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Interview

Elísabet Ýr Atladóttir p5

CG artist Elisabet Yr Atladottir talks about working on computer games.

READERSVOICE.COM: What sort of game were you working on and what would a typical day’s work involve when you were working freelance for the games company in Aalborg?

ELISABET YR ATLADOTTIR: I’ve worked on a couple of different games for the game company in Aalborg (Progressive Media). The first project was cancelled in the end, but I was creating environment assets for it in 3D, small buildings and such, from design to build to texture to importing into the game (I don’t know how much I can disclose on what it was about, so I’m afraid I won’t be saying anything).
The second game I worked on UI graphics for a strategy game, which was a fun challenge. It’s hard to describe a “typical” day, but we were required to punch out one finished building a day, so I’d say a typical day was going through designing, building, texturing and placing an asset into the folder structure so the game designers could find them and place them according to their plan. We were required to communicate with the game designers and programmers, so there would be minimal misunderstandings and there would be no confusion.
When I was creating the UI graphics I sent in the look for the UI and got either approval or feedback. If approved I would need to separate each asset and send them individually so that buttons etc. could be implemented. It was a fun time and I got to do a lot of very diverse work. It’s also extremely fun to get to communicate with game designers and programmers. Artists and tech people should definitely hang out more!

RV: Can you talk a bit about where you live in Denmark now, and how many hours would you spend drawing or working on computers each day?

EYA: Currently I live in Horsens. Most of my time is spent at a computer, as everything I technically do involves computers. If I need to work on something I have to use a computer, and my favorite past-time is playing computer games. So I’d say that every day I spend at least 12 hours at a computer.

RV: What are some of your plans?

EYA: My plans are to make games, maybe someday make my own. I’m currently looking for a job within the games industry as an artist, and hopefully that will come through soon. It’s a difficult time to be applying for jobs, but I’m always positive!

– Visit elisabetya.com.
– Copyright Simon Sandall.