The Ghosts of Tabula Rasa

In 2004 I was introduced into the world game concept art. I got my first game gig at Ncsoft and worked on Tabula Rasa their sci-fi MMOG. It was an amazing experience and a very sobering one as well. I made a lot of friends there and learned a ton from many of them. I must say though my greatest experience was interacting with the development team in Austin and creating concepts and seeing them brought to life by the 3d artist, animators and programmers. I also had the chance to meet NCSOFT employees from Korea and China as I visted both places. Now those are memories I will never let go of.

I am very thankful for getting to know those people and making friends all over the world. I think the experience transformed me in good ways. As a freelnace illustrator you tend to be sheltered a bit more because you are on your own but working as a concept artist or art director etc you have to be able to communicate and interact with others and take crits all the time and give crits, it's not always easy to hear but a part of the industry.

Unfortunately Tabula Rasa did not do well when it debuted in late 2007 and in Feb 2009 the servers were shutdown. I guess its a bit sad to think all the hard work the 9 am to 3am work days the 2 hrs in traffic on the LA 405 and all the things that come with working on a big project can easily be nulled in a heart beat, well maybe.

The nice thing about art though you can always look at it and remember exactly where you were when you created it and your state of mind, and what was going on in your life at the time. So when I look at one of my old TR concepts hundreds of memories come pouring in.

Me and the wife drove from FL TO CA when I got hired at NCSOFT and seeing those amazing mountains coming from flat Florida drew tears to my eyes. Knowing that I was on an adventure of a life time to do what I've always wanted to do, and that was to create concepts and characters and environments that people could enjoy or even get terrified by or hate etc. The point is everytime you create something its not art unless you leave a part of you in it. This is why I create what I create not for the money not for the fame but for the frekle face little kid or adult who wants to see something diffrent new and amazing. It's why we go see movies, play games, read books, listen to music etc.

I've posted some of the art I created for Tabula Rasa in my gallery, so now when you look at them you know a little about the journey and experiences they were created around




JP