Parce qu’Objectif 3D est un véritable tremplin dans la vie professionnelle, vous sommes curieux de savoir ce que sont devenus les anciens étudiants de l’école et nous sommes partis à la rencontre d’Anaick Lynch.
Elle travaille actuellement à Creative Assembly en Angleterre, elle est Environment Artist et nous raconte son parcours :
(et comme les langues étrangères sont primordiales dans nos domaines d’activité, l’interview est en anglais!)
What’s up today ?
Currently working on multiple projects, playing games, music. Enjoying life!
Who is Anaick Lynch ?
A potato glued to her computer most of the time.
As a former student of Objective 3D, can you give me your vision of the school? What were you doing before Objective 3D and where did this School take you?
Before Objective 3D I was a student in the Beaux Arts. During that time, I studied traditional and contemporary art. I had a great time and I recommend anyone to start their education by a wider approach of art. Understand the fundamentals as drawing, and have fun experimenting with different tools before going into 3D. I think Objective 3D has a very professional approach to the industry. They give you the tools and mentorship to make a project and then it is up to you to be creative. They try to simulate to the best what real production looks like, you won’t feel like it is a school and I believe it has contributed to make me more independent and resourceful.
What is your career path ?
I’m still very early in my career, but so far I have been working exclusively for video games.
I was very lucky to find a position at Ubisoft Montpellier after finishing Objective 3D. I heard of an opening where they needed a junior 3d artist fluent in English. I was curious and applied. Three weeks later I was working for them and joined the team making the game version of Tintin and the secret of the Unicorn. It was a wonderful experience and it made me want to pursue a career in video games. Later, I applied to foreign countries because I wanted to have an international experience. I was welcomed by Creative Assembly five years ago and I’ve been having a great time since.
What does a day look like as an Environment Artist in Creative Assembly ?
It depends of which stage of the project you are at. As an environment artist, your tasks will vary. You can be asked to do mood concepts, textures, modelling, set dressing etc. We generally work by sprints which are an allocated time to do a task. Your team lead will give you a briefing and then you are free to give it all your creativity.
You worked on Total War Warhammer II, can you tell us a bit more.
Warhammer II is the craziest game I’ve had the chance to work on. The environments are made of jungles, deserts, hills, mountain pikes, forests there is a bit of everything and it’s hard not to like. The main factions represented allowed us to push further the fantasy art direction, and make very eccentric environments. You’ll find giant Dinosaurs statues as well as lava fountains, we tried to enjoy ourselves and translate the wacky universe of Warhammer to our best.
What are the 3 nicest things about your job?
I love the creative process of making a game. How once every team has made its part it all comes together and you can see the result. I also love working for environments because of the freedom it gives you. I believe there is more space to be creative and less rules compared to animation or characters. And then I think the work environment itself is very cool. People are all very talented and most of the time laid back. You also get to go to parties, travel, have goodies, cakes, play games, you get very spoilt which keeps you happy.
What are your current or future projects?
I’m currently working on an unannounced project, and for the future I don’t know yet. The game industry changes very quickly and you never know what will be next.
Can you give any advice to the current students here who want to follow in your footsteps?
I think the best advice I can give is to be opportunistic. Even if you are very talented you can have ups and downs when it comes to work. So, stay open minded and experiment.
Portrait chinois
If you were a video game ?
Alice: Madness Returns. Maybe I’m just being nostalgic but the atmosphere was just amazing. I also had a great time playing Fire watch. I like this new trend of more mature, storytelling games.
If you were a video game character ?
I think Malekith from Warhammer II is insane. I’ve always loved the villains!
If you were a music band?
Hummm…. Probably an obscure country rock band summoning the devil.
If you were a city ?
Diamond City!
If you were an animal ?
An otter. They seem pretty relaxed, and play a lot.
Merci Anaick !
Et Cherry on a Cake, Anaick répond à toutes les questions des étudiants de l’école. Elle intervient aujourd’hui à distance pour raconter son expérience lors d’une visio conférence.
Pour retrouver tous les travaux d’Anaick, c’est ici : http://www.nikkigameartist.com/