Were you the kind of kid who would doodle a lot in class?
Oh yeah. Most people from my industry grew up exactly the same way—almost mirror lives. We grew up playing video games, had a lot of toys, built kit models, and of course watched Star Wars. The big films are Star Wars, Aliens, and Blade Runner—those three definitely changed what I wanted to do when I grew up. I drew a lot in high school and got in trouble for that—I got in trouble a lot in college, too. I actually went to UC-Berkeley for architecture because my parents, being Asian, didn’t really understand this world—most people don’t. They go, “You’re going to draw, you’re going to starve.” So I thought maybe I’d try architecture, and there (UC-Berkeley) I got in a lot of trouble for doing designs that weren’t meant for architecture, because I’d draw weird spaceships and things like that. They want very traditional things. So I dropped out of there and pursued my dream to do films.
How did you figure out that film design was your dream career?
The school that I went to, Art Center College of Design (in Pasadena, Calif.), was pretty good about exposing you to what’s out there. When I was growing up, there were no DVDs, no “making of” (documentaries), nothing like that. There was VHS and you watched the movie and that was it. Now it’s a lot easier to learn about our industry because of all the behind-the-scenes stuff that every DVD comes with. But back then, no one knew what preproduction looked like; you wouldn’t even know where to apply for a job. But the school I went to, a lot of professionals worked there. So I went into the gallery and saw all of this really cool artwork, and I knew this was what I wanted to do.
Were there any particular illustrators that influenced or inspired you?
Syd Mead is probably the biggest one—he influences most of us in the industry. He was probably one of the first concept guys to really do a lot of stuff. And then artists of Star Wars—Joe Johnson, Ralph McQuarrie; these guys are a huge influence on what I do today.
What was your first big break as a conceptual artist?
I got pretty lucky. I went to GDC nine years ago, and I wore my school T-shirt which said Art Center, and I got picked out of the crowd by a producer who asked me if I was looking for a job. So I was like, “Actually, I am looking for a job.” So I sent him my resume and portfolio, and I ended up working in Austin for EA for a year. That’s it. Once you have one job, it’s a lot easier to roll into the other ones. So I got pretty lucky finding my first gig, actually.
How was it different illustrating as a job as opposed to for fun?
It’s definitely different. When you do it as a job, you still do it professionally—you give it all you’ve got—but I think some of the better ideas that I have in mind, I never give them to my clients. Because I want to do my own stuff with that. Once you give it to your client, that’s it—they have your design forever and you can never use it again. So if I have a really cool idea for, say, a new propulsion system for a spaceship, I might give a hint of that to the client, but not the whole thing in my head. So that’s the big difference. Ultimately, they’re hiring us for our minds, and we can’t just sell everything in our heads to the clients, otherwise they’ll own pretty much all of our ideas.
How did you go from the video game industry into film work?
It was a pretty smooth transition, I guess. I went from games to another production house called Blur, and they happened to do game cinematics, not game design. They also do some TV commercials and stuff. So I spent about two years there, and that gave me a chance to work on all sorts of stuff, and it gave me a lot of exposure to film work. In-game art has a very different look than what film stuff is, so over there I did a lot of wide-ratio-format drawings.
Do you take different approaches between your film work and video game work?
They’re very different. Films definitely have a bigger audience—when you design for film, everyone can see it on the screen; whereas with the game market, you’re pretty much limited to age 35 and under. But the thing is, when you’re designing for games, the freedom is way more open because it’s a lot easier to change anything in games. In films, once they build a million-dollar set, you can’t change anything—it costs a lot. But in games, whatever you draw, they can try it and model it. Most games these days, they translate my stuff exactly over to the game.
Have you worked on any other movies since Episode III?
After that, I actually worked with James Cameron for a while, but his project is really hush, so I can’t talk about it. You know Cameron; he doesn’t want anyone to talk about his stuff. I worked there for almost seven months—a very small team, just two other artists and me. It should be a pretty cool film, but I don’t know if it’ll get made. It’s huge. That was really fun to work with him—a completely different director, a very hands-on type of guy. And also, Cameron draws himself, so oftentimes I’d actually take some of his sketches and translate them into designs.
Any advice to aspiring conceptual designers?
There are no shortcuts. I’ve been teaching for about four years, and every student wants to know the secret of getting better. But there is no secret. The harder you work, the more you draw, the better you get.
