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Brian Recktenwald

Environment Artist at Naughty Dog

Brian Recktenwald began his career in games as an Environment Artist at LucasArts on The Force Unleashed and sequels, then moving on to become Environment Art Lead for the Star Wars 1313 project at Lucasfilm. In 2013, Brian joined Naughty Dog to work on the highly acclaimed Uncharted series with a focus on modeling and scene assembly. He has worked in the games industry for over ten years and specializes in modeling, texturing, surfacing, and lighting.

  • I've been in the games industry for 17 years, and Brian is one of those rare talents you come across once in your career. He is by far, one of the very best environment artists in the industry. He consistently puts in extra time to make sure the work he turns in is beyond what you expected in terms of quality and polish. When we started Star Wars 1313, the environment artists pipeline was dramatically changed. They needed to produce assets to a quality level only seen in films, but on a very tight deadline. Brian set the high bar on what was expected and made sure his entire team delivered. He is an exceptional artist and a true professional.

    - Mark Bergo
    Sr. Artist at Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.

  • Brian is the most naturally gifted and creative artist I have ever had the chance to work with. His work at LucasArts has been nothing short of spectacular - and his ability complete work from concept to finish demonstrates just how much of a creative visionary Brian has become. Working with Brian to develop the environment art pipeline was one of the best working relationships a software engineer could hope for, as Brian was eager to work closely with both myself and other engineers to get the best tools and workflows possible. As ILM R&D began building a stronger cross-divisional working relationship with LucasArts, Brian was one of the artists at the forefront of working with our group. Brian's creative vision was often seen as the absolute 'high-bar' of what could be achieved - and it was always a personal pleasure to see what incredible and captivating work Brian was doing even with our very early prototypes.

    - William McDonald
    VP, Product at Conductor Technologies

  • Brian is a very nice and pleasant guy to work with. He is the Lead Artist for SW1313. His talent is matched only by his great attitude and his amicable nature. He is one of the most passionate and hard-working artists I have had to pleasure of working with on many titles. Brian is always proactive and comes up with new and innovative ideas to push workflows to new levels. He is able to take on tools that were still in a prototype stage of development and churn out some truly eye-popping levels that made everyone on our team proud. He is one of the rare artists that packs both an exceptional artistic eye for game design and all aspects of art production including modeling, texturing, lighting and animation.

    - Jem Geylani
    Studio Director at KIXEYE

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