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Adrian: My name is Adrian Majkrzak and I’m a Senior Artist here at Bungie. I’m part of the Concept team that works on the initial designs for vehicles, weapons, characters, props, environments… really anything visual in the game. If I’m doing my job right, you’ll see quite a few realized versions of my designs while you’re exploring Destiny with your friends.
Adrian: When you’re stealing an enemy vehicle or picking up a rare exotic weapon for the first time, there’s a chance it’s one I worked on, and that’s exciting to me.
Adrian: My day job isn’t actually all that different from the way I spend my free time. I feel lucky to be doing something I love for a living, and I still try to dedicate a good amount of time to developing my personal art at home. Outside of that, I explore the amazing hiking trails around the Seattle area, try new food, play games, and occasionally serve as human furniture for my two cats.
Adrian: When I was a kid, my friend and I watched his older brother’s copy of Aliens in his basement when no one was home. From that moment forward, I wanted to be a Space Marine. When they broke it to me that wasn’t a real job, I decided the next best thing would be to draw them all the time. Shortly after that, my uncle gave me his beat-up copy of The Empire Strikes Back sketchbook, which made me realize that there was someone drawing behind the scenes for my favorite movies. I still believe those two events formed the seed that set me on the path to where I am now.
Adrian: Monkey Island. It was the first game that made me realize that there must be artists that worked on games. The background paintings were so beautiful in that game. Not only that, but it was and still is hilarious. I try to play it once a year still.
Adrian: I first went to school in California to learn 3D animation and special effects. At a certain point, I realized I was more interested in the hand-drawn and painted side of things than the technical. I saved up some money with a friend and he and I went to the Watts Atelier in San Diego to study figure drawing, painting and illustration. Everything I’ve learned, including the 3D, comes into play for me on a daily basis at Bungie.
Adrian: After college, I worked as a game tester for a couple of years, which introduced me to the general game development pipeline. Immediately before Bungie, I worked for a few years at CCP Games with an incredibly talented concept team. It was a very supportive group of people with shared interests and we all learned from each other and grew together. That’s where I was able to hone my skills to the point where it could attract the attention of the fine folks here.
Adrian: What seemed to attract Bungie’s attention was a combination of my previous experience designing for science fiction properties, as well as having a versatile portfolio. There are many artists out there who specialize and eclipse me by far in those areas, but I like to think I bring a diverse skill set to the table, so I can jump onto all kinds of different tasks. That seems to be appreciated here.
Adrian: Working through a concept live with Rob Adams on the whiteboard in the interview room. It was stressful at the time, but I later realized how effective a test it was - to be forced to design on the fly and focus on solving the problem rather than worrying about making pretty renderings.
Adrian: For me, the best part about working for Bungie is the insane talent and the incredibly high bar already set by the art team. It makes me work hard and strive every day to get just a little bit closer to that bar (which seems to be constantly moving upward).
Adrian: I do what I love at work and I continue to do the same thing at home. Art is a passion of mine and I’m always trying to learn and improve, whether through personal work, studies, going to galleries and looking at old masters or taking painting classes. Also I learn so much from watching the rest of the team work.
Adrian: Follow-through. One really interesting aspect about working at Bungie is that concept artists don’t just finish a piece and then send it off, never to look at it again. We’re all expected to interact with the 3D artists and follow our concept through to completion, giving feedback or working with them to find a solution if something in the concept won’t work technically in the game.
Adrian: Maybe it’s the Ghost. Having the opportunity to design something that the player would be interacting with every day and that would play such a large role in the story was extremely rewarding and definitely made me feel like I was part of the team.
Adrian: Take it seriously and make sure it’s something you really love. If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, it will be reflected in your work and people will respond to it. Study hard and never have the attitude that you’ve “made it” or you’re “good enough.” Everyone from a beginner to a professional is still a student, and we should always be striving to learn more and improve our craft.
Adrian: Jumping in with my friends and playing the game through their eyes.
Adrian: The Fallen dropships were something I helped design and will be seen by people pretty early on in the game. I’ll be excited to point those out. Later on, there are a few weapon designs that have to remain secret from now, but they’re personal favorites that I can’t wait to point out to friends.
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