Kristy Green

By Liz Gallagher - Texture Artist

So I have been asked to write something about myself. It's funny how difficult that is when asked to, as opposed to my normal rambles on my blog.

As I am involved with Forsaken Studios as a texture artist, I guess I should go back to my school days where "art" became an interest to me.

I didn't leave school wanting to work in the game industry. In fact, I had no idea what I wanted to be. The only thing I was sure about was that I appeared to have some sort of artistic ability and that was the only subject in school I actually enjoyed.

However, art was not to feature in my career for many years. The bulk of my working life was in Sales and Marketing, at which I was relatively successful.

Due to health issues and having to give up my job, I began learning the basics of Photoshop in 2004 out of boredom and later in order to create and sell game graphics to content developers in 3D virtual world platforms. Looking back, my efforts were worse than bad.

I recall vividly the frustration of learning Photoshop and in particular the alpha channels. I soon learnt there were no short-cuts. As boring and annoying as the saying: "practice, practice, practice" is, it really was the only way forward.

I didn't study graphic design or attend any formal graphic design classes, and I find online tutorials frustrating, so 90% of what I know today was born out of trial and error.

Artistic skill is always relative; regardless of how long you have been practicing, there will always be those who are more advanced than you and those who aren't.

Any artwork I create and consider "good" today, I know I will cringe at in six months’ time. I have yet to meet a digital artist who doesn't agree with that statement.

As for gaming, I am no hard core gamer. I played the very first Tomb Raider on a PS1, which all seemed very high-tech at the time. I purchased that same game four years later and I was amazed at how poor the graphics were compared to the newer games to which I had grown accustomed. Technology truly moves fast.

Most of my gaming has been on social platforms such as The Sims Online (TSO), There, and Second Life. However, I haven't engaged in these types of games for fun for several years now. I also spent a few months playing Eve Online and The Sims Medieval, 18 months in World of Warcraft, and I also dabbled in Ever Quest for a short while. I took some inspiration from these games, in particular the terrain.

Working with a game studio is a first for me. Having worked on Embers of Caerus for 10 weeks now, I must confess it can be challenging at times because I have to create through the eyes of other people for a 3D environment. For a 2D artist, this takes some getting used to. But it has pushed me out of my comfort zone and allows me to develop in areas I would not have dared to venture into before.

I am pathetically proud when I see my textures applied to various in-game assets within the game engine and, as such, the sense of job satisfaction is very rewarding.

I have total faith that we will succeed in creating a truly unique and immersive game that will appeal to both sexes and many different types of gamers and it’s that faith and belief that keep me motivated and committed to Forsaken Studios and our vision.