FEBRUARY - My home office is still far from complete, but, thanks to my new desk, I am far more comfortable working within it...finally comfortable enough to appear within this space in photographs and while video conferencing via Google Meet and Zoom. The wall behind me is now the permanent location for some of the framed items I earned while contributing to three very successful PlayStation-exclusive video game franchises: Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Uncharted. The latter two are limited edition launch posters signed by every member on the development team. I could not hang frames in this room until I settled upon this desk layout as I knew the location of my workstations would dictate where I could hang them.

This is the corner that is visible in my video calls, though not exactly from this perspective. In other words, I have extra incentive to keep this area looking orderly so it does not become a distraction. This space is dedicated to my music workstation...now driven by the computer I inherited from my dad. Though this PC's GPU is no longer powerful enough to accelerate the art packages I use, the overall system runs the latest version of Windows 10...and has just enough performance and memory to serve as a full-blown DAW. I am seriously bummed that the DC input for the Kawai K1 (the keyboard to the right) got damaged while I was setting up my office. This was my very first "real" synthesizer keyboard..."real" in that it has full-size velocity and pressure sensitive keys. I last powered it on just before I got my desk (to make sure it was paired with the correct AC adapter). I had not been connected to my rack mixer since we lived in Marina del Rey. Here I had planned to use it as a controller keyboard for when I am seated. I have no idea if I will be able to fix it or if it is even worth fixing considering I recently found a free software version that faithfully replicates its sound engine. The only catch is I may not have ever bulk dumped the patches I authored for it to my PC...I cannot find any system exclusive files relating to the K1 on my drives. Some patches would have been stored internally, some may have been on an attached RAM card. In either case, the batteries backing up that data may have expired years ago.

I initially hung the Uncharted and Crash "10 million" frames on this wall, their tops perfectly aligned with the window's modling. It wasn't until I attempted to squeeze this Crash Bandicoot: Warped "Coming Soon" poster between Jak poster and thermostat on the opposite wall that I realized I would have to completely shuffle things around. I had not previously hung my Uncharted launch poster at home, but it had been on display...at Big Red Button's El Segundo office until Bob decided we should permanently leave that space due to the on-going pandemic. All of the frames fit better in their new locations, but the Warped poster is slightly higher than it should be because I did not feel like adjusting the location of the hanging hardware (it is still positioned ideally for the Uncharted poster). This Warped poster is special because I initially did the T2-inspired rendering as something of a joke...but marketing loved the image and decided to run with it. That said, they toned down some of the similarities by increasing the saturation of the warm colors and removing all traces of Crash's glowing red eye. I guess I can understand why...Crash appearing as a cyborg might have confused fans and altered expectations for what the game would be. When I was initially hired at Naughty Dog, I expressed that Ripper Roo was my favorite character design from the original Crash game. I was rewarded by getting an opportunity to rig and animate him for his boss fight in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back...the first character in the series I got to animate (I was initially hired to model environments). When presented with an opportunity to take home concept artwork from the original game, I went straight for Roo.

Is that a lava lamp or a meal incubator for little Grogu?

Since the early days of BRB, I have used project switching batch files to set environment variables specific to each project I am working on. This batch file calls a utility that updates my Windows wallpaper (a great way to visualize which settings are active). I have been working on a project with a team located in the Bay Area for the past few months, so a panorama of the Golden Gate Bridge I captured several years ago felt appropriate. Note that I recently setup a Photoshop file a with "smart object" that can serve as a template for properly spreading a seamless panorama across my current multi-monitor configuration. Tihis particular template takes under consideration the space between the monitors and the resolution difference of my portrait oriented monitor (it's currently set to a higher resolution than the others so I can make full resolution screen captures for mobile displays that are 1440 pixels across when similarly rotated).

Once a week our Zoom standup meeting has a background theme. Tomorrow's theme is musical instruments we either like or play...perhaps something unusual or obscure. Well, everyone has seen my keyboard gear behind me during Zoom calls, so I decided to highlight my MIDI rack gear that isn't as easy to see.

You haven't seen a muse before?

Happy 20th Anniversary, Jak and Daxter!

DECEMBER - Here I am today in my home office 20 years after we released Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy on PS2. I am standing next to our limited edition official launch poster...signed by the entire development team at Naughty Dog. This is print 29 out of 200.