David Mosher, a Digital Graphic Artist working at EA, gave us a sneak-peak of Dead Space 2 on November 12th.

One day before the talk, David Mosher came to ETC campus to help playtest our games. He played Coco&co’s game and Opsis2′s 3D games, and said the games were really impressive. He also gave us lots of useful feedback and suggestions for the visual effects in the Light game that team Opsis2 is working on. It was really kind of him to arrange a top-secret conference room to show us the game that he’s been working on the very next day.

We were amazed by the  gorgeous game environment shown in the demo. We also got a chance to see some visual effects samples.  David gave great insights into the challenges they faced and the solutions they used. David introduced his project and team, by which we gained more knowledge about the industry, and how it is different from doing a project at school. He also discussed the challenges we would face while making games within a big company.  He stressed the importance of finding balance between different teams. He was generous with his time as he answered many of our questions about the industry, his career and games in general.

“I’ve been working at EA for more than 10 years,” David said, “and I was an environment artist before becoming a visual effects artist. I really enjoyed being an effects artist.”

Having the opportunity to work inside the EA Redwood Shores office gave us a really good chance to learn more about this game industry. David Mosher’s talk is a good example.

A long time ago, in a country far away, a quiet director uttered the words “sure” in response to a young actor’s question. This single word eventually gave birth to one of the most recognizable and iconic figures in all of science fiction, C3PO from Star Wars. Though initial claims had this golden figure being a true robotic man, a flesh and bone human named Anthony Daniels was housed inside, bringing us the unique personality and voice of the original droid.

Anthony Daniels with original concept painting of C3PO

For two weeks we were lucky enough to house Anthony Daniels in our space here at EA, a significantly larger space than his C3PO suit.  Anthony is a visiting scholar at the ETC, though this was his first visit to our Silicon Valley Campus.  In his two weeks with us he visited the ongoing projects here and was kind enough to share his feedback with us. Often bringing a unique view, Anthony joined our advisors for their weekly meetings with us, as well as made himself available for one on one meetings.

Anthony playtesting Opsis2 3D Game

On Wednesday, November 10, he gave a talk on his experiences with Star Wars that was open to the rest of EA as well.

He shared with us his memories at meeting George Lucas, a quiet man despite his being an American. Perhaps the most surprising thing to hear was the fact that someone who is almost synonymous with Sci-Fi was quite disinterested with doing Star Wars at first. Only at the urging of his agent did he audition and eventually fall in love with his future character after seeing an artist’s rendering of the droid duo. He imparted the lesson he learned from this experience; never say no to an opportunity. If he had not suppressed his initial apprehension then the entity that is Star Wars may not be what it is today and he certainly would not have been there giving his talk to us.  Anthony also spoke on the phenomenon of being locked in people’s minds as a single character that he has done. “If people love you for something you do. Then love them back.” There is a distinct separation between Anthony Daniels and C3PO, more than just his voice, but the respect and love for his character is clear. It is sometimes surprising to hear him speak so affectionately of his filming experience considering the fact that he donned a tight seventeen piece suit to do the character.  I for one will never again complain about wearing a three piece suit at formal events after hearing the details of life inside his battery powered, sight and movement restricting outfit. Even the recounting of the creation of the suit, being wrapping in plastic wrap and covered head to toe in plaster, sounded immensely uncomfortable. Dedication to one’s profession and art was apparent in Anthony.

On stage at EA

The only actor to be in all six Star Wars movies, he had the first line of New Hope, and the last line of Revenge of the Sith. Again reminding us that a seemingly minor decision, such as going to an audition that you have little interest in, can change the course of not only your own life, but even help dictate the movement of entire entertainment genre. Lucky for all of Anthony and C3PO’s fan that there were no Jedi’s there to convince George Lucas that this was not the droid he was looking for. Instead, the word “sure” gave us the bright eyed (pun intended), prim and proper protocol operative.

Farewell Dinner