Russell Fincher

Independent Game Dev | Art Director | 2D/3D Artist

ABOUT ME

Video game artist and art director from Texas. Game industry professional for 18 years. Values a talented team, clear communication, expert planning, and the fundamental understanding that flexibility and validated learning keep those all on track. Curious guy and builder of many things.

EXPERIENCE

Art Director, 2D/3D Artist, Animator, UI Artist, Concept Artist at Sickhead Games
October 2002 - Present
Founded and directed art creation for a full-time independent game development studio creating proprietary IP and client work. Hired full-time and freelance artists. Shipped over 25 tools, proprietary projects, and client projects. Worked on every part of the art pipeline including concepting, model creation, high poly, texture creation, rigging, and animation. Created prop, environmental, character, user interface, and marketing assets. Successfully adopted roles in production and project management.

Art Lead, Game Designer at Klear Games
February 2004 - September 2005
Game designer for Batman Begins Mobile and Looney Tunes mobile titles, Art Lead for Harry Potter mobile title. Duties included general development of game play mechanics, narrative, and overall visual style, managing, hiring, and coordinating on-site and off-site art teams, and attentiveness to requirements of previously established intellectual property.

Texture Artist, UI Artist at Motorsports Simulations
August 2001 - October 2002
Created user interface assets and textures for in-game models for NHRA-branded drag racing simulation. with attentiveness to requirements of previously established intellectual property

Adjunct Instructor of Digital Media at Texas A&M University - Commerce and Richland College
August 2001 - December 2005
College-level adjunct instructor at local universities and community colleges. Created curriculum and lectured on digital media creation.

EDUCATION

BFA in Experimental Studies from East Texas State University

Post-undergrad training in 3D content creation at Texas A&M University - Commerce

OTHER

Organizer at Society of Play
January 2014 - present
Coordinate a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit game development collective in North Texas dedicated to sharing and learning about independent video game creation, which currently has over 700 members. Monthly meetings, postmortems, game jams, showcases, and other events give DFW indies a place to share projects and meet like-minded developers.

Editor & Content Creator of Uncommon Assembly
September 2009 - 2014
Created and wrote for uncommonassembly.com, a site devoted to odd and innovative game art. Interviewed video game creators about the process and impetus behind creating some of the industry's strangest games.