Project: ESP

Art Director  |  Designer  |  Sr. Animator

Microsoft Enterprise Simulation Platform (ESP) combined the simulated environments of Microsoft Flight Simulator 11 and Microsoft Train Simulator 2 into one simulation space for the games, military, and corporate industries.

My role as Art Director was to design and implement the platform's character variation system on a global scale.

The first step was to design the two-gender character variation system plus rigs and then define the list of 3D character assets required to represent Earth's varied population in multiple types of clothing to account for weather.

I laid out the UVs in this manner to allow for more efficient texture creation with the highest level of pixel detail (including an area for decals or textured bits requiring alpha transparency.)

I outsourced all content development for passengers, props, and textures to a third-party vendor, while keeping primary NPC characters  (the Player interacts with directly) and all mocap editing in-house.

And, I designed a proprietary tool that could take advantage of all these assets to generate random crowds per simulated session.

Microsoft ESP Promotional video (edited)
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[Note:  During this un-rehearsed, impromptu marketing video, the Studio's VP calls me "the Art Lead" in error.  My Microsoft title was Art Director at the time.]

Passengers - 3D Studio Max Biped and motion capture

Proprietary "Anim Tool", for generating a variety of meshes.

Microsoft ESP "On The Rails" footage