Gwinnett Tech hosts Blizzard Entertainment Visual Effects Artist Rachel Day

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Gwinnett Tech hosts Blizzard Entertainment Visual Effects Artist Rachel Day
On October 10th, students at Gwinnett Tech interested in or currently enrolled in the Game Development program along with the general public, had the opportunity to meet and hear Blizzard Entertainment’s VFX Artist Rachel Day’s story. Day is part of the team that has helped create the wildly popular game, Overwatch. Released in May of 2016, the game now has over 20 million registered users according to pcgamesn.com.

Day shared the story of her youth and her early love of gaming, the influences throughout her life, how she decided on her career path and landed at Blizzard Entertainment. In her role, Day works closely with designers and gameplay programmers to create visually appealing graphics that deliver Overwatch’s unique combat look and feel. She also works closely with the user interface team to create a clear and impactful user interface.

Day also walked the audience through the creation of Overwatch and what a job as a VFX artist is like. She left students who are interested in or are pursuing a job in the field with three pieces of advice:

  1.  “Don’t just wish for it, work for it!”
  2.  “Always be creating… draw, do photography… create something every single day.”
  3.  “Network! Tell everyone what you want to be and how you want to get there. Find people that are doing what you want to do.”
When asked how it feels to be part of such a popular game, Day said, “It’s humbling to think that literally millions of people are playing the artwork we created.” While California, home of Blizzard Entertainment, is still the largest state in the nation for video game development, the industry has experienced growth around the country. According to Andrew Greenberg, Executive Director of Georgia Game Developers Association, Georgia is the 7th largest state for the game industry in the country with 3,142 people working in the industry and 350 games created in Georgia.

Gwinnett Tech offers an Associate’s Degree, Diploma and Certificate programs in Game development. For more information on Gwinnett Tech, visit gwinnetttech.edu.

 

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