The Archive

May 24, 2017

Big news for me: I'm taking a break from freelancing and have accepted a full-time job at Autodesk on the Shotgun team! This job is basically a…

March 23, 2017

Hi, everybody! My GDC 2017 talk, How to Cut the Tether and Work from Anywhere , is now online for viewing. Here's the synopsis: It's 2017, and it's…

January 4, 2017

Hello, folks! I'm incredibly proud to announce that my first book, How I Escaped Evangelical Hell , is now for sale on Amazon , and will soon be available on digital platforms and on shelves worldwide!

October 27, 2016

Hi all! Chris Holden and I did another episode of the CrunchCast, a video game artist podcast. In this episode we talk about virtual reality projects we've…

June 28, 2016

Saw a post on Twitter today about a representative for Beck trying to get an artist's work for free. I screencapped it and broke down and explained the sleazy…

May 26, 2016

Here's one of my favorite little productivity tricks! Did you know you can create a bookmark that immediately creates a new Google document, spreadsheet, or…

May 23, 2016

Hi all! I've just updated and published new slides for my From Full-Time to Freelance: The Ten Commandments of Contracting talk. Ever wondered what life would…

May 17, 2016

Here's a presentation I recently gave to the Center for Games and Playable Media at UC Santa Cruz master's program students. If you manage remote workers and…

May 5, 2016

UPDATED 2016-05-05! I originally presented this as the keynote speech at Gameacon 2015 , and I've since presented it at the Albany IGDA and updated the content…

April 22, 2016

Hi, everybody! I've just added the Art Outsourcing Knowledge Base to the site. This is a categorized, organized collection of the last 11 years' worth of art…

March 25, 2016

A complete guide to ready-made game assets This is an excellent read for anyone in game development, from indie to AAA. Utilizing online content stores like…

January 28, 2016

Excellent, detailed and well researched article on the use of color in games. Well worth a read! Link: Gamasutra: Herman Tulleken's Blog - Color in games: An…

January 27, 2016

This is a fascinating analysis of Dark Souls' environment concept art, concept art's purpose, and even some cool art history. Art leads and art directors will…

December 29, 2015

Hi all! As the year 2015 draws to a close, I decided to look back at the last year to see what tools and tech I still use on a daily basis to continue my happy…

November 18, 2015

You Can Now Use Two-Step Authentication on Amazon—Here's How Excellent! Amazon finally added two-factor authentication for account security. Here's how to set…

August 18, 2015

BitTorrent Sync Mobile Update: Create, Edit and Share | Official BitTorrent Sync Blog YES!! One my of favorite tools just got even better. BitTorrent Sync…

August 17, 2015

Vizio Latest Manufacturer To Offer More Ways For TVs To Watch Purchasers | Techdirt Here's another compelling reason never to own a Smart TV -- spyware! In…

August 13, 2015

Someone Finally Made Google Hangouts Better On Desktop It's about time! Hangouts for serious use is awful on a Mac, and Common Hangouts has been fantastic to…

July 27, 2015

After Backlash, LinkedIn Brings Back Contact Export Feature After user complaints, LinkedIn has re-enabled the contact export feature that they recently…

July 21, 2015

Link: Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It It feels weird to type this, but if you drive a Jeep Cherokee, you should download a security…

July 15, 2015

Incredibly useful tip! Link: How to Get the Password of WiFi Network You Are Connected To

July 15, 2015

Link: http://bit.ly/1I2YdkH Very cool! New sharing permissions limits for files in Google Drive, finally offering the ability to prevent people from…

May 6, 2015

Hi all! Here's a Facebook post I made about low-poly art and what we look for on the Unreal Engine Marketplace with regards to quality and content for low-poly…

February 20, 2015

Great guide! I *love* BitTorrent Sync. How (and Why) to Ditch Dropbox and Sync Files with BitTorrent Sync Dropbox (and similar cloud services) are awesome, but…

February 20, 2015

Exciting! IFTTT is one of my *very* favorite tools. I use it to automate a huge variety of tasks, and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't…

February 12, 2015

Here are some practical tips for file management for isometric assets. More great art production info by Junxue Li! In a city builder game, the in-game graphic…

February 10, 2015

5 Tools to Extract Images From PDF Files. Handy! The last in the list is a desktop app if your PDFs are under NDA. If you have a PDF file full of images, you…

February 5, 2015

This is quite useful! "Dropbox's web client is now smart enough to open files directly in their native apps" Dropbox hasn't radically changed its core product…

January 30, 2015

Polycount Riot Games Art Contest winners! The art is great, but also, the art direction feedback is top notch. The artistic style of ‘El Braum’ aligns closely…

January 29, 2015

Junxue Li is back with another great art production overview, this time on designing isometric buildings: This title is a bit misleading, in fact this article…

January 28, 2015

Quick Google Sheets tip -- add this bookmark to your bookmarks bar to create a new spreadsheet with one click: http://bit.ly/1yyZnuW Link to full article.

January 19, 2015

WOW! Art directors, leads, and outsourcing managers take note -- this is a list of website style guides, pattern libraries and design manuals for inspiration…

January 19, 2015

Productivity geeks! Do you use an app launcher? Here's an excellent overview of more awesome ways you can use them: Do you still launch applications by…

January 16, 2015

Handy tool! Automatically convert files in a folder to PDF. Behold HotFolder: HotFolder is a free program that you can use to monitor folders on your system to…

January 15, 2015

How to build an animated SVG loading icon in 5 minutes! Fun, simple non game art tutorial. :) With the rise in popularity of SVG’s, now is the perfect time to…

December 29, 2014

This is Leonardo da Vinci's resume as a war engineer, sent to Ludovico Sforza for consideration. His painting skills are mentioned almost as an afterthought…

December 26, 2014

Fascinating gears and lever systems as animated gifs. Great ref for animating doors and looping techy bits for games! The most viral images on the internet…

December 22, 2014

Excellent introduction to Physically Based Rendering and what it means for artists. If you're a game artist that doesn't yet know what that is, or if you are…

December 3, 2014

Another solid art production breakdown from Junxue Li. "Art directing a match-3 map: A walkthrough" We’re making map art for a Match-3 game recently(working as…

November 26, 2014

BitTorrent Sync is one of the very best tools I use for syncing all my data to all my devices, as well as syncing files with all my outsourcing partners across…

November 24, 2014

This is incredible! Adobe Photoshop Streaming runs inside the Chrome browser. We live in the future. :) Using Photoshop usually requires lugging a typically…

November 21, 2014

Wizard magic! "Moleskine Smart Notebook Turns Your Sketches Into Adobe-Friendly Vector Files" Digital tools may one day replace traditional creative media…

November 21, 2014

Hi everybody! The Tools and Tech of the Globetrotting Freelancer talk that I gave this year at the External Development Summit 2014 in Vancouver is finally…

November 21, 2014

Check this out! BitTorrent Sync is one of my favorite tools. Lots of great stuff here. What To Expect Next From Sync A year and a half ago, BitTorrent Sync…

November 20, 2014

Great freelancer app tips from MakeUseOf! "How Apps Can Help Any Freelancer Or Small Business Owner Be Productive" If you're running your own small business or…

November 17, 2014

What does your social media presence say about you to hiring professionals? That's a sobering thought. Check out this article, and especially the accompanying…

November 11, 2014

If you work with PDFs, check out PDF Shaper! This sounds super cool. You can extract text or images from a PDF, rotate pages, sign them, convert the PDF to a…

November 10, 2014

Here's a handy Gmail filter to auto-filter Twitter messages into nested folders. Thanks, Robert Headley! http://buff.ly/1xdOfFh Gmail filter to automatically…

November 10, 2014

This is awesome! You can now launch desktop applications from Google Drive in Chrome, like PSDs into Photoshop. :) http://buff.ly/1wxLZdJ Link to full article.

November 7, 2014

Handy cheat sheet for precise coverprofile photo image sizes. A Creative's Quick Guide to Social Media Image Sizes http://buff.ly/1xdCLS5 Social media is a way…

November 6, 2014

Joe Siegler has a practical hands-on "how I actually use this" review of Google Inbox that's a good read! http://buff.ly/1sX1NAw I’ve spent some time with…

November 6, 2014

Here's a handy set of 105 free game icons (public domain!) for your game! Good variety here with vector source. http://buff.ly/1sauNWz 105 game related icons…

November 6, 2014

While browsing LinkedIn today, I noticed in my activity feed that it knew I sent an email to my girlfriend two minutes ago. That made me suddenly realize that…

November 5, 2014

Protip for artists and art studios: Don't attach files to unsolicited emails. a) respect my inbox size, and b) don't look like malware. Social media is a way…

November 5, 2014

Any.Do is already my favorite to-do list. This is GREAT. Any.Do updates its to-do app with new sharing features: http://buff.ly/1sSfdOi There's a revamped…

November 4, 2014

Microsoft Office and Dropbox announce partnership. Dropbox can now edit Office files. Wow, very smart move for both! http://buff.ly/1xY3eTG Dropbox lets you…

October 30, 2014

A terrific read from someone I greatly respect. "Gamasutra: Laralyn McWilliams's Blog - She's Not Playing It Wrong" http://buff.ly/1sMgwyk If you’re an…

October 27, 2014

It's never good to hear about a project failing, but the postmortems and retrospectives that get written about them are often a helpful and instructive read…

October 21, 2014

Excellent tips for a great app! "11 Tips For Using Team Viewer – The Best Free Remote Desktop Connection Manager" http://buff.ly/1s3gAt2 Once upon a time…

October 19, 2014

Note: If I'm preaching to the choir and you just want to seedelete your info on Google, skip to the section marked "Let's get started!" Over the last year I've…

October 16, 2014

This is extremely cool! Can't wait to play with these. "IFTTT's New Twitter Triggers Automate Monitoring Twitter" http://buff.ly/1zdVeTJ If This Then That…

October 10, 2014

This is Jon Jones style hyperfocused advice for all freelancers. It's 2hrs of info in 13 minutes. Please share! http://buff.ly/1yRLLBj Jon Jones, in his second…

October 7, 2014

You can now import 3D characters from Mixamo into Photoshop. Welcome to the new generation of Poser art! http://buff.ly/1vO0Ldt Mixamo is an online platform…

October 6, 2014

I posted this in a comment on Facebook earlier, but I thought I'd post a list of some of the video game news sites I read every day and what I like about them…

October 3, 2014

Interesting! This could either be relatively helpful, or horribly annoying. That being said, though, how many Evernote users here actually write content…

October 2, 2014

This is the one and only time I'll reference #GamerGate. People I know and care about are being targeted for harassment by both individuals and groups on both…

October 1, 2014

Is anyone out there using BitTorrent Bleep yet? It's a slick messaging app for mobile and desktop that's peer-to-peer, decentralized, and encrypted. Wild! It's…

October 1, 2014

This is phenomenal, must-read advice for any indie starting up. "A playbook for cutting the corporate purse strings" http://buff.ly/1vuswrQ Two and a half…

October 1, 2014

This is a really cool idea. What would you use it for? "To-Do App Wunderlist Links Up With Dropbox, Its First Integration" http://buff.ly/1wXWndc Wunderlist…

September 30, 2014

iCloud users should enable this security setting NOW. "Apple’s two-factor authentication now protects iCloud backups" http://bit.ly/1smMIsp Elcomsoft’s backup…

September 30, 2014

I wrote a new article about clever uses for BitTorrent Sync! "Sync Stories: Ideas for Business Travelers" http://buff.ly/YO8AoI Sync Stories is a column…

September 30, 2014

Remember the celebrity nude leaks? 2FA would have prevented it. "The Best Two-Factor Authentication App for iPhone" http://bit.ly/YMjGKI Two-factor…

September 29, 2014

Awesome, Adobe's rolling out a streaming version of Photoshop for Chromebooks! But I'm curious about performance. http://buff.ly/1vretEg Link to full article.

September 29, 2014

This is a fantastic guide to UI design and process, including practical usage details and non-obvious drawbacks and solutions to varying approaches. Even if…

September 29, 2014

Cool production summary of iterative game UI design. "This week in Archmage Rises: User Interface Magic" http://ubm.io/1ux6Z0K This past week, I focused my…

September 29, 2014

Interesting enterprise-focused secure chat app. "Microsoft legend Ray Ozzie wants to kill the conference call" http://bit.ly/1uCKDLc We haven’t heard from Ray…

September 29, 2014

I have a soft spot for clever to-do list apps, and Moo.Do's approach looks interesting. It's basically taking the concept of tagging and hashtags with simple…

September 29, 2014

I got quoted in the San Jose Mercury News in an article about privacy tools, data security and anonymity! Awesome! "Tech responds to growing calls for Internet…

September 28, 2014

Good summary of why Linkedin can be valuable for people with specific, educated target audiences. "LINKEDIN DEMOGRAPHICS: The Top Statistics That Make The…

September 27, 2014

The detail level is overkill for my uses for art pipeline and process documentation and troubleshooting, but this could still be extremely helpful for some…

September 26, 2014

While I applaud Apple for enabling iPhone encryption by default, it should be noted that that doesn't mean total security for *all* your data. They can hold…

September 11, 2014

[UPDATE 11/26/2014] The video is now online! Check it out: [/UPDATE] Hi everybody! I just finished giving my presentations at the External Development Summit…

August 29, 2014

I like the idea of using hashtags for organization. "Most of us use Gmail as our main email service, but it's so much more. Gmail can act as your to-do list…

August 29, 2014

Anyone applying for jobs should read this, now. In job searches, people frequently look at the listed requirements, see a gap, and move on, fearing rejection…

August 27, 2014

If you don't know the answer to that question, I strongly suggest spending five minutes on a one-time-setup to secure your Android or iOS device. It's super…

May 20, 2014

Hi all! Quick tip -- don't use in-line images for art feedback! Ever. Seriously. This shows the correct way to Attach images instead of embedding them as…

March 28, 2014

Hi everybody! I used some cool tech to automatically create and update a spreadsheet of every game company that posts video game development jobs on LinkedIn…

November 6, 2013

I hear a lot of criticism levelled at LinkedIn from game developers. It's a business networking tool, and on some level, people find that mildly repugnant…

August 27, 2013

Art management time! Has anyone created a wall grid full of printed art assets for basic tracking and visualization? How did you do it and what did you track?…

August 15, 2013

I created and maintain an extremely detailed spreadsheet tracking video game industry layoffs for the last five years, so I decided to work up some numbers of…

August 8, 2013

Hi all! I've just launched Video Game Infographics , a central resource for infographics, carefully tagged and categorized. Please share with your friends! :)

August 6, 2013

Here's the latest episode of CrunchBites , which are highly-focused 15 minute long video podcasts about the game industry where we answer one viewer's…

June 25, 2013

Hi everybody! Here's another TwitterBlast I did on my @jonjones Twitter account on the subject of resumes and portfolios. Here's the info-dump, and I've…

June 24, 2013

Hi folks! I've been posting a lot on Twitter lately, especially resume, portfolio, and artist tips. I've been queueing up a bunch of individual tips and…

April 11, 2013

Hi everybody! Long time no chat. I did a 15-minute-long stream of consciousness braindump of artist advice on my Twitter account (@jonjones) and I'm reposting…

April 23, 2012

Whoa, awesome! My blog post about predicting layoffs is now a Featured Post on Gamasutra! Thanks guys! :D Predicting layoffs: How to check your studio's health…

April 13, 2012

One of the most important concepts I've learned as an art producermanager is this: If you want to get a specific answer from someone, make your best guess --…

April 10, 2012

Hi all! With the spate of layoffs recently, I've been thinking of how to assess a studio's health so you can predict whether or not doom will come, and when…

March 31, 2012

Nothing exists unless it's written down, in one place. I prefer email, or a web-based forum system inside which all art feedback exists. When I start on a…

March 28, 2012

Art manager tip: When writing feedback, never use a hyperlink to an image. Links die. Also, many art studios' work PCs don't have internet access. Save and…

March 22, 2012

Hi, everybody! I've been using a system of directory naming for years for tracking all incomingoutgoing files with outsourcers I use, and I'm tweaking it and…

February 1, 2012

Everyone's favorite game dev podcast is back! This week I join Chris Holden, Jesse Sosa and Lee Amarakoon to discuss the business of VFX and the world of…

January 29, 2012

Whoa! My mini-speech on free agency being the future got plugged in the Daily Texans' coverage of TACC's Future of Video Games event! Conference exhibits…

January 27, 2012

Hi all! Back in December I gave a speech at the IGDA MicroTalks on the subject of transitioning from full-time employment to freelance art. It's an expanded…

January 26, 2012

Man, I really suck at posting notices about events where I'm speaking. Last night there was an event called Infinite Resolution Zero LatencyI at the University…

January 19, 2012

Another new CrunchCast is up this week! This time we have Chris Holden, Bryan McConnell, Patrick Morrison and me discussing the International Consumer…

January 19, 2012

Hi everybody! For those not familiar with reddit , it's [essentially] a website where people post links, create discussions and comment on them. There are tens…

January 11, 2012

Artists: Having a great portfolio and blogging about what you know is gold. However, I've heard of people selling art critiques and trying to charge for basic…

January 1, 2012

Just ran across an awesome new tool: Dropbox Automator! This is a pretty wild one. Essentially, you can create rules (or "automations") for Dropbox via this…

December 12, 2011

Hi, guys! I've been spending the last few months really digging into the most efficient ways to manage my business from wherever I happen to be while having…

December 2, 2011

This week's CrunchCast is online and Chris Holden, Bryan McConnell , Jesse Sosa and I discuss indie games and what it's like to be "the new guy" and how to…

November 22, 2011

Hello, UI artists! I've been going over a lot of UI artists' portfolios -- particularly contractors, hint hint -- and I've noticed three things in particular…

November 17, 2011

Something I see from a lot of artists (and even some studios) soliciting their services for artwork is people with MSN, Hotmail and Gmail addresses. There's…

November 2, 2011

People underestimate LinkedIn as a business intelligence tool. If you're interviewing, ask for names of who's interviewing you. If you're looking to contract…

October 4, 2011

This week's CrunchCast is online and Chris Holden, Bryan McConnell and I discuss the ins and outs of applying for work in the games industry and why it can…

September 30, 2011

Contract artist tip: Your client's contact point for art management and direction is rarely the person that cuts checks. Their endgame is getting art done and…

September 28, 2011

Time for another CrunchCast ! Episode 14 is online now and viewable below. I was actually in Denver in-studio for this one! Chris Holden, Bryan McConnell and I…

September 26, 2011

Hi, everybody! I wanted to pimp out a game development video podcast my good buddy Chris Holden has put together. I've been a guest on it several times now and…

August 20, 2011

Hi everybody! I spoke at the IGDA Microtalks a couple months ago on the subject of job-getting, being noticed and generally how to market yourself better as an…

June 27, 2011

Hello, all! Here's article for artists seeking employment, contract or full-time. It focuses on using basic marketing techniques to stand out in the crowd…

June 23, 2011

Introduction to the series Here's the first of a multi-part series on how simple and realistic it is to start transitioning into cloud-based computing. I tend…

June 16, 2011

Last year I wrote an article for GameSauce Magazine on E3, with the intent of essentially nutshelling what it is and what it means to the un- or…

May 15, 2011

I'd like to introduce my readers to a wonderful tool I was introduced to some time back -- VisiPics! Ever wanted to clear out your reference folder of…

January 18, 2011

Here's another life-enhancing tool I love: StrokeIt! It adds the ability to create global or application-specific mouse gestures in Windows. Incredibly…

August 9, 2010

I was browsing Reddit earlier today, as is my morning routine, and I came across an article called How to hire an artist (archive link). This article has been…

February 22, 2010

Photoshop has been around for 20 years now, and I found a really awesome timeline image showing the development of Photoshop over time, which key features were…

February 17, 2010

Hi guys! I'm coming out of a post-Germany haze of sickness to link you to some handy tweaks for Google Calendar. I'm a total nut for Google Calendar and…

February 16, 2010

Hey, neat! I was featured on a list of 100+ Resources for Video Game Professionals. This looks to be a pretty solid list full of useful sites and really good…

December 17, 2009

This is extremely cool! Check out Google Browser Size . Essentially, this web tool will draw an overlay map of your website marking the different resolution…

November 26, 2009

The difference between success and failure in outsourcing can come down to documentation. Effective and thorough documentation is absolutely the most important…

November 18, 2009

Hello, everyone! As I told everyone at the MIGS 2009 "How To Love Outsourcing" speech, here are the slides: How To Love Outsourcing Sorry it took me until…

March 31, 2009

Here is my FAVORITE Outlook tool. It’s lightning fast indexed search that beats the pants off anything Microsoft has. Microsoft liked it so much, in fact…

February 25, 2009

Here's a small post culled from a question I received in an email. This is by no means an all-inclusive guide or a how-to, but just a couple thoughts on the…

February 23, 2009

Artists: Getting paid is important. If it's a small studio, they simply may forget to mail off a check in a timely manner. That sucks. It's usually not…

February 8, 2009

Another big post this weekend! I'll explain how I spec out a contract, divide the work into meaningful divisions, and how I handle asset revisions. I'll even…

February 7, 2009

I often run across questions people ask regarding outsourcing animation. I seem to be one of the few people that has outsourced animation successfully. I've…

February 4, 2009

Ever bookmark a website full of great information, only to revisit it later and discover the link is dead? Worry no more! HTTrack Website Copier is here, and…

January 29, 2009

This may be outlandishly obvious, but for some reason it never occurred to me until this week. Here's a tip for Art Managers and Artists both! Art Managers…

July 8, 2008

I've been doing some thinking and experimenting with the way I structure contractor feedback and I have some slight tweaks I'd like to share. Here's my new…

June 17, 2008

This is a followup to my Project: Outsource Everything post, nearly a year later. To be frank, almost everything I planned to do succeeded beyond my wildest…

May 15, 2008

I'm on a major feedback-writing pass this week and I had seven feedback maxims I'd like to share: Make subject lines COUNT. Be as descriptive and meaningful as…

March 19, 2008

Agh, sorry for my slowness to respond to comments lately... I've been crunching on something big ever since GDC. I only have time for a short post relating to…

March 8, 2008

I start from the core belief that my *life* is the project, and that the type of game I choose to work on can help me develop skills I'm interested in…

March 5, 2008

One really interesting trend I've found in the last couple years is that artists are *far* more motivated to keep working if their contracts are structured so…

January 11, 2008

One of my favorite and most-used apps that I might not have talked about before is PathCopy . It copies a filename with full path info to the clipboard…

December 20, 2007

I made a forum post this week on what information I provide to the studios I outsource my animation work to, and I thought I'd repost it here. The speccing…

December 19, 2007

Based on the last ~15 months of contracting out concept art, I've refined my style a bit and just made a dramatic change in the way I parcel out work. I used…

August 3, 2007

If you get to be a manager of external artists of any kind, MAKE A NEW ACCOUNT FOR INSTANT MESSAGING that only your contractors have access to. No friends. I'm…

July 12, 2007

Here's an edited excerpt of an email I wrote for someone asking me for tips on putting together an environment artist portfolio. Focusing on environments but…

July 12, 2007

I've been trying to come up with a simpler and easier way to structure my feedback on assets I receive that makes it easier for the contractor to focus on one…

July 12, 2007

My friend Nate sent me a fantastic article that was right up my alley: 19 Things NOT To Do When Building a Website . The whole thing is so good I'd just paste…

July 10, 2007

Here's a quick one. Ever wanted to be able to view TGA files in thumbnail form in Windows Explorer, only to find that Windows won't support it? Be frustrated…

July 9, 2007

Agent Ransack is the best and fastest search tool I've ever used. Anytime I need to find something -- anything -- I use Launchy to fire it up, quickly type in…

July 9, 2007

One of my friends from work suggested that I give TaskSwitch XP a try. What's so great about it, you may ask? Envision this scenario: You have 30 programs…

July 4, 2007

I'm in a unique position in my job where I have a modest budget to spend on outsourcing art for my game. I have complete control over where, how and when I…

July 1, 2007

I expanded a bit more upon the questions I was asked by Monster.com and had a few more bits of helpful advice to entry level game developers. Check it out…

June 29, 2007

There's a piece on game industry career advice from the Tech Jobs Expert on Monster.com. And guess what? The article in question features a handful of quotes…

June 26, 2007

A good chunk of the articles I write are inspired by people that ask me specific questions about stuff I do on a daily basis. Then I realize my answer to them…

May 18, 2007

Ever wished you were better at writing emails you want a response to? Here are a few handy tips: Get to the point. No one likes reading rambling emails…

May 11, 2007

I found something awesome on LifeHacker a moment ago that smArtists may appreciate. It's called The Freelancer's Toolset . It's a list of 100 web applications…

May 10, 2007

Here's to thinking out loud! I've decided that I need to have a clean and clear concept art repository. As it is, everything is really spread out and too…

May 10, 2007

Here's the introduction of a new series of little thoughts that won't really fill out a full post. Everyone likes to get involved. If you have people in your…

May 10, 2007

If I'm your art director and you see that I've named files a specific way, that is for a reason. I've already sent you the file naming conventions... stick to…

May 10, 2007

Something I've learned is never to skim emails. Sit down and read them. Assess what they mean. Understand their ramifications. Build a quick and rough mental…

May 9, 2007

I'm dealing with contractors that are rigging models now, and I was thinking, what would be the best way to illustrate the problems I find? "Just look at the…

April 27, 2007

Here's a simple lesson I've learned: If you're going to change the file naming conventions on your game, start doing it right immediately and make no…

April 26, 2007

I've been doing a lot of thinking and a fair amount of work lately building perfect modular kits for my contractors so they can get started quicker and have to…

April 24, 2007

Here's a fun one: How do you keep track of a team of external artists? First, define what needs to be tracked: Who's working for me? What do they do? Are they…

April 24, 2007

I just found a great post by Gianfranco over at GBGames that's called What Would A Game Developer Do? Gianfranco starts out detailing focus problems we all…

April 23, 2007

Want to know how to make more money as a contractor? Here are some tips. Be fast. Show me you can produce good work quickly. Don't drag your heels and always…

April 23, 2007

I have a handy tip for building a contract made up of lots of very small quick-to-make items with a fast turnaround, like icons. I only do this with long-term…

April 22, 2007

Here's something for the smArtists out there! These will hopefully give you an insight into how an employer thinks and how to be a better and smArter…

April 13, 2007

Found a cool article this morning: 101 Hidden Tips and Secrets for Photoshop Some useful information in here I didn't know. A few repeats, but here were some…

April 13, 2007

I just checked out Rick Stirling's excellent blog and found an article for young artists that I wholeheartedly agree with... it's called Art for games, not…

April 7, 2007

Here are a few valuable things I've learned about dealing with contractors. If it takes more than ten words to describe it, take a picture. This applies most…

April 4, 2007

I just made a forum post responding to someone that was asking about basic rates for animation. I mentioned that more details needed to be provided, and I…

March 24, 2007

MIT's Sloan School of Management Open Courseware MIT recently released most (if not all) of their courses online for free. I discovered today that that…

March 24, 2007

I've been looking for ways to improve my PC workflow, and I touched on that in an earlier Productivity Tip . One of my readers suggested that I use Launchy …

March 24, 2007

I've long been frustrated at Windows' tendency to suck. If some random part of Windows suddenly freezes, EVERY part of Windows is frozen. Sometimes I can't…

March 22, 2007

One of the biggest production bottlenecks on my project is my ability to implement art into the game. I'm essentially serving as art director (jointly with our…

March 22, 2007

I have accounts with all four major instant messenger protocols. Because I hate each one of their native programs, I use a single program that can log into…

February 9, 2007

I've noticed in the past that when I send back a list of requested changes to my contractors, if there's more than one change, sometimes they'll forget one or…

February 5, 2007

I hate long emails in a job application. Resumes mean nothing to me. Include it but don't expect me to read it, because your artwork says more about you than…

February 5, 2007

Unless you have a lot of content of the same quality level, don't show works in progress. Especially not front and center. The implication is that it's the…

February 2, 2007

I was giving a friend of mine advice on how to really capture the imagination and interest of a contractor and (hopefully) negotiate a lower rate, and I broke…

January 31, 2007

The project I'm on is a small-scale MMORPG. As is typical in this type of game, your character is always on the hunt for newer, better pieces of armor. That…

January 19, 2007

Here's a peek into what I do day to day and the things I'm learning, from broad concepts to specific ideas. I don't know how informative it'll be, but I'd like…

January 15, 2007

This one should be pretty obvious, but most people don't think about it. I see this a LOT. I've even done this one before. :) Think about it: If you're…

January 15, 2007

This is a really important one that I only touched on briefly in my Your Portfolio Repels Jobs article. If you're emailing your portfolio around, or even if…

January 11, 2007

During the course of my day, I access many, many different directories at the same time. I hate having to navigate to them manually through Windows Explorer…

January 10, 2007

If you ever find yourself waiting on something consistently and have nothing to do, try to find productive ways to fill those small amounts of time instead of…

December 16, 2006

Ever wanted to improve your ability to retain information? The way I started doing that was taking notes in books I read. It made a HUGE difference. I'd use a…

December 2, 2006

I found this over on LifeHacker today and thought it was pretty sweet. Here's the direct article link: A Primer on Electronic Communication Basically it's a…

November 23, 2006

One of my core beliefs is that if you do something enough, you can make it a habit. Usually people think of bad habits like eating bad food, or smoking, or…

November 19, 2006

Recently I started curbing my impulse buying by stopping just short of purchasing it, look at how much I would have spent, then go spend twice that amount…

November 7, 2006

Something useful I've learned in the last few months is that you should learn to be strategically irrational. This has benefited me in two particularly helpful…

November 7, 2006

One of the things I've found to be the biggest hindrance of concentration and productivity at work is distracting stuff in my field of view. It could be a lot…

October 27, 2006

You know the Quicklaunch bar next to your start menu on the taskbar? Remove your browser icon from that. The easier you make your browser to access, the more…

October 14, 2006

I've found an absolutely amazing book that I've been rolling around and splashing in for the last few weeks. It's a book that presents a very compelling…

September 13, 2006

I had the idea yesterday of helping myself to focus by writing down exactly what I'm going to do next on a post-it note and put it on the bottom of my monitor…

August 29, 2006

"You can't learn art." Have you ever heard that? "You're just born with it." Or that? "Oh, that looks just awesome, don't change a thing! It's perfect." How…

August 27, 2006

I've been thinking a lot lately about personal inertia and change, and how no matter how hard you try, some things about yourself you can never change. And…

August 25, 2006

Ever wonder where all your time goes? You get home from work, then practically before you know it, it's bedtime. Where did all that time go? You sure didn't…

August 17, 2006

Apologies for the lack of posts lately! Been very busy at work and spending lots of time out enjoying life and having friends. Work so far at NCsoft is…

July 25, 2006

I just ran across a website on accident that has a few people ripping on me and my site. It made me laugh, and I wanted to post it here. Here's the IndieGamer…

June 15, 2006

Here's a fun little life strategy: Make friends everywhere you go. Since I've been interviewing, setting up the move and calling dozens of people asking all…

June 12, 2006

Earlier today on a web forum I frequent, someone asked other people what they do to be more efficient at work. I gave him a short list of what I do: For me…

April 22, 2006

Hey, I'm in Texas! I'm staying with my good friend Eric . Yesterday we drove up to Fort Worth with a friend of ours to go trawling around in a condemned and…

March 27, 2006

I've had the most amazing weekend. I have never been this productive in my life. Ever. At anything. Fair warning, this is pretty self-indulgent, but I'm so…

March 3, 2006

Ah, it's been a great few weeks. Daxter is gold and will be in stores in less than three weeks, and I'm getting my life back on track. I was in the mood to…

February 11, 2006

Just a quick post here to recommend a book I thoroughly enjoyed: Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time It's a really…

January 4, 2006

I have come to the conclusion that ANY, ANY, ANY mod or game website that shows UN-POSED renders of the models is completely unprofessional horse-puckey that…

January 1, 2006

I've been enjoying a blissful nine days of freedom from work before the final push. I've been doing a great deal of reading, playing games, cleaning the…

December 25, 2005

http://www.jamesart.com/kits.html File this under "Artistic reference." These are some amazingly beautiful stylized resin model kits of the most…

December 16, 2005

I read this blurb this morning in Business 2.0 and thought it was cool. It's like what I talk about... how persistence through failure and rejection increases…

December 15, 2005

I was checking out the blog of someone I know and he made a post talking about the pain of having your art beaten all to hell by criticism. It got me to…

December 8, 2005

I usually don't post quick things like this, but I just found something too beautiful not to post. I was doing some random browsing while waiting on something…

December 8, 2005

Short update, practically stream-of-consciousness, but something I felt worthy of sharing. I was just heading home from work, wrapping up a nearly 15-hour day…

December 5, 2005

NanoLegends art released! I know a lot of you have asked to see my art and that I haven't had anything recent to show off. Well, that's no longer the case!…

November 16, 2005

I finished reading Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising , which I talked about in my last post…

October 14, 2005

Time for a little heave of self-indulgence and jabbering on about what's on my mind. Well, I'm reading again, for the first time since earlier this year. My…

October 7, 2005

I look at game artists' portfolios on a regular basis. These websites are usually designed so poorly that I close my browser out of disgust. They're even bad…

October 4, 2005

I had an interesting realization at work yesterday, one that applies to a lot of things. At Ready At Dawn we're all kept very, very busy and we're all given a…

September 28, 2005

My friend Eric recently started a worklog detailing his free-time foray into developing an original intellectual property. It's already shaping up to be a…

September 1, 2005

Hot on the heels of my Smart people are dumb, failure is awesome post is a followup! I can only imagine how anxious the edges of your seats are for you to stop…

August 24, 2005

Been thinking about this lately and felt like committing it to paper... so to speak. Smart people are dumb. Failure is awesome. Let me explain. I've given a…

July 21, 2005

Haven't been posting as much lately, since I ran into a wee spot of crunch at work. Nothing too severe, but enough to take my evenings and energy away from me…

July 11, 2005

Here's an article I wrote last year that was extremely well-received but not very widely spread. Thought you professional developers that read me would like to…

June 30, 2005

Well, my Marketing for Artists post seems to have gone over really well. I've gotten universally positive comments on it. But one particular question came to…

June 23, 2005

[2014-12-04 UPDATE!] Post resurrection! I've updated the material in this post for a rapid-fire 13 minute long speech for the IGDA MicroTalks in Austin. While…

June 18, 2005

Been quiet lately. Finally bought my copy of Relic's wildly entertaining RTS, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. At my core I'm a long-time RTS nut, and this game…

June 1, 2005

In my last post I was criticizing the media overexposure of Seth Godin , the writer of tremendously popular marketing books such as Purple Cow and All…

May 26, 2005

I loathe stepping onto the Trend Train, but I thought this was interesting and funny. There's a wildly successful author of marketing books named Seth Godin…

May 11, 2005

Ladybug delivery day. I'd forgotten. Got a phone call this morning. mom: "Hello? Jon? Hi, it's your mother!" me: "Hi mom!" mom: "Normally I wouldn't call you…

May 9, 2005

Ladybugs due for delivery this Wednesday. Word on the street is, females lay 10 - 50 eggs every day, so assuming half of the ladybugs my mom gets are female…

May 3, 2005

A more light-hearted post. A few months ago I ran across a website where you can order all kinds of beneficial insects for your garden and have them shipped to…

March 21, 2005

Been quiet lately. Went through a month or so of crunch that's killed my desire to do much of anything lately besides playing World of Warcraft. Her's a quick…

January 5, 2005

What I'm reading now: Ten Day MBA: A Step-By-step Guide To Mastering The Skills Taught In America's Top Business Schools Excellent read so far. Up to the…

September 26, 2004

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is time management. I had to learn how to manage mine carefully when I was looking for a new job. Liquid…

May 2, 2004

Haven't updated lately. Been busy. Took over duties as a marketing director for my company and still keeping up with sales and reading. Finished lots of books…

April 2, 2004

Well, I found out yesterday that due to my success at GDC and my knowledge of the game industry, I'm being promoted to an Accounts Manager Sales…

March 31, 2004

Time for another long-overdue update. Since I last posted I've worked on eight more titles for Liquid. Starting in mid-February, I've been contracted out to…