Spencer Black

Senior Artist  |  Disney Interactive/Avalanche – Salt Lake City, UT  |  2006-Present

Assisted in leading UI team in creating front-end menus, in-game menus, HUD/meter and gauges, hundreds of game play icons, power disk coin art, posters, iPhone wallpapers, and many design mockups.  Partnered with designers to create engaging, quick-read interfaces.

• Key projects: Disney Infinity 3.0, Disney Infinity 2.0, Disney Infinity, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Ultimate Band; Prince Caspian and DGamer.

• Conceived of the initial concept idea for the “Hall of Heroes” level in the Infinity series; proposed the idea to and gained buy-in from studio head John Blackburn.

  • Helped drive demand for and sales of Infinity action figures.

  • “Hall of Heroes” proved integral to the game, so it was recreated in each subsequent iteration.

• Played a key role in developing the customization pipeline, which was the first step in creating an open Toy Box world for kids to create, personalize, and play in however they wished; Toy Story 3 was ultimately the catalyst for the creation of Disney Infinity.

• Joined with Junction Point studio to complete Epic Mickey, working in Maya to aid team in meeting deadlines and releasing the game on time.

Art Lead / Senior Artist  |  Sensory Sweep – Draper, UT  |  2005-2006

Led team in level creation, design, and texturing for Dirty Harry game.

Senior Artist  |  Indie Built, Inc. / Take Two Interactive – SLC, UT  |  2005-2006

Provided level design for development studio acquired from Microsoft, contributing to several games.

• Shipped Amped 3, playing a central role in its completion. Contributed to level design and development; created numerous environment objects and textures to populate the levels, menus and in-game meters/gauges, and mockups for designers, helping to establish the unique style of the game.

• Functioned as sole UI artist on Mobius Wakeboarding; created levels, 3D objects, UI mockups, in-game menus and gauges, and final art for the front end.

Early Employment

Senior Artist  |  Microsoft Game Studios* – Salt Lake City, Utah

Environmental and UI artist contributing to level building and design for numerous games. Gained solid foundation in UI. *Previously Access Software.

• Shipped games: Tex Murphy: Overseer, Guardian, Black Pearl, Links Golf, Amped 1 and 2 Snowboarding games.

Stepped in to serve as lead UI artist on the final Links Golf game, ensuring the game that shipped was of the highest quality; created great interface that innovated the look and style of the game.