environment Artist
Torus Games
[ 2004 to 2006 ]
Lead Level Designer
Shrek Smash'n'Crash Racing (PS2/GC/DS/PSP) - Level Design (Lead) - Level Building (Rapid Prototyping)   Classified: The Sentinel Crisis (PS2/Xbox) - Entity Scripting - AI Navigational Data   Ashen 2 (N-Gage) - Cancelled - Level Design - Level Building (Geometry/Applying Textures/Lighting) - Entity Placement and Scripting   Legion (PSP) - Tech Demo - Level Design - Level Building (Geometry/Applying Textures/Lighting)   First to Fight (PSP) - Tech Demo - Level Building (Geometry/Applying Textures/Lighting)   Gumby (GBA) - Level Design - Level Building - Entity Placement and Scripting   Full Metal Alchemist (PSP) - Tech Demo - Level Design - Level Building (Geometry/Applying Textures/Lighting) - Shaders/Special Effects   Parkour (PSP) - Demo - Level Design - Level Building (Geometry/Applying Textures/Lighting)

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

EDUCATION AND AWARDS

INTERESTS

• Mod Making (level design/modeling/programming)
• Playing Computer/Video Games - Mostly fast paced First Person Shooters... Quake Series, Doom Series, BFBC 2 etc. Also console sidescrollers, Mario World (1 & 2), Mario Kart
• Architecture
• Basketball
• Pool (the green variety)
• Swimming (the blue variety)
• Movies... can't see enough!
• TV Series - Fringe, The Big Bang Theory, How I met your mother, Futurama, The Simpsons
• My daughter Jasmine

PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Lectures/Presentations - Monash University and LaTrobe (Telstra Dome, IT Careers Expo 2005)

Monash University:

I delivered a presentation on the process involved with a typical game development cycle in the games industry. I also went on to explain the basics of some of the different types of technology that would be used on different platforms to help give the students an overall understanding of how the industry works.

LaTrobe:
"Ben Darling was a level designer long before he joined Torus Games. His skills were mostly self-taught, making levels for Duke Nukem and Quake, including all the programming and level building in between. This took him through packages such as GTK Radiant and 3D Studio Max. His other skills include Java, Flash / Action Script, OpenGL and C programming.
Ben joined Torus Games after finishing his Bachelor of Multimedia Systems in Programming at Monash University. His responsibilities since joining have included AI scripting, path-finding, level design, level building and entity placement for a number of projects on PS2, N-Gage, PSP and GBA. The projects consisted of first person shooters, side scrolling platformers and third person adventures. Ben's current project is a new style of game for him on the PS2."

Re:       http://luis.latrobe.edu.au/SciTechRegistration/sessionHtml/sessionB-3.htm
            http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/content/download/2524/10151/file/Ben+Darling.pdf