Going
Beyond the "Call of Duty":
The Journey and Challenges Behind
a Career in Animation |
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The Vegan Survival
Guide is a personal project, kind of
like a "baby" to me, lol. As you
will see, it was never really part of my plan,
but sometimes the best things happen on their
own. :)
My passion for animation
and video-games started when
I was a child. I loved drawing cartoons, caricatures
and loved designing my own flip books. I remember
in kindergarten always wanting to finish my
drawings and the teacher having to drag me
out to play outside... I also remember whenever
the teacher left the room I would quickly
grab some chalk and try to draw caricatures
of my friends on the board as quickly as possible
before the next teacher would enter the room.
lol.
Like many other artists,
my family did not believe Animation was a
real career and encouraged me to study engineering
instead. After graduating from High School
I attended engineering classes... ughhh (unless
you like that kind of thing of course :).
For me it definitely wasn't fulfilling. I
cried like a little girl, lol.... begging
my parents.... "Please, just let
me follow my dreams."
My
mom used to say, "Artists sell paintings
on the street... they don't make any money.
Do you wanna end up selling paintings for
pennies?"
Around that time,
traditional hand-drawn animation was coming
to its end. But after attending a Study
in the USA Expo in Brazil I learned about
Computer Animation... But,
I
didn’t even know how to use computers
when I got started, nor English for that matter,
lol. But my desire to be an artist was stronger
than anything.
As I shared in The
VSG's intro, my family wasn't exactly supportive
of my career initially. So even though money
was short while in school I feared sharing
any problems and risking my parents interrupting
my studies. To make ends meet, I forced myself
to survive in a diet of bananas and ramen
noodles or whatever it was most affordable.
A true "starving artist diet", lol.
At
E3 during release of the original
Call of Duty, 2003 Game of the Year.
COD won 37 Game of the Year awards,
16 Editor's Choice awards and 9 other
awards.
Fun
facts: During production
of COD 2, animators had lessons in
acting, military tactics, weapons,
and shooting.
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After finishing school
I was fortunate enough to join the former
members of EA’s Medal of Honor who had
just started a game company called Infinity
Ward. We began working day and night to develop
the 1st, of the now multi-billion dollar game
franchise called "Call of Duty".
I was lucky enough to be the only woman on
Call of Duty's original team and wanted to
inspire other women to pursue their dreams
as well. I was blessed with opportunities
to continue working on a variety of awesome
video-game titles and had a lot of fun working
on these projects. On my free time I also
trained in martial arts, which came in handy
when animating for games. ;) I learned
that in the entertainment industry having
an extra edge such as martial arts training,
or whatever that may be, will definitely help
you stand out from the crowd. You sorta of
have to go beyond the Call of Duty, lol.
Call
of Duty 2: Level Duhoc Animations
of soldiers in Higgins Boat
Fun
facts: In COD2 we modelled and named
soldiers after ourselves... Private
Escher helped the squad capture
Bergstein and Hill 400. He is wounded
while charging up the hill and was
seen in the communications bunker
with the wounded. During the attack
on Wallender he was killed in Hamburger
Alley in a crossfire. He used a BAR
(Light Machine Gun). I'm vegan
so of course I was killed in Hamburger
Alley, lol.
Then at the peak
of my career things tragically came to an
end... I had to leave my job to help my dad
who was battling cancer... a story I tell
at BudwigDVDs.com. Losing my dad, putting
my career on hold, moving to a different city...
it was definitely overwhelming. I'm forever
thankful to my dad, who believed in me and
supported me in following my dreams. This
also made me realize the importance of taking
care of your health. I had been a vegan my
whole life and realized I had neglected my
own health as well. :/ When life gets
busy it's easy to live on a sub-optimal diet
already, and when you are a vegan you have
to pay even closer attention.
Writing The VSG just kind of
happened.
Life
threw me a curve ball and made me realize
that I had something to share!
Now I'm also dedicated
to spread the word about healthy eating and
how to incorporate it into your life.
Personal projects: "The
Vegan Survival Guide", "A
Day in the Budwig Diet" DVD (Spring 2010)
and "A
Day in the Budwig Diet: The Book" (Fall
2011).
A
Journey in Game Development |
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Here
are some articles and photos from past projects.
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Dozens
of articles were published on the
smack-down video-game (2009) |
Call
of Duty II is cover of PC Gamer
(April 2005) |
Call
of Duty is cover of PC Gamer (2003)
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Another
of many Call of Duty covers (2003)
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E3
Game Conference article for TKD
Times and photos by UE (Sept 2005)
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The
Chicago Tribune interviews Ursula
about women who work in game development
(2004) |
(Behind
the screen: Women make a mark in gaming
world) Ursula Escher, an animator for
Infinity Ward, grew up in Brazil wanting
to draw cartoons for television. After insisting
that her relatives sit for her while she
drew their portraits, she persuaded them
to let her go to art school in Florida.
Borrowing a lesson from her second life
as a manager of a karate school, Escher
urges more women to get into game development:
"They think it's a guy's thing, and
it's not true. They need to see it. That's
what happens in karate, too."
— Chicago Tribune, 2004
Being
from Brazil I've always loved martial arts
and I'm always happy either training, teaching
or learning. Plus it came in handy when
bringing characters to life as an animator.
:)
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Perfoming
with Capoeira Batuque. Ursula's martial
arts training helped her in her work
as a Character Animator for video-games |
Escher
with Professor John Machado (2nd from
left), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Teacher |
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Ursula
getting ready to play "Roda"
at the annual Batizado hosted by several
great Mestres |
In
Game Cinematics Demo Reels
and Game Trailers |
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[In
Game Cinematics] Level Du-Hoc Character
Animations: |
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[In
Game Cinematics] COD2 Russian Level
Animations: |
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How
we made it (Making of COD2): |
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WWE
Smackdown! vs Raw 2009: |
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Turning
Point: |
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Silent
Hill Origins: |
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Call
of Duty 2: |
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Call
of Duty United Offensive: |
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Call
of Duty Game of the Year 2003: |
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linkedin.com/in/uescher
WWE
Smackdown! vs Raw 2009 (Spring 2009) |
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Martial
Arts Mo-Cap clean up |
Fighting
Scene |
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MMA
Techniques |
Fighting
Scene |
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Fighting
Scene |
Fighting
Scene |
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Turning
Point: Fall of Liberty |
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Running
scared animations |
Weapons |
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Panic
animations |
(Gameplay) |
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Grappling
animations |
Hanging
behavior animations |
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Silent
Hill: Origins |
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In
Game Cinematics |
Combat
Animations |
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Combat
Animations |
In
Game Cinematics: Riding the truck |
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Call
of Duty 2
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Animations
of soldiers riding the tank |
Sitting,
looking around, jumping out, etc |
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Call
of Duty Cover Story, PC Gamer April
2005 |
Many
behaviors and sets of animations
of soldiers operating the Flak 88 |
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Flak
88 Animations |
Flak
88 Animations |
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Many
behaviors including breathing idles,
crouching, vomiting, scared, running
out, etc |
Corner
Behaviors |
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Call
of Duty 1 (2003 Game of the Year) |
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Animation
of wounded man |
Cover
Behaviors |
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Cover
Behaviors |
Flak
88 Animations |
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Flak
88 Attack Animations |
Aim
Idle Animations |
Born in Rio de Janeiro, BR |
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Thanks to my mom for saving this drawing. I can see as a baby I was looking at the animals and started drawing them... :D
My 1st day going to school, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!
Enjoyed drawing daily and enjoyed creating art such as these XMas Cards for family and friends:
My grandmother Neusa gave me dresses, so I posed for her photos. (The truth is, which I can see on my face, is that these clothes were not comfortable, lol)
I started to understand... artists in Game Development combine the technical with artistic brain, so learning piano was a lot of fun! And again, it was me playing the songs that grandma enjoyed, lol. <3
So I later saw that learning Mac and PCs was quite easy. And I see how our softwares are more complex nowadays... they just take more time and we can all learn them!
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