John Ross Porter

John Ross Porter

I am an artist specializing in computer graphics, 3d design, and animation for the interactive entertainment industry.

I have always been a long time fan of gaming. First it was consoles with Atari and the NES, but I quickly moved on to the more sophisticated programs that were available for PC's. When I was a young boy, I remember playing such classic titles as the original Sim City, the Gold Box AD&D games, and the Ultimas on an old 386sx with DOS. I couldn't begin to fathom the amount of time that must have been spend staring at 16 color graphics on a tiny monitor.

I kept up with the times and later moved on to other games like the LucasArts adventure games, Interplay RPG's, and the revolutionary Doom. After playing Half-Life and its immensely popular mod Counter-Strike, I developed an interest in modding games. To me, it was amazing what a small team of dedicated individuals could accomplish, and it really demystified what I once thought was an impossibly complex process. While in high school I taught myself Photoshop and 3D Studio Max by reading books, help files, and internet articles. At first, my interests were with special effects and pre-rendered graphics that mostly consisted of steriotypical space scenes and lots of particles and exploding things. With time, my tastes and my talent grew, and soon I found myself making models and skins. By the time I went to college at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I was already way ahead of the rest of my classmates.

When the Source engine came out, I became involved with Pirates, Vikings, and Knights II as a character artist working alongside an international team of developers. I worked on this for years, meticulously creating the character models, textures, and hundreds of animation sequences that went into the game. Since it's release, PVKII has been featured on multiple magazines(PC Action, Games for Windows, PC Gamer) and even made two appearances on German television (GIGA). With the second update released to the public, I am now concentrating on bringing my skills to the professional field of development.

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