That was a big chunk of work we didn’t have to do on The Dig. I had to take the extra step of reducing the colors for the background art from 8 million to 245. The SCUMM games all pretty much had the same art path, except for Monkey III. How did the art process in the games differ? I also worked eight months with Larry Ahern on an unannounced game and two months on another unannounced game with John Knolls. The Dig (PC, MAC), Rebel Assault (PC, MAC), Super Return of the Jedi (SNES), Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures (SNES), Curse of Monkey Island (PC), Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (PC, N64) and JarJar’s Journey (PC), a Lucas Learning game. I worked there for about eight and a half years. I got hired July 13th 1992, or at least that is what is said on my pay stub every week. Once that is done, then learn how to model and texture using a 3d package. This is key if you want to be a concept artist. Then create some imaginative imagery to show that you have a good imagination. So the route in to LEC -at least as an animator- is a.) Take many figure-drawing classes, b.) Create a short (30seconds to a minute length) traditionally animated movie (black & white pencil sketch animation is just fine), c.) Go on-line to look at the job listing and portfolio guidelines, d.) Send reel and portfolio in to LEC (with release form), and e.) Get great job at LEC! To be an artist I would suggest doing a lot of still life drawings and paintings. My teachers really stressed to us the importance of taking as many figure-drawing classes as possible. To be good animator it is imperative one know how to draw the human figure, even if someone is animating a really exaggerated character like Guybrush or Blondebeard. And what I mean by traditional animation skill is the type of animation used in Disney feature length animated movies and animated TV shows. To be an animator one really needs to hone their traditional character animation skills. The final version was much more toned down. Larry and Jonathan thought this might be a bit too wild. My first concept art was too realistic, so I started to go wild with my designs. That seemed to impress the guys in the art department and so a week later I was hired. So after I finished the test, I quickly roughed out a short animation of a short fat dragon trying in vain to fly. I didn’t think it was a good test for my character animation skills. It was basically rotoscoping (tracing video footage). The test consisted of painting Boston Low over a small video captures of Brian Moriarty on the PC version of Dpaint. (I looked at it recently and man, does it suck! I am lucky I got a job with it.) A few months later I was invited up to Lucas Arts to do an animation test. I showed her my reel, which consisted of animated shorts I had done in Deluxe Paint Animator and in traditional paper and pencil. My work was mostly pictures painted using an old Amiga program called Digipaint (Amiga fans out there will remember fondly Digipaint), and she asked if I did any animation. Colette was looking for a character animator to work on The Dig-Brian Moriarty’s version. One of the privileges of being a senior at Cal Arts was that I got to put my portfolio up on display in the main gallery so that potential employers could get a good look at it. You might remember her name in the credits of a lot of LEC and Lucas Learning games. I learned a bit of BASIC and made a few crude games, but that is the extent of my programming career.īack in 1992 I was just about to graduate from California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles when I met Colette Michaud. Ever since my family got our first computer, an Apple II+, I have always wanted to make video games. Go Bears! Then we moved to Orange County California home of Disneyland. I was born in Indiana but spent most of my childhood in suburban Chicago. Now, I am lead artist at an online game publisher and developer started by three Blizzard programmers. My name is Bill Tiller and I worked at LucasArts as lead background artist on The Curse of Monkey Island, and was the lead artist on The Dig and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Editing and Additional Art by Heather "Chariset" Oglevie We promise you a great interview, with details of the art process used in CMI, exclusive never before seen concept art and a very special surprise at the end. the artistic genius behind the backgrounds for The Curse of Monkey Island and The Dig. Welcome to The SCUMM Bar's Exclusive Interview with Bill Tiller. We moved it here because TSB's codebase could go belly up any second. This interview was published over at The SCUMM Bar in 2001.
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