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So yeah next week my teacher's friend from Gaben's land of candy is coming. I just thought maybe some of you wanted some questions answered.. even though it'd be easy as just emailing the staff itself.

She also called it "Vault." I laughed.

Can he count to three? Or is not being able to count to three the requirement for all workers at Valve?
(When) is HL3 coming?

As an artist, what are some of the names you should follow, if you wish to improve yourself?

How did he get this job?

Valve artist? I have no idea what you're talking about.. xD

*BlackFox wrote:Valve artist? I have no idea what you're talking about.. xD

^click it

poehalcho wrote:^click it

Oh dear.. I thought it was something else. xD

*BlackFox wrote:Valve artist? I have no idea what you're talking about.. xD

You know those people that create valves for pipes n stuff. They spend big money on designing them.

Crysis wrote:How did he get this job?

She. I believe this was her name after a quick google search of "L4D drawings comic con" which she did and lead me to the name Andrea Wicklund. Which "Andrea" rings a bell, but whatever.

Most jobs are attained through connections.

Sanktum wrote:Can he count to three? Or is not being able to count to three the requirement for all workers at Valve?
(When) is HL3 coming?

Half way through and nobody mentioned Half Life. Somehow it got brought up by herself and "No questions about half life." I said "Half life 3 confirmed" and everybody laughed.

Crysis wrote:How did he get this job?

She was hired 6 years ago when Valve had about 120 people. She was recommended by a colleague when she was going to school for art. She went through a 9 hour interview process which was 2-4 different people every hour or so. Gabe was apart of her interview process and she was afraid of him even though he's apparently nicer than I even imagined. Apparently tomorrow they're having a bunch of family and friends where their kids come and trick or treat in Valve. Also during the interview she mentioned she had to draw on a whiteboard which she was laughing through the process and they even said "You're a risky hire."

poehalcho wrote:As an artist, what are some of the names you should follow, if you wish to improve yourself?

I apologize I didn't even ask. HOWEVER She did talk about how was an illustrator beforehand and when they were hiring her [see above] she went in with the mindset of "video games aren't art" and that digital art was garbage or something. For the first week or so she was painting and which she realized that it took forever to make 1 concept while the others made dozens. She adapted and learned. Be a T shape person in general. Be good at one thing, but know more than that. She's just a concept artist for realistic people, but she'll do some concept enviroment, props, etc etc. A month ago somebody named Vic Bonilla said the same exact thing. Don't be good at just one thing, leave your ego at the door, and always be willing to learn and adapt.




Funny enough she was there for a freshman class art appreciation class (Which this year for some reason they recommend it to take it for senior year) then 20minutes later the main lecture hall had x2 the amount of people.

There was a funny story about her hand. If you didn't know her hand is the L4Ds' box art covers. I didn't know it was her, but I knew it was a female's hand with blond hair. So I went ahead and asked since it was a follow up question to Portal 2's box art which apparently took a long time to even come up with. I went ahead and asked something along the lines of "Considering you guys took a long time to come up with Portal's box art, how did you come up with L4D's? I believ-" and then she cuts me off "I was hoping nobody asked me that."

Anyhow the story goes was she was sitting around thinking of concept box arts for L4D and the person next to her asked "What's a cliche cover for zombies?" She just did a zombie clawing the wall basically. Which lead to the guy taking pictures of her hand and said her hand was hideous. Fast forward a couple months later after Valve tried to find a 'professional' hand artist they go back to her because nobody had a more grotesque hand.

Johnny Knoxville was the start of Ellis in L4D2 and Sean Connery for Bill.