Respawn hires artist from Private Ryan and 12 Monkeys

Film concept artist Matt Codd,whose workincludes The Matrix, the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens and, um, Bad Trout, has just joined the staff of fledgling superdev Respawn Entertainment as an Art Director, the company announced. Codd, whose favorite movies to work on have included Saving Private Ryan and The Chronicles of Riddick, says he's been interested in getting into games for some time now, and has some enthusiastic words for the state of his art as it's practiced in games. He's also charmingly upfront as to just how much he doesn't know about what he's getting into.


Above: Codd's work includes the baroque sci-fi designs for Chronicles of Riddick

“Things have gotten so speeded up and out of control in movies that it’s not so interesting,” says Codd in aninternal interview. “A lot of the guys that I know in movies, we see a lot of game design and think 'that’s awesome and I wish we were doing that'.” Codd, who says he's new to game design, says he's interested in the way games are “inventing as they go along and then seeing if it fits or if they need to take it out: it’s a far more imaginative way of coming up with entertainment.” He contrasts this to working on a film, where increasingly tight turnarounds mean “they slap a script in front of you... 80% of the movie is going to be made that way.” Admitting that “the first thing is for me to get an idea of what we’re working on,” he sounds eager to get started on the still-secret project. How important do you think good art design is in today's games?

Jul 18, 2011

Source:GamaSutra