ACG artist and computer animator Lisette Titre has contributed to some of EA’s highest profile games, including Tiger Woods Golf for Nintendo’s Wii, The Simpsons, and Dante’s Inferno.
As a character modeler, Titre takes data from scanned images of characters or real-life individuals and reworks the information to build a 3-D digital sculpture. After the character’s digital skeleton is built, she takes the skeletons and applies computer modeling controls so the fingers will curl, the legs will bend, and the character moves with fluidity.
Titre, who is often the only animator working in-house on her projects, also manages a team of outsourced artists in China, Australia, and Canada. Each team can consist of five to 20 people who work on game titles for as little as one year to as long as four years.
After graduating magna cum laude from Miami International University of Art and Design with a degree in computer animation, Titre finds herself virtually alone in her field—something she hopes to change as a member of Blacks in Gaming, a nonprofit dedicated to creating networking and collaboration opportunities for blacks in the gaming industry. “I’ve never worked with an African American woman in an artist’s capacity,” she says. “We need more diverse ideas. We keep seeing the same thing over and over again.”
As a consultant for gaming companies she has left her mark on EA Sports and other major companies. Lisette has graced the cover of Black Enterprise magazine due to her entrepreneurial efforts. Recently, she partnered with Soledad O’Brien to encourage more young girls to consider education and jobs in STEM. Lisette is also a member of Blacks in Gaming, which seeks to get more African-Americans involved in the game design world. Blacks in Gaming is starting a mentoring program and plans to reach out to middle schools in Oakland, California, and other underserved areas.
***Information courtesy of www.forharriet.com and www.blackenterprise.com***