Craig Yoho
Position: Technical Artist
5th Year Undergraduate
Email: cyoho [at] uci.edu
What do you do on the project?I do a lot of the 3D modeling, all of the texturing, and a little bit of the programming. I've been helping to modify our custom exporter that takes models I make in 3ds max and turns them into something the game engine understands. Mostly I find ways to make Robert (the graphics programmer) work harder.
How long have you been with the group? Since April.
Why are you working on the project?Mostly for experience. I'm interested in both the art and the coding, and this seemed like a good place to do both at the same time, which is pretty rare.
What do you think is the overall goal of the project?Well, along the way, to teach kids some important ecological things, but also to get this new form of technology tested. We're using a lot of technology that's been around for a while, but no one's put it all together to do what we're doing. And restoration ecology is a difficult subject to teach kids, so hopefully the EcoRaft will present it in a way that's engaging enough to be useful.
What was your favorite part of [or working on] the project? Making rodents dance. But seriously, the hummingbirds really pushed me to learn how to texture things. So, that involved modifying the model exporter to handle the texture coordinates better, how to build the model with clean texture coordinates, and how to get a 2D image to wrap around it in a predictible way. It was all good stuff I needed to learn, and it all came together fairly well, I think.
What are your career goals/interests? Probably game design, or at least some place that I can do both the art and the coding. Game development seems to be the most interesting place for technical artists, and the place where we're most desired.
What are the other projects you've worked on? I haven't worked on any research projects besides the EcoRaft.
Have you gotten any awards and/or publications? A buddy and I earned a gold medal at the 2001 SkillsUSA/VICA national competetion for 3D Visualization/Animation. I'm also an honorary SURF Fellow. That's about it.
Any other questions and/or answers would you like on your site? Nope.
Last updated: October 18, 2005