Hi everyone, I’m Griffin, I’m a junior IMGD BA with a visual art concentration minoring in business and maybe computer science. I am from Ambler Pennsylvania which is in the suburbs around 30 minutes from Philadelphia.

As a kid video games had been a large part of my life after getting a DS at 6 years old as well as playing Wii and Xbox 360 with my brothers. Being a game designer was a childhood dream that started to become real in my last two years of high school after taking a few computer science classes, some art classes, and a game development class where I was introduced to Unity and some app development. After finding WPI and the IMGD major offered here I knew I had to come and pursue my passion of game art.

While at WPI I have enjoyed 2D art the most with sketching and animation being my peak interests alongside making small puzzles and games in Digital Games I in Perlenspiel where I created the covers, game concepts, designs, levels, and color schemes for the games. Here is the work created for the class: https://datapointbeing.github.io/Carrot-Bowl-Studios/ and below is the level layout and cover image for the final project which was to design a game under limitations that was centered around Easter eggs.

I do not have much experience with 3D work, but it is something I am excited to work on in the class as after taking 3D Animation I this summer I am excited to expand my skills. After school, I want to use the art skills I have learned and developed during my time here at WPI to work for a game or animation studio or the medical industry for 3D modeling. I have struggled with confidence in my work due to not having much art experience until my late teens but after taking several classes here such as figure drawing, digital painting, and human figure in motion I can definitely see the growth I have had and am excited to keep grinding away and improving my skills. This grind mindset is not new to me as I have been swimming competitively since I was 6 and still am here at WPI as a varsity athlete. Swimming has taught me more than anything that doing something every day no matter how much will only help you improve no matter if you cannot see the result right away. So, while it has been difficult to feel confident in my work, I know with time I will continue to improve as long as I put in the effort.

Below are a ledge jump animation and a facial take from 3D Animation I.

A lot of the media that inspired me artistically as a kid was the cartoon network and Pokémon is one of my favorite game series to this day. Currently, my inspiration has come from manga, webtoons, and light novels with a wide variety of genres such as sci-fi, action, isekai, cultivation, leveling systems, and magic. Some of my favorite games that have also inspired me are Terraria, Destiny, Enter the Gungeon, Dead Cells, and Kingdom Rush. Terraria and Destiny are games I have put lots of time into exploring with my friends and family working together to beat bosses and raids and have made progression-based games some of my favorites as well as their great weapon designs and variety. 

I am excited to learn more about everyone in the class and have a great time improving my skills!

Below is more of my artwork from the classes I have taken.

Below are my animation reels from 2D Animation I & II.