Conversations with Jessica Teague

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Teague

Hi Jessica, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
When I was growing up I always had an interest in fine arts. I focused on those electives throughout middle and high school, succeeding especially with digital art forms. I decided I wanted to pursue art as a career my senior year of school so I attended Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia. When I started I wasn’t sure where I wanted to focus immediately, I just knew I wanted to work in entertainment.

My first major decision was joining the Game Development major at SCAD. I had flip flopped between focusing on games and movies for my entire freshman year, but at the end of that year I took a film class and received wonderful advice from some of my professors that helped me decide I wanted to pursue game development. At first I focused on my 3D modeling skills and took an internship with Mattel. I learned a lot from their team and using 3D modeling in a practical job helped me understand that it wasn’t what I wanted to do full time. It took me until the beginning of my Junior year to choose Game VFX as my specialty.

VFX was the opposite of everything I had told myself I knew how to do – I always thought I was pretty weak with abstract art and making work from just a concept and that’s a lot of what VFX is. The challenge of that intrigued me so I pursued it and found I really enjoyed the ever evolving difficulty of the skill. Unlike some skills the tech of VFX is constantly changing so even if you’re a master of it one year you’ll be like an apprentice the next as the tools keep updating. I really enjoy learning so this trait of VFX drew me to the artform.

After I specialized in VFX at school and altered my class schedule to get the most out of my curriculum I got an internship from Insomniac Games on their VFX team. After that internship was over I was lucky enough to get a full time position. I helped ship Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and am currently working on future projects with my team.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Considering all aspects my road has been fairly smooth. I’ve put in an extreme amount of work to get where I am, but I’ve also had a lot of luck. I’m very thankful to the teachers and mentors I’ve had over my life that taught me the skills and mentality I needed to be able to capitalize on the opportunities I received and work to see them fulfilled.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My job is being a game Visual Effects artist. In simple terms I work on anything in a videogame that moves that is not a character or object. Things like explosions, water, fire, dust, etc. I’m still fairly new in the field as I only graduated from college two years ago. I currently work at Insomniac Games and helped finish Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. On this game I’m probably most proud of the open world wind tunnels. I worked closely with the design team to make them a strong tool for guiding the player throughout the world.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
In my free time I take writing classes and am trying to gather the knowledge to write a novel (Or at least a short story!). I don’t talk very much about it as I’m not sure my writing is very good yet but when I’m confident in it I’ll be more willing to share!

Contact Info:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicateagueart/

Image Credits
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2