Welcome to alumni live the podcast.

These are conversations with grand valley state university film and video

graduates about the industry, the film, video, major and alumni profiles.

Thanks for hanging out Curie.

Hi.

Hello, Randy.

Hey, so Curie Quackenbush, you graduated just in 2019 pretty recently.

, you studied film and video grand valley as we're here with the, uh,

film and video alumni chapter of the grand valley alumni association.

And, , you are doing some crazy cool stuff right now in the video games industry.

Yeah.

, it's really cool.

I currently work as a cinematic artist on the Sims team with EA, , working on

trailers and videos, all using the same.

, to produce things for social media and across content for EA marketing

initiatives and other things that are way beyond just marketing, but

also just for entertainment purposes.

, it's been a wild ride.

, like you said, I graduated last year, 2019.

, literally a day after I graduated, I moved out to the east coast.

I was living in an Airbnb, , looking for a job.

, I ended up working at, , Adobe as their motion graphics,

outreach associate for awhile.

, somebody there towards the end of the year for my contract position at Adobe.

, recommended me for a project with Conde Nast.

And they just happened to be looking for someone who did Sims videos

and Sims projects, which was crazy because I've been loving the Sims

and playing it my whole life.

I used to get grounded for making Sims videos way past

my bedtime when I was a kid.

And, , at this point, Conda Nass was looking for someone like.

I ended up doing the project.

, the EA representative on the team referred me to the internal team

and they were like, Hey, we need to cinematic artists on the Sims team.

Would you like to join us?

And long story short?

That's my story.

That's how I am, where I am.

Yeah.

And I, , we are going to roll some tape in a second, but I just, before we jump

into that, what was that call like?

Like , when they asked you, to come in and make some cinematics in

the sins, what, what did that feel?

Oh, my gosh, I'm like shaking thinking about it right now because it felt so

surreal and it still feels really surreal.

It's a total honor for me right now to be a part of the team.

It felt like someone just reached out and said, Hey, your childhood

dream can be your career.

Would you like to do it now?

I was like, of course, I'll do it.

Sure.

I'd love to.

It really feels like a dream come true.

It's crazy.

And it's hard, but it's very fulfilling.

And I, I, , it sounds like it was just a magic time in your life.

, Hey, let's take a look at some of the type of work you do.

Not necessarily one that you made, , as, as your we'll be coming out shortly.

, but let's, let's take a look at that.

Yeah.

Drains your Ville, this happy desert community is a great

place to bring your family.

Absolutely nothing bad.

They're lying to you.

Something bad is happening here.

And it's only getting worse.

People are acting weird.

Purple blowing, pot plant things are sprouting up all around town.

Suspicious, man.

Federal agents have invaded the streets, so things up and we're going to prove it.

Choose the new aspiration stranger Ville mystery.

It will help guide your investigation.

First things.

First question the locals, maybe stick to the scientists and military personnel.

They know the truth.

One thing.

Everyone will tell you something's going on in next secret lab.

I mean, it's in a giant crater, the size of wind and bird, huh?

It looks deserved.

What was that came from in there?

We need a key card.

I can help get you one, but we'll need to gather some evidence.

First search the lab, take plenty of photos and the locals

they're hiding something.

I know it.

Playing a bug on him, then you can listen in on their secrets with enough

evidence in the right connections.

Keycode is yours open Sesame?

Okay.

Now let's see what's happening around me.

This is the mystery that this community has to offer.

Stranger bill changes.

That looks like a so much fun to make.

Yeah.

I really love that trailer.

, I chose that one to show for a couple of reasons.

One stranger Ville is my favorite game pack for the 10th floor.

I was impacted so much by that pack that honestly, I really

want to go ahead and just.

Dive into it as a thing.

, but on another note that gameplay trailer is something that's very

similar to something that I'm working on with my team right now.

And I can't say anything about it, but I'm very excited about

the next pack that's going to come out and what we're working on.

, and that's the very similar kind of style to what we're working on.

Our team works on several different types of trailers, so

that one's a gameplay trailer.

You saw how it showed all the details of how the game works and like what you click

and what you go through in the game pack.

, and we also do more like reveals cinematic style trailers, which

don't have any voiceover usually.

And really just, you know, just give an over an overlay or a C.

To paint a picture of what the game is like.

, and right now we're working on all of the above and, , yeah, I really love that.

As an example, I love the back and forth of how it gets all spooky.

And then it's also very, , happy and light.

And that really is what the game is like when you experience it.

And that's why it's one of my favorites.

Yeah.

So to, to kind of like pull back into your process a little bit.

So, you know, you're making these cinematics, you're talking about , what

the core of the game is, what the player's going to, , experience.

How do you convey that?

So video games are like a interactive, medium.

How do you convey that?

, a little less interactive, like film a video.

Yeah.

So I think that that's the big question, right?

, especially as someone who's in a typical film and video career in college, , you

don't really think about how can I apply these skills to a video game.

Right.

But I think especially now more and more today, games are

really becoming a very similar.

It's entertainment experience.

And, , being able to take that knowledge of film and video and

apply it to an interactive context is something that really brings

that to life in an entertainment way for our viewers and for fans alike.

So I'm really just honing in using things like the 180 degree rule, the

rule of thirds and applying that to a capture context within the game

makes it feel just like a movie.

Great.

And it looks like.

Carlin.

, Carla's a professor at a university of Wisconsin in Okay, sounds great.

I can.

Yes.

And we got your ear on UN I apologize for the, , the technical issues.

, I got forced into a Reese boot, so I'm so glad to pick it on my phone.

, happy to have you anything could happen in alumni life?

Carl, we were just talking about, I'm curious, just, a year out from

college, getting into the business.

, you're working with a lot of, , students yourself.

, can you tell us a little bit about your place in the industry, , sure.

Yeah.

, I can kind of give you a little background.

, , my tour into the games world was a little Securitas route.

, I went through decade of working in the industry in the legal field, so it wasn't,

, it wasn't straight into the, the games.

It was working on doing accident reconstructions and

animating, , plane crashes and such.

, and, , I started getting into the.

And I started doing more gain jams.

I can show you a couple of examples of that as well.

, but that was really , my lead into the games world.

And, , I really enjoyed the community.

I really enjoyed, , being able to produce something in a very quick turnaround.

, and so now I'm, I'm teaching artists and, , sometimes programmers how to make.

Yeah.

And that quick turnaround is definitely something that we're going to talk

about later throughout the industry.

, but, , you're talking about a game jam.

So why don't you tell us what a game jam is?

And we'll take a look at some of the footage from that right after.

Wonderful.

Yeah.

So I've done about four or five different game jams.

And essentially what happens is that you get a bunch of people

together with different skills.

There are people who are skilled in art and animation or narrative

or programming and develop.

And some people who may have a full-time career in doing web

programming or front-end development, and it's just kind of time to play

and you have a set time limit.

It could be 24 or 48 hours.

And, , I created a couple of games, , with a group of very talented people.

, one of them was called Joe versus volcano, which I was pleased to.

Put together, , doing a, , an isometric game where you jumped to the music,

this next one you're looking at now.

, we took the idea of overcooked, which is a popular video

game, , and CRISPR technology.

So we kind of merged those together and we made this game in about 20 hours or

so, and Scott, , Lemke was, , my, amazing programmer, , who, , he and I put together

this game that we actually played on.

The physical Nintendo entertainment system.

So using the modifier, the challenger of I'm trying to keep it simple.

He had purchased a device that allowed you to put in a little micro SD card.

And, , we we've got to play it on the original NES.

The, , animation at the beginning showed, , a little double helix

and that's something I created in Maya and put it into, a Sprite.

And then , you put it into the code, might be the first time that it would

ever went from a Maya to NGS workflow.

Wow.

That is a little bit two decades working together.

Huh?

I know.

Right.

And so when you have that limited time to make a, a game,

you really are encouraged to.

Figuring out what's possible, , and it might not be complete.

It might not be perfection, but you have that opportunity just to, try

something new or learn something.

, that's not in your immediate skillset.

Sure.

And with video games, I'm sure everything is new all the time.

You're constantly reinventing a code and, and what you're

creating in gameplay and stuff.

, Carrie Carl mentioned, he's working a lot in Maya, , and , certainly through other

emulators and coding things, what programs are you using to make your cinematics

. Yeah.

, well, definitely across the different, , people that we work with to create

everything for our Sims videos.

Maya's definitely one of them, , every now and then you'll need a custom

animation for the video or otherwise just going into the game and using

the animations that are already there.

We have our own software that we use to build things up.

And, , besides Maya.

There's so many just technical things.

There's a lot of Python and a lot of C-sharp that runs things and all

this different code that , I don't understand, , to an extent that

really like makes the game powerful.

, but we really use a mixed between different softwares, like Maya, as well

as coding programs and games, , and game software, just to blend it all

into one, to create an enterprise.

Wow.

Yeah, I, it looks like we have a question from YouTube.

, Michelle is asking, , it looks like a question for Carl.

Is it a CRISPR technology like for gene editing?

That's the one that's the very one.

Yes.

, in the game that you saw, , you were taking these little strands of DNA and

you could either separate or combine or.

And then, , try to match the sequence, which then once it's complete, you could,

have it go up the conveyor belt and, , yeah, it was, it was two very separate,

, ideas and, and mashing them together.

Oh man.

So, so not just video editing, but gene editing, it's like a whole different

skill than we learned at grand valley.

A question from Suzanne, Zach, Suzanne asks, what advice do you have for

students who want to enter the field?

This is a great question for both.

. , I can go first.

, definitely, definitely, definitely, , really focus on

what you are doing in school.

, it really makes a difference when you're out looking for jobs and

you're looking for connections to refer you to those jobs.

It makes a difference as to what you've been doing.

Your grades are great.

They matter, they're important.

You should always make sure that you're doing your best in school.

But really also pay attention to your extracurriculars, what you're

doing outside of those classes, what you're learning from those classes

that you can apply to early work.

, definitely internships are super important.

, even studying abroad, just getting a bigger perspective on the

world so that you can apply it to your art is really important.

, doing everything that you can relate it to your chosen field is really

important before you go out into the.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, , it sounds like you also had played a lot of games as,

as you were saying earlier.

So just, just being in the medium that, , you know, doing a lot in the sentence,

, Carl, what do you tell your students and the people that you work with?

Oh, Carrie nailed it.

I think being able to be aware of what you're doing is very important,

but also having a breadth of skills, , taking that class in, in, but right

now I'm learning about Python.

, something I never would've thought I'd be doing.

But being able to automate those processes for game design

has , been really important.

, the, , things I tell my students right now is that my first job, my first

demo reel that I created, , included nothing from my actual schoolwork.

It was all extracurricular things that I want to create, , items

that I wanted to show, , hold up with this video really quick.

I'm gonna talk about that in a second, Randy.

That's , for my students' work right now, but, , the things that I showed in my, my

demo reel, , for animation specifically included things like I want to learn

how to composite and, , at the time the, the star wars episode one came out.

So we were playing behind the Calder residence center with, , with

broomstick handles and learning how to composite lightsabers and things.

, things like that, , show . A little bit more effort, goes into my thought

process and doing what I want to do as opposed to just the canned schoolwork.

Yeah.

I've also learned, I don't make video games myself.

I'm a documentary filmmaker, but, , I've learned that, you know, the skills of

curiosity and, , learning how to learn.

I think it's something that we all found very valuable across these different

parts of the industry and in different entertainments, , It all, you know,

it's all difficult in, in the industry.

Of course.

, I would like to hear a little bit about, , , when people get into

the industry, what is it like?

What is the, , work life balance, , look like . Yeah.

, I can say from my experience so far again, that it's hard, but it, if

you put in the commitment and you're really dedicated to what you do, it's

very fulfilling the game industry.

Isn't like a lot of industries, right?

The people in the game industry end up working on weekends because

people play games on weekends, right?

, games are something that people are always playing all the time.

And especially as our technology increases and we move forwards towards the future,

more and more people are playing video games, especially as we're stuck inside

during COVID-19 everybody's playing games.

So it's very, very busy.

The hours are long, depending on when you need the product to be out.

Sometimes you'll be working a three hour a day and then playing games

the rest of the day, or sometimes you'll be working a 10 hour day.

It really depends on what the project is and what the demand is at that time.

And it really requires a lot of focusing on yourself, knowing your limits and

really working with your team to make sure that everything's under control and

you have a balance so that you don't get.

Yeah.

And I I'd imagine, even in that short year that you've been there, there

may have been been some burnout.

, it looks like we've got a question here.

, so we'll come back to that idea of burnout a second.

, Carrie, I know you studied in Japan.

Does Japanese animation style have influence on your work?

, did you study abroad?

Is that what that's about?

Yeah, I did.

, I studied abroad in 2017.

I lived in Japan for four months and, , it was a life changing experience.

I mean, I had loved Japan before that, but now I just, I always want to go back.

I always want to be there now.

, I would say definitely has a big impact on what I do.

, I really love the drama and the sadness that a lot of Japanese

entertainment can portray.

And I also love the really happy and crazy and silly moments.

, I have.

Some work examples that I could throw in or share after the stream, otherwise,

of some things that have made on my own that are also sins related that got me

into this position that I can share.

But, , yeah, I would say it's made a big impact on what

I've, been doing at this point.

Yeah.

Carla has travel effected you at all as you're out there in Wisconsin.

, , I am the twin cities, Minnesota, and I travel over across the border.

So.

Anxiously looking forward to this next semester of teaching and

trying to accommodate all the, the social distancing and things.

, I wish I would have had a international study.

I didn't have that in , my mindset as an opportunity or a possibility

when I was going to school.

, that in, and maybe an auto repair class, as well as things that, , I

didn't think I'd be needing at the time, but now it would be really,

, really good to have that worldview and, , and learn more about cultures.

And in diversity, say it sounded like that a question from the Facebook page

was also getting to your influences.

So, so maybe where do you pull influences from, , , in, in your work.

When I pull influences from a lot of the times, it's very sporadic.

It's very impromptu.

, one of my favorite pieces, , didn't take me very long to create, but it

was, something that I called up the neighborhood kid and I said, Hey, , let's

go out and let's shoot some video.

Pretend you're, you're being chased by a giant Boulder down that hill.

And he says, okay, , And he acted run down the hill.

And so I put in this giant snowball, this big Boulder, , kind of like your

Indiana Jones and, , things like that.

I really enjoy those, those moments where you can just check out for a

little bit and jump into a piece, whether that be with film or, , with

pixel arts or, , sometimes I even go out and mow patterns in my lawn.

That's pretty cool.

I'd love to add to that.

, in working on this women's team now, , a lot of what I put into the shots that

I do for our trailer is, , really is affected by what I see in cinema.

I can think always, I recall better call Saul.

I really love , the cinematography in that show and the lighting,

and I love the dramatic angles.

And, , I really like to pull that kind of stuff into my.

, as much as I can while staying on brand of course, because Sims is

silly and not always too dramatic.

, but I really love all of the colors and, oh my gosh, a lot that I learned from

my film classes about color theory and just teal and, , all of that really has

applied to what I've been working on.

Wow.

So, so you might say that you, you have a style, like if we looked

at, , your cinematics, we might see a lot of that T a lot of that blue,

a lot of really colorful things.

, usually in this trailers that we have coming up, I would say probably a lot

of the ones that have a lot of zoom on them, but are still , Cropped back

to a medium shop at you see a lot of depth of field and zoom that'll often

probably be one of my shots because my choice for closeups and medium shots is

always to give it kind of a more dramatic feel instead of just a clean cut field.

Yeah.

I remember , , when I noticed that, , , a lot of my work has a similar

look to it, maybe call it a style.

I remember , that felt like, , I was an artist, like when I noticed that, , all

my shots have kind of a similar feel.

I think that's a, it's a Rite of passage and a little bit away.

Yeah.

So talking about, , the industry, again, we were kind of touching

on burnout a little bit.

, Carla.

Is that something that, that you see, you know, a lot of long, long

to-do lists and , people at the edge of their . , I can share with

you that I've experienced burnout.

When I was working in animation, , for legal, there was oftentimes,

, deadlines that would come in.

, often changes in direction, , working for a smaller firm, , where there

isn't a chance to really, , hand off work or share the workload.

You are the responsibility.

, I know that, , friends who have gone into freelance or contract work might also, or

start your own business even, , feel that, that pressure, , so being able to manage.

A lot of different changing needs and requirements.

And also keep up with the technical requirements and changing software because

it constantly changes there's new tools.

, I think that, , when I talked to my students about going into industry,

which a couple of different approaches, one of them could be to specialize in

one area and get really good at that.

And chances are , you might have to move out of the Midwest

to go to one of the coasts.

If you want to work in.

Let's say a flame or a new artist, or, , maybe you , want

to be more of a generalist.

And, , that I think gets you to, apply to more positions perhaps working in,

architecture or graphic design or web.

, so yeah, , I have definitely.

, felt the pressure and felt the needs of the clients when trying

to meet those demands and in burnout is definitely a thing.

, trying to set your boundaries and being able to, , know what

is acceptable for your personal, , workload for the week or the month.

Yeah.

, Carrie, do you have anything to add or how has that changed during COVID.

Yeah.

, oh my gosh.

Especially during COVID, , if you know me, , I am always a yes person when it

comes to things I'm very excited about.

And as I've said, I'm very excited about soon.

So combining my interests with my work makes me always want to do the very

best and the very most that I can.

And, , those long hours.

There.

So it's so easy for them to slip by sometimes when you're really

like focusing on getting the shot.

Right.

And I definitely, agree.

It's really easy to get burnt out, even in a positive way, even though

I'm super excited and spending a lot of time on what I love.

I still find myself getting really tired or fatigued at the end of the day.

And that's kind of a red flag.

I need to stop.

I need to relax and I need to prioritize my day so that I get things done in a

reasonable amount of time and not spend too much time or an overly amount of time

working on things when I don't have to.

Sure.

Yeah.

, , being able to realize that is a skill in itself.

This episode is brought to you by the dirt counting Memorial

film and video scholarship.

Here's Gretchen vintage remembering draconic the coding scholarship enables

students to get that kind of an education, to be a good filmmaker, to be able to

express their voice and to continue Dirks during for more information

and to donate to the scholarship, visit the link in the description.

Now back to the show.

, I understand we have a question from a viewer Maxwell Neely says,

do you need to know programming to do sound design for video games?

Or can you, , , use pro tools and things that we've learned as, as film and video?

, Carl, you want to tackle it?

I love to.

Yeah.

, with, , one of the classes I teach is the senior capstone class.

, I'll show you some examples of that later, but in that we partner up

with, , a school in Boston, and they have a minor or a degree in game

sound, , for that they do have, Very very good, , program in composing,

, music sound effects and things.

They do have a skills in implementing this into unity with C-sharp.

, so I think that it would benefit you to learn how to do that

with a little bit of programming and knowing some of the skills.

, there are programs that have , , that bridge or that pipeline between creating.

And then implementing it in the engines.

I think it's very important to, , look into those and know

what those are capable of.

So great answer.

Thank you very much.

, and we actually, , going to get into some, , more audio on a future

podcast with alumnus, , Brian Hensley.

So he's going to, , come back in, , in a few weeks for that.

So we can answer that question even even more thoroughly, but thank you.

, we have.

A another question from a viewer and that viewer is Michelle Turkstra.

She says, I have friends who work in the video game industry years ago.

They said that it's mainly young white men.

Have you noticed the industry diversifying more with women and people of color?

, what is this.

Yeah, I can totally touch on that.

, I would say that, especially with, , how the media and society has been now, I'm

really pushing for this kind of change in a big media light with the advancements

of, , a lot of movements with everything that happened with George Floyd.

, a lot of this is getting a lot of recognition and big brands

are stepping up and really.

Trying to make an impact on how this affects their viewers.

, and I would say that within the game industry, at least on a larger scale

and a company like EA, there's been huge strides made to really make an

effort to diversify and make things more inclusive because it's true.

It has been a white CIS male dominated industry.

And as someone who is a double minority in this case, a person of color and a

woman, , it's very strange to kind of step into a world where, I mean, it's

been on zoom now during COVID, right.

But during like big company meetings, seeing that, , everyone

on the screen is white.

, Like, how do I fit into this?

And, , how do I make an impact?

But companies are really trying to raise voices like mine and give me a position

like I have on the cinematic team so that I can put in , my opinion and

really show my art as a person of color.

, and I think that big companies are taking steps to diversify

and go in that direction.

But, , it's really just the beginning.

I think that there.

So much more that we can do.

And so many more events, including LGBTQ.

Lots of things that can be done, but I think within the company

themselves, that's how you get games that represent our people.

So for example, apex legends, I think does a really great job at diversifying

the cast and really showing inclusivity.

, and I think more games should take approaches like that,

where like their cast and their characters are very diverse.

And I think that, people are speaking about this.

I think that it's making a big difference in how companies are responding.

So I think that we're going in that direction, but slowly but surely

, probably a long ways to go, but, , in the right direction.

, I understand too that a lot of the, , engines and tools that people

use, , you can download for free.

So there is, , maybe for the young people watching, , the

access is, is available, right?

You can start making your own games today.

Yeah.

Carl, do you have any recommendations on just, just getting started?

, yeah, I, , I just want to quick add onto . Curious observations.

, one observation that I've seen is, , with teaching students in

the art program for game design, it is, , in many of my classes, almost

50 50, , which is a huge improvement.

And it's exciting to see that that happened.

It's not quite caught up with the, , the programming side yet,

but it's, it's slowly growing.

And I think that adding more diversity and more viewpoints really helps to make

a better product and it has more, , more potential for reaching other audience.

, there's so many new things that man, I keep going back back when I was in

school back in 2001, if you wanted to learn a program or talk about

Maya, you had to call somebody up and say, Hey, I heard that you're a

studio that, that might have this.

Can I come lean over your shoulder or ask you a question just to learn.

, and, , now you've got blender, which is, is open source is

free to students to download.

You've got programs like audacity for editing audio.

, you've got Godot, which is, , a smaller, but growing, , game engine as well.

So unity, unreal, Godot there's other ones as well.

, gaming.

There's so many more opportunities available to you now than

there was 10, 20 years ago.

, it makes it so much easier to participate in a game jam and just, , do your

own thing and , , make and create and share, , Carl, we have, , some, , if

your students work, would you want to take a look at some of that and tell us.

Yeah.

I want to show you a little bit about what the students that I'm

teaching right now are creating.

So if you could roll that, that second clip.

, one of the classes I teach is a pixel and vector art.

And so we start out , by having the students, make some, some

pixel arts and talk about tile sets and animations and things.

, one of the projects I did a couple of years ago was this a remake

of Zelda, the original NES game.

And that was a blast.

And so working with constraint.

Was the main focus of that.

, another one was, , some, , isometric art and learning how to work

within those parameters.

We did a project, , that was a side scroller to talk about how to

implement basics code of having your characters jump or walk or idle.

, and the students who never experienced code before were a little bit challenged,

but I was really pleased with the outcome.

These are beautiful.

really different.

There's so much variety in there.

And one of the projects we did that was a lot of fun as I gave students.

Each, if you can show that last one, too, if it comes up, , the

students , , were given different tiles.

I had a little bit of workup up, , , to build a, map of the

UWC campus and adjoining areas.

And, each student was assigned a building on campus, a building off campus.

And then I think a piece of the water as well, cause there's a lake nearby

and, , it turned out beautifully.

But one of the main takeaways of that is working within a team because game design

is a multidisciplinary, , , career you, you can't really do all of it on your own.

There's so many, , disciplines involved and being able to share

our assets, share and learn about music, , programming and interactivity.

It's just, it's.

I felt that was really , successful project here.

What can you tell us about the teams that you work in?

Oh my gosh.

I feel like I'm within a team within a team, within a team.

, there's a lot of different people that work on a game.

, I would have to reach my arm like Mr.

Fantastic.

All the way around the world twice to reach the person who comes up

with the idea for the next game.

You know, a lot of people work together.

There's so many moving parts to deliver a game.

, and which is why it's such hard work, which is why there's so

many hours put into it because it's really hard, especially.

To present what people are expecting now.

Like nobody wants bad graphics anymore.

Now they've seen good ones unless you're making another deadly premonition,

knowing that graphics, so people really have to work to do all the

animations, to do all the textures, to make sure that it works coding wise.

, there's a lot of different moving parts and a lot of different brains that

work together to deliver an enterprise.

Right.

And especially with the videos that, that you're making to, you're telling a

story and you're showing an experience.

So how does communication work is there somebody with, with a vision

or , how does that video come together?

That's a great question.

I, , really love how it works.

Actually.

It's a very, very similar.

To how, a small film production would work.

We have our producer who get hears from studio, like this

is what we're looking for.

The producer gives a pitch to basically our director.

Who's my boss, our manager.

And she's like, okay, I see your vision.

She makes a shot list for us.

And then, , we go at it and we create the product that everyone's envisioning

and we bring it all together into one.

We all review it.

We make changes and then eventually the trailer.

Oh, man.

It must feel so good when you, you see that out there and the news is talking

about it cause you're at electronic arts.

Do you feel that pressure like when you're making on those

huge properties, like the Sims?

Oh my gosh.

I think so.

I think so, especially because I feel.

Slightly more biased towards what we're working on, because I just I'm

like, oh, this is going to be great.

This is going to be great because I've always loved Sims, but I know that fans

are looking at our work and using that to determine if they want the game or not.

Right.

And it's the Sims, which is probably one of, if not only the biggest like

life simulation platform there is.

, and so they're looking at.

The work that I worked on and they're like, Hey, I want this game where I don't

want this game across the entire world.

And that's, that's pretty crazy to think about, yeah.

, Carl, when people play games, right.

We're talking about, you know, games that people want to play.

, what, what is that magic piece?

what are all the things that make it a video game, its own art

form and really fun for people.

Oh, my gosh.

That's what you look for in a game.

Maybe a more simple way to ask that.

That's a huge question.

I think it depends.

Oh man.

, w what makes a good game?

, wow.

I think it depends on the mood that I'm in.

When I choose a game, if I have some opportunity to sit down and play

a game and invest into exploring.

I have two kids at home, so if I have maybe 20 seconds alone, I

can pop open a, an idle, , game and play a little bit of that.

, there's so many ways to approach.

, what makes a good game?

I think that people often look to the graphics first and then

making sure it doesn't break.

, there are, are a lot of independent games that are beautiful ideas that,

that might have functionality issues.

So , it's you kind of have to have.

Uh, all of the, in one, I don't know.

Um, yeah, I'd imagine being fun as is probably a pretty big part of that, but

it looks like we got a question from Mallory Patterson who says my daughter

thinks you're so incredibly cool.

She said to say, hi.

I'll I'll say that's for both of our guests here.

Oh, another question from Suzanne Zack.

, if someone graduates and wants to work in the industry, what are some

of the first steps they could take?

Sell your soul?

That is kidding.

Definitely.

At least from recent approach from my end, , reach out to your connections.

You better have been making connections in college because that's your first step.

Most of the time, it's really about, , who, you know, in addition to your

work ethic and what you're applying for, but having like idols and people

to look up to even just for advice is so helpful, those informational

interviews that Suzanne's always telling you to do, they're important, really

reach out to people, ask them what it's like to work in their career.

, really figure out what you're doing.

In that moment.

, don't think too much about like where you want to end up, like maybe

in school you were super focused on being a cinematographer for Pixar

or a director for Lucas film, but don't focus so much on the end goal.

Focus on what you're going to do to take care of yourself now that

you will enjoy that can eventually bring you up to that level.

And I think that if you start there and you leverage your connections

and just keep living and making more connections wisely, you

will get to where you want to be.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

, being able to leverage your connections and meet people to, to know what

they're doing and that's going to broaden your, horizons as well.

I never knew that, , legal animation was a thing until I applied for the job, you

know, , my senior year , of school at grand valley, I think my friend Angie and

I went out to the, , Ottawa film festival.

We drove all the way out to Ottawa Canada to see that, to see

independent, short films there.

I went to see Graf and volunteered, , to learn more about computer

graphics and the industry out there.

, first I went to new Orleans and then LA, it was just getting your name out

there and learning about what's possible.

, because as a, a student, I mean, It's challenging.

I mean, there's no doubt about it.

It's a very popular field.

It's very challenging, , , to get in and to maintain it.

, so, , being realistic that, , you have to have the skills to continue in this.

Oh, that was very helpful information.

, I know that working through the alumni association, one thing that a lot

of students ask for , and an event we host is all about, making demo reels.

And so curious, especially like, , you're making these teaser videos, which , are

kind of demo reels to some extent.

, what advice do you have for making demo reels to young

filmmakers or young , video.

Yeah, definitely.

, everything that you're working on is important.

Even that, , little tiny project that you have that's before your final,

you don't really care about it.

You're in a bad group with people you don't like work your hardest

on every single assignment that you get, because everything that you

make, you can put in your portfolio.

And even if you don't really like what you're working on at

the time over time, you can see.

Through your portfolio.

And that's also something that people really like to see, like, wow, you've

been working at your craft for so long and you're doing really well with this now.

I love to see your variety and your breadth of experience.

Yeah, exactly.

Like Beverly said, your portfolio is super important.

If you're going into any kind of artistic field in, in game design.

I mean, that's what they're going to look at for me in my position.

They looked at like my YouTube channel.

content and videos that I've made.

And if I didn't have that, they wouldn't have any evidence

that I can do what I do now.

So really just like work on your craft and publish it, share it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sharing it is is huge.

, there are some things that I posted up on my website or on Twitter or something.

It was just a doodle.

It was something that, that, you know, I wanted to try a new tool or process, and

you never know who's going to latch onto that and say, yeah, that's really cool.

I like that, that thing you did.

And, , you know, it might just be , something that's a study

that, I, you know, was tentative to even show it, to even share that.

, so do, do share your stuff and build up your, portfolio

and build up , , your work.

Yeah.

You know, that makes me think actually, , I personally, , it had always felt

kind of weird about my Sims work.

I really loved showing it to my family because they thought it was really

cool and they respected the art.

But through high school, sometimes people wouldn't take

it seriously or they laugh at it.

So I kept it quiet for a while going into college.

I just keep making things myself and sharing them on my YouTube

channel, but I didn't share.

Publicly with anyone who really knew me as me.

And I think it's really important to know, , regardless of what people

say, if you really like what you're working on, then you should be proud

of it and you should share it because there's always going to be some niche

audience who thinks the same way as you.

And , just like Carla saying, like, you never know who's going to see

that and notice it and really.

I want you to do that thing for them.

I didn't expect Conde Nast to want someone who made Sims videos ever in my life.

, so really keep working on what you love because it matters.

It does.

That was beautiful, , on that topic of, of showing stuff we're working on.

Carla, we have a trailer for a game that you, well, let me

just do a quick intro to this.

I've got one more video to share, and it's a selection of two

of the senior capstone games.

, what it is is a combination of students who are both in the

computer science game design program.

And the BFA arts game design program.

What we do is we put the students together, we mix them up into teams.

And they have a whole year to a whole academic year to create a 3d video game.

And for their senior capstone, , I want to share, , two games one's called whisper

in one is called umbrella, Mondays, the two classes, and there's there's many

other, , games that have been produced over the years that are beautiful.

, but I want to show these two games as an example of, , what some of our students

are doing and what, , undergraduates, , in game design programs can, can.

So two very different fields of games.

One of them umbrella Mondays was more somber, more.

I'm working with puzzles and taking , these little creatures

and throwing them in the fire and they turned to fire sprites.

And, , another one whisper where you're, you're playing as the wind.

And you're using that mechanic to navigate around the island and to help these

little shelter creatures to, solve their little , , daily troubles and strifes

look like they'd be really cool to play.

, and, and not just play to download them, go check it out.

Then CRISPR has, , has come significantly farther than the trailer I showed.

It's got a much more detail , and,, Yeah.

And, uh, the, , games have progressed so far.

Like just looking at those, you know, those are 3d made by students.

, , Carly you've been around the industry, , for, for a little while.

What can you tell us about the perspective on, technology

advancing and, , game experiences advancing and, what have we seen.

In the history of games.

Oh my gosh.

So back in my day, , , , the analogy people had often made was, oh,

it's 3d modelings, like sculpting with clay and it wasn't, it was

pushing polygons and it was math.

It was very detailed.

, now we have, , ZBrush , and Mudbox.

You can actually, , sculpt.

And I think that gives students.

The opportunity to sculpt and to make these, these high definition models,

it also creates a problem for trying to display those , , on systems that

can't really afford , to display all the polygons or render them out.

, so there's still that underlying need to understand the technology

and the limitations of what's.

Which is advancing all the time.

So I think we'll, wrap up today talking about, , what are we seeing for the future

, like what, , advances do you think is coming, , without, , maybe getting into

specifics of, of what you're working on.

Carrie, what are you excited for in this next generation

of games that are coming out?

What do you see?

Oh, man, I really love that games and game companies are taking more of a focus on

personalizing their content to the player.

Like really trying to make the player feel like the game is theirs and they

have their own unique experience.

I think that's so cool.

That's all I want in a game.

It's just a game that feels like it's made for me.

I'm waiting for the real life ready player.

One to come out.

That would be super cool.

I know that we have the capability.

If we spend years doing it, maybe to get something similar, at least.

And I would love to see something like that.

That's what I'm hoping for.

Carl, what do you see coming for the future hopes and dreams, hopes and dreams?

Well, I think, , having, played the tilt brush in VR and being able to

actually draw and create in a 3d space, that was, that was pretty captive.

, I don't know that that VR is quite there yet for, , for mass audiences,

but it's got the potential, I think, of, , really giving you a

sense of being in a unique space, , especially for training applications.

, I think that we're gonna continue to see more and more details.

I think we're going to get a bigger and better and faster.

, so , we'll see, I think that the.

Things like steam, we're able to filter through and find games that really

fit your needs or fit your desires is going to be, , it could be growing.

, I really hope that indie games as well, continued to grow and, , and

developing new ideas and things that are new ways of challenging or.

I think that's a perfect way to bring back what we were talking about in the

beginning of this, where, , it's just, you're constantly relearning things.

And you know, that curiosity really drives the creation that, , , people in

the video games and in the film and video industry, , , that's, that's why we're in

it just to keep making new, cool stuff.

. Great makers at heart.

It's all out there accessible and it sounds like.

He gave people some great tips on how to get out there and create with you.

So thank you so much for joining us on alumni live.

, you're making, , the grand valley alumni look really good out there.

So the both of you.

Thank you.

Thanks Ken Bailey.

Thanks everyone.

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