Tell us a little about yourself! What’s your role at Series, and what do you work on day-to-day?
West Philadelphia born and raised, generative ai art is what I work on for most of my days.
I’m the Lead AI Artist at Series, which basically means I work on a little bit of everything. I’m currently working on Choices, helping turn the writers’ ideas into visuals and bring their stories to life. Every day is different so I stay on my toes and the job gives the tinkering side of my brain plenty to play with.
After work, my two boys and I mostly focus on driving my wife crazy. That usually means buying too many Hot Wheels sets, or the three of us building massive interconnected “mega-tracks” throughout the downstairs and basement, then leaving tiny cars everywhere. You know, normal after-work activities.
How did you end up at Series?
I saw a piece of cheese and when I went to grab it, this trap shut and two years later, here I am writing this.
Real story: A few people I’d worked with at my previous company, Kongregate, reached out and asked if I was interested in an AI Artist role and how familiar I was with generative AI. It sounded like a great mix of things I already knew and things I’d get to figure out along the way, so I took the bait. If anyone’s curious about the cheese in my imaginary trap story, it was munster.
Your Craft
What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical day is like driving down the interstate, creeping between the speed limit and 10 over, with the windows down and the music cranked up. Every now and then I have to slow down for a toll aka meetings, but then I’m back pounding the gas and cruising. It’s basically that, but with AI.
A lot of my day is spent iterating on image outputs or pushing updates to tools that help me and the rest of the team work more effectively. There’s a lot of moving pieces here at Series so I try to get in where I fit in, provide support and simply move the needle wherever a needle needs moving.
What’s one thing players might not realize goes into creating the art for a game?
There’s a misconception that using AI means you just type in a prompt and you’re done. Generating a thing is easy. Generating a very specific thing that meets an exact production need is a lot more challenging.
When someone says, “Oh, they just used AI,” they’re skipping over everything it takes to turn an image into something you can actually use in a game. Generating a 2D sprite is only the beginning. You still have to remove the background, resize it, match the style across every asset, and make sure everything follows the same technical requirements. Two prompts might give you two characters, but that does not mean those characters look like they belong in the same game.
That technical side is what I enjoy most. I might start with a few nodes in a Comfy UI workflow that generates one asset, then keep expanding it until it can generate everything the game needs with a single button press. Of course, the button is the easy part. Getting everything behind it to behave takes a lot of prompt engineering, testing, and extremely picky iteration. Making a decent YouTube thumbnail with AI is one thing. Making a full set of consistent, game-ready assets is a completely different sport.
Inspiration
What’s one lesson you’ve learned as an artist that has stuck with you?
In college, I majored in 2D animation, and one of my professors gave the class a serious chat after a bunch of students missed an assignment. He said, “One thing you need to understand before you graduate and enter the industry is that deadlines are everything. If you don’t meet the deadline, you’re dead.”
It sounds pretty obvious, but it stuck with me. Through full-time jobs and freelance work, the one thing that has always mattered is delivering when you said you would. That’s why my first question whenever someone asks me to do something is usually, “When do you need it?”
The deadline tells me what kind of solution I’m building. If you need it tomorrow, you’re getting the smart and practical version. If you need it next week, I have time to obsess over every tiny detail. Either way, I get a little maniacal about hitting the due date because in this industry, finished and delivered will always beat perfect and late.
Lightning Round
- Coffee or tea? What’s Tea?
- Early bird or night owl? Batman
- Favorite game? Final Fantasy 7, the OG
- Favorite book? DJ Shadow’s Entroducing
- Favorite movie or TV show? A League of their Own
- Current obsession? Hot Wheels tracks and Peanuts puzzles
- Dream vacation? A quiet house for one week
- One word your teammates would use to describe you? Caffeinated
Closing
What’s one thing you hope players feel or experience when they see the art you’ve helped create?
All the feelings! Joy, heartbreak, suspense, nostalgia, and the realization that we’re giving you the tools to build the exact kind of thing you’re playing, allowing your creativity to elicit the same feelings in other gamers.