The developer of the Medal of Honor and James Bond game series gets some new blood, including some ex-Nintendo employees.
Electronic Arts Los Angeles -- EALA -- Hires Acclaimed Creative Talent from Film and Video Game Industries
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 8, 2003--Electronic Arts, the world's leading interactive entertainment software company, has again attracted the best and the brightest from Hollywood and the computer/video games industry with the company's most recent hire of five professionals for its Los Angeles studio.
Electronic Arts Los Angeles (EALA) continues to assemble a first-class creative staff comprised of technical experts from the game and film industries. This top talent drives innovation in game technology and design, creating a deep interactive cinematic experience.
"EALA is dedicated to fostering an environment that leverages the Hollywood talent around us, and emphasizes creativity in all facets of development, these new hires are reflective of this objective," said John Batter, vice president and general manager of EALA. "At EALA, the digital artists and other content creators are the heart of the creative team. They are the ones who get the glory in interactive entertainment. We are excited to have these talented individuals join our award-winning team, and we look forward to playing the products they will help develop."
The newest team members to join EALA include:
- David Wainstain, Senior Cinematics Supervisor, comes to EA with over eight years experience in feature film visual effects. While at Dream Quest Images, he created effects for such films as Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Flubber and ConAir. Prior to Dream Quest, David did effects animation for episodic television, including work for Babylon 5 and Hypernauts. A true renaissance artist, David has been responsible for lighting, modeling, texturing and effects throughout his career.
- Charles Anderson, Effects Animator, most recently served as the Atmospheric FX Supervisor at Centropolis where he worked on Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. Anderson was a partner and the director of Professional Services at Steamboat Software, and spent three years at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was the CG supervisor on Gone in 60 Seconds and Unbreakable. He was also the technical director on Dinosaur, ConAir, Flubber and Armageddon.
- Kevin Lee, Effects Animator, previously worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation as a visual effects animator on such films as Treasure Planet and Atlantis. Other film credits include senior animator on Mission to Mars and animator on Inspector Gadget at Dream Quest Images. Lee's game experience includes animation on six games at Kronos Digital Entertainment and art direction on 11 games at Sega Interactive Development Division.
- Larry White, Character Animator, has an extensive background in character animation. His work at Walt Disney Studios included Treasure Planet, The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Dinosaur. Other credits include Scooby Doo and The Wild Thornberry's Movie.
- James Dargie, Weapons Modeler, brings to EALA a high level of cross-disciplinary experience in both film and games. Dargie most recently worked as a modeler for ESC Entertainment on the feature films Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions; and as a lead CG artist on the feature film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He also worked on the award winning game Metroid Prime for Retro Studios as a senior artist, and as a senior modeler at LucasArts.
- Dr. Andrew Garrett joins EALA from Dragonstone Software, where he developed scientific engines for moving hair and clothes on game characters, and artificial intelligence routines for more than 35 creatures in the Dragon's Lair 3D game.
- Jimmy Alamparambil comes to EALA from Check Six Studios, where he was the director of computer graphics technology. While at Check Six, he wrote most of the graphics engine for Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system from Sony. He also ported the Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly graphics engine to the Nintendo GameCube(TM). Alamparambil was also a software engineer for ATI, where he worked with third-party developers.
- Michael Myles brings to EALA extensive experience as a sound designer and recording engineer. He was nominated for a MPSE Golden Reel award for his work as dialogue editor on Rugrats, The Movie. He also has worked at Vivendi Universal Net as a senior sound engineer, as well as MP3.com and Klasky Csupo.
Computer Graphics:
Software Engineers
Audio Specialist:
EALA, the creative destination for game development in Southern California, recently expanded its studio and staff with the addition of Westwood Studios, formerly located in Las Vegas, NV, and EA Pacific, formerly located in Irvine, CA. The new EALA includes industry leaders who are responsible for creating some of the most successful and best-known intellectual properties in computer/video game history, including Medal of Honor(TM) and Command & Conquer(TM). In addition to games in the Medal of Honor and Command & Conquer franchises, the EALA studio is working on games based on The Lord of the Rings and James Bond movies.
"Hollywood is ripe with talent and we are constantly seeking digital artists and experts in special effects, audio, and script-writing in order to enhance the cinematic experience of EALA's games," said Carol Brickner, director of human resources for EALA.
In the summer of 2003, EALA will relocate to a new custom-designed West Los Angeles campus that will house an additional 300 development experts and creative artists, whom EALA anticipates hiring in the next few years.
About Electronic Arts Los Angeles
Electronic Arts Los Angeles is the Southern California-based studio of the world's leading interactive entertainment software company, Electronic Arts. EALA was formed in 1995 as DreamWorks Interactive (DWI), which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts in 2000, when it was renamed Electronic Arts Los Angeles. In 2003, Westwood Studios, formerly located in Las Vegas, NV, and EA Pacific, formerly located in Irvine, CA, were folded into the EALA studio. EALA develops products worldwide under the EA GAMES(TM) brand logo, including the best-selling franchises Medal of Honor, which has sold close to 10 million copies, and Command & Conquer, which has sold more than 21 million copies, as well as the licensed properties of James Bond(TM) and The Lord of the Rings(TM). More information about EALA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
