Thea makes up half of our VFX team here at Chief Rebel and works on all the super-satisfying, shiny, pretty things that make Fellowship both satisfying to play and awesome to look at. We asked her a bunch of questions, but it was also a great excuse to track down some footage of a never-before-seen boss. Sorry, spoilers.
Q: Who are you and what do you do at Chief Rebel?
A: My name is Thea and I’m a VFX artist.
Q: How did you find your way to Chief Rebel?
A: They actually found me! I was studying at Futuregames and there was a meet and greet week planned with a bunch of different gaming companies. Chief Rebel reached out to me the week before the meet and greet, said they liked my portfolio and asked if I was willing to meet with them. I initially hesitated because at the time there was zero info available on the company and the website only had their logo on it. But I got this gut feeling that I should talk to them anyway, and I’m so glad I did. I was sold from the very first interview.
Q: What’s the best part about working for Chief Rebel?
A: The team! We work hard on building trust and thanks to that, this is the first company where I’ve felt that I can truly be myself and that’s everything to me.
Q: Do you have any advice for those who want to work in the industry that you can share with the community?
A: Figure out what discipline you are the most passionate about, and what types of games you want to do. Then look at how games in that genre do it and learn from that. If you can, get a mentor from the industry to help you out. Be prepared that it can take some time to get a foot in the door, so make sure your portfolio is great and try to get as many industry contacts as you can.
Q: What are your typical tasks and responsibilities on a normal day at Chief Rebel?
A: I’m responsible for the Dungeon VFX. That includes bosses, enemies and some environment VFX. I work closely with the rest of the dungeon team to ensure that you will have a great time fighting our enemies!
I'm also mentoring our newest VFX artist, creating technical solutions and new processes to improve how we do all the VFX in Fellowship.
Q: Can you give us a sneak peek of what you’re working on right now?
A: I’m working on a really cool boss for an upcoming dungeon and, even though we haven't showed it yet, I'm told that it's ok if I share this and I definitely won't get in trouble.
Q: What other games or media do you draw inspiration from?
A: I take inspiration from WoW, LoL, and various talented artists on Art Station. I also take inspo from movies and TV series. For example, when I created the shadow VFX kit, I took inspiration from Claire's shadow magic in Trollhunters and the idea for how the soul kit should look came from dementors in Harry Potter.
But to be honest, most of the time I just feel randomly inspired and get a feeling, a vibe, that I just roll with.
Q: What’s your first gaming memory?
A: Getting in trouble for sneaking up in the middle of the night to play Tetris Plus with my big brother when I was around 4 years old. It’s a PS1 game and it’s like normal Tetris, with one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard (yes even to this day). It's set in ancient ruins and there’s this little archaeologist dude on the top row that will get crushed by a pike trap if the Tetris blocks get too high. The goal was to get him to fall down a gap to the button and in VS mode it was a race against each other, which always led to some intense sibling rivalry and us making a whole bunch of noise. Mom was super strict about what games we played and for how long until we were in our teens so, at the time, we were allowed no more than 30 min/day. Getting caught in the middle of the night got us in a lot of trouble and we weren't allowed to play anything for a week. Totally worth it though!
Q: What are you doing when you’re not working on Fellowship? Any hobbies or activities you want to share with us?
A: I play outrageous amounts of Cities Skylines 2, draw on my iPad, and hang out with friends and family.