>> I don't think I would be where I am today
if I hadn't failed and hadn't succeeded,
I think they all played a part.
There's definitely been some really difficult times,
but equally some incredible times.
And I think all of those things combined
just make up to the type of art director that I am today.
I've been living abroad from Australia
for about 15 years now.
So I grew up in a small town about two hours
south of Perth in Western Australia called Bunbury.
I think the experience of growing up in a rural location,
in a pretty large land to run around and do what you need,
it's-- I wish everybody could have that kind of freedom as a kid.
And so I think it makes you feel very creative
just running through the bush
and creating all kinds of things out of sticks.
And I think you-- it just kind of works the mind
so much more than maybe living in a city as a child.
Memories of Australia is kind of love letter to Australia
and my childhood and the kind of memories from those times.
It's a collection of thoughts and smells and sounds.
I did feel like I had to kind of,
you know, make it right,
do it justice for quite a few people,
so there was a little bit of pressure there.
I've always kind of had a life of art
in some way or another, ever since I remember,
I've always been doing art, drawing and painting
and that kind of stuff. I've loved nature, I've loved traveling.
And there's so many inspirations and locations around the world.
And I've been to Iceland and the redwood forest
and these kind of places where there's just places
that you just want to recreate in a digital space.
And that's what I love to kind of get back to
once I've been on those trips.
And to be honest, I have no idea
how I found the time to do something like this,
but this was one particular thing
where it's been on the back of my mind
that I've really been wanting to get to.
Memories of Australia is definitely a project
that has, you know, my emotions on my sleeve type thing
and I think it's clearly about nostalgia and you know,
you see the brothers in the canoe
and it's clear that there is some more to it
than just showing the nature.
And it's definitely intentional
that it's like an emotional piece.
I lost my brother some years ago,
so this was definitely a part of that project
to kind of get some of that feeling in there.
Some of the memories of us together
are the things that we did.
It's not something that people know about,
but it's it's always there.
And it was nice to kind of bring a little of that--
that a little bit of that piece of me out.
The peaceful canoe rides, the sound of the birds
just running through the bush, all these small moments
that aren't really special in themselves,
but altogether, this feeling is just this great peaceful
feeling of childhood that I think I'm very lucky to have.
I've been working mostly in proprietary engines in my career,
so this was my first real dab at
doing something large scale on my own at home with Unreal.
Because I want to be able to tell a story
and get emotion across,
it was important that, you know, the camera work
and those elements really were up front,
more so than the actual content that's in there.
So it was perfect for me to jump in and learn those tools.
The best part for me was working with Sequencer.
Animation as well was one area which I'd actually never touched
before, being a generalist, that was one of the only areas
I've never really dabbled in before.
So that was new for me,
you know, doing my first animation of the kookaburra
and getting that in there
and timing it with the Sequencer and the sound.
But all those things, it's so smooth to work with.
A lot of people have reached out; other Australians
who live overseas or, you know, people's mothers,
all kinds of people have just kind of reached out to say that,
you know, they get it.
They feel that emotion coming through.
So it's got the point across that is not just about the game art,
it's about the storytelling.
I've been having these feelings and the need to do this,
I just needed to find the right time
and the motivation to do it.
And it was so nice to kind of have that kind of come together.
And the validation was, you know,
my wife put on the headphones
and listen to it for the first time
and when it was all done, you know, almost tearing up.
So I think that was the perfect validation for me
that I'd done the job.