I was born in Fresno, an overgrown small town in the central valley in California. This town combined the bad parts of living in a small town (lack of culture, the consequent snobbiness that comes with ignorance) with all the bad parts of living in a city (large size necessitating a car to get anywhere, huge suburbs). I grew up on a steady diet of junk culture. Star Wars, Marvel Comics, Atari videogames, Mad Magazine, Warner Brothers cartoons. Actually, i like all cartoons, but after awhile you begin to realize that some are just better than others.

Like all kids, i always drew. I always made art, and all i ever wanted to do was art. I made flipbooks in the margins of old paperbacks. I remember hanging around my dad's instrument repair shop watching him fix stuff. When i got bored i would make spaceships or tanks out of guitar parts (& the sound effects to go with them). Nyeeow! Ptchew! ptchew-ptchew!

 

Then when i was about 14 my dad got a job doing finish carpentry on the main house at Skywalker Ranch. Working for George Lucas. My dad would tell me how cool it was up there and i began to dream about doing special effects for ILM someday. But they seemed so far away. In preparation, i read science fiction. Sturgeon, Bester, Dick, Gibson, and Sterling and Stephenson too. I drew dragons and superheroes for my friends in high school. Eventually i had some success drawing people's D&D characters for $ at gaming conventions and did my first published illustrations for a role playing game by a local company.

After high school i was accepted to the Illustration program at Art Center College of Design. I lived in LA for a year and a half and then ran out of money & had to drop out of that prestigious university. While there i was exposed to a lot of new ideas and made a lot of new friends. I was introduced to the great illustrators from the Golden Age of Illustration like N.C. Wyeth, Lyendecker, and Maxfield Parrish. Oil and watercolor and gouache painting,Video editing. And figure drawing on a whole new level. Imagine a class where everybody is at least as good as you are. I improved so much in my art in that year. Which made it really depressing to have to go back and live with my parents in Fresno again.

I got a job in a cabinet shop making speaker enclosures for musicians and movie theaters. Next time you're at the movies, look at the side wall about halfway up. You'll probably see two or three black speaker boxes. I might have made those. We made about a thousand of them at the shop.

The first chance i got i moved to Marin. I love it here in the Bay Area. You can get anything you want here. Stuff from any culture really. Nothing is exotic.

At first i worked in a photo studio, just as i had back in high school, developing prints and doing some digital imaging work. Getting experience in Photoshop mostly, but still useful. Then i got work as a game tester and became a part of the vast and silent Digital Underclass. Doing minor, low-paid, and digitally menial tasks for a variety of video game companies. It's temp work. You rotate around from company to company when your contract expires. I worked at SEGA, Lucasarts, Sony, SEGA again. Eventually, a tester job at SSI turned into a model/texture artist position. My models and textures are in Panzer General 3D Assault and PG3D:Scorched Earth. I lost my cool job, though, when the company was sold to Mattel and the department disbanded.

After looking for work for awhile I decided to go back and finish school. I got accepted to the California College of Arts and Crafts in oakland as an Illustration major. I learned a lot there too. I took the advanced courses in anatomy and figure drawing courses with Vince Perez and sequential art(comics) with the illustrious (pun intended) Barron Storey. But just like at that other prestigious academy I attended, I was having difficulty paying for school. So I transferred to another school, Academy of Art College, lured by their Video Game Art and Design degree. As wellas plenty of student loans. After a year or so in the Video Game major, I noticed that the students & teachers in the Animation department seemed to be more diverse and interesting group and to enjoy what they were doing a lot more. They just seemed happier. This diversity included a significantly higher percentage of women. I think that's a sign of a healthier industry. Also I just wanted to draw more. So, I switched my major to Media Arts and Animation, got that degree and went out to look for a job.

On March 14 2008, my life was changed forever by the birth of my son Milo Z. Campbell, the smartest most beautiful baby ever. Ev-er.

Right now I'm working on my modeling demo reel to submit to Pixar. There's a position that'd be perfect for my level- recent graduate. I hope they pick me.

Contact Me:

Email: jeremy.campbell@gmail.com

My blog.

http://educationindeath.blogspot.com/

It's about getting an education in the field of games.