He loved the work but wanted something more than the environment he'd been working in. Though he enjoyed working remotely, eventually he began to grow restless. 'It varies from 'Hey we need a crate,' to 'Hey we've got this room that serves this purpose and we're not sure how it should look.' Most of all, people are just looking for good ideas and elegant solutions to visual problems, and if you can provide that everyone is happy.' 'In general the amount autonomy for concept art depends on the needs of client and specifics of the task,' Cross wrote. This is only visible in the story editor. Developers would tell him what they needed, and he'd produce the art.Įditor markup for Dead Space 3 concept art.

It was a process that forced him to become 'pretty close to nocturnal' between carving out time for his family.Ĭross enjoyed the autonomy that remote work offered him because it allowed a certain amount of freedom. But Cross didn't do his work from the developer's Redwood City, California studios, which he only visited 'a handful of times.' He created his art remotely, he told Polygon in a recent email. He continued working with Visceral on the third installment of the Dead Space series.

At Portland's Cinco Design, he also worked on Need For Speed titles, among others. He got his start in the video game industry working on Dead Space 2 though a friend of his who had written a draft of the space horror story.

He moved to Portland in 2002 and spent time working at Nike and teaching illustration at the Art Institute of Portland. Originally from the Bay Area, Cross graduated from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he received a BFA in traditional illustration. Working with Visceral Games, Cross coordinated with art directors and environment leads to paint the frozen landscapes and corridors, vehicles and characters that would set the visual tone for the recently released game.Ĭross shared some of that artwork with Polygon recently and told us about his journey from art school to working remotely to his current position in an office working on a highly anticipated upcoming title.

Joe Cross' artistic influence is everywhere in Dead Space 3, and you don't have to look any further than his concept art to prove it.

Dead space all concept art