MICHAEL MCDONALD

Lead Lighting Artist

As a holistic and accomplished leader in video game lighting, Michael expertly blends traditional cinematic artistry with technical execution. With a 15-year career spanning XR to AAA, he excels in assisting studios to fully realize their game’s vision, delivering stunning visuals that captivate audiences. Michael’s creative leadership, along with his technical understanding, has been instrumental in the development of award-winning games and demos. Encouraging team empowerment and inspiration, Michael has a successful track record of creative collaboration and productivity, both in-house and across borders. His efforts have directly contributed towards studios surpassing sales expectations and raising substantial capital. Join forces with Michael to help your team realize the creative vision of your games.

Professional Summary:

• 15+ years game industry experience, from open-world AAA to XR

• Championing game vision with environment & cinematic lighting

• Art Lead and Creative Director experience, with 2-5 direct reports

• Proven track record assisting studios to secure capital

• Deep understanding of lighting and optimization for all platforms

• A key contributor towards multiple award-winning games

• Natural problem-solving and holistic leadership skills

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Strong traditional art and photography foundations

• Collaborative, driven, accountable and influential

Previous Employers:

Remote Freelance Clients:

Notable Highlights:

• Fixed lighting issues in a strike team of 8, for a mixed reality demo which influenced Magic Leap’s $1.3B Series D capital raise.

• Led HOLOGATE’s Lighting team remotely to improve performance and visuals for their military, location-based VR training simulations, leading to a $9M Series A round.

• Helped Liquid Swords as their sole Lighting Artist to achieve the visual identity of their game in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), contributing towards a substantial capital raise from NetEase.

• Lead Environment Artist at EA for the world’s first mobile Vulkan API demo at Google I/O 2016. Also supported engineers with leveraging rendering features.

• Creative Director (and employee 1) at Walker Labs. Put together a seasoned game development team and led them through the ideation and pre-production stages of an original IP — which evolved into the flagship game from Ready Player One creator’s Readyverse.

• Creative Director for a playable demo using Inworld AI’s technology, shown to Inworld’s investors at GDC 2023 to support their successful $50M capital raise.

• Key art owner for “Need For Speed: No Limits” Razor update. EA Mobile’s 2nd highest 24hr sales at the time of launch: $700k.

• Sole creator of Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” UE5 sword NFT for Wētā Workshop, auctioned by Sotheby’s for $406k.

• realworld one’s Art Lead for a VR training simulation, aiding B2B partners in the production of 100 million COVID-19 vaccine vials.

AWARDS

2019 — NZ Games Festival – The Pavs

The Slice of Heaven Grand Prize — Winner
Dr. Grordborts: Invaders

2019 — VES Awards

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project – Nominee

Dr. Grordborts: Invaders

2019 — D.I.C.E Awards

Immersive Reality Technical Achievement – Nominee

Dr. Grordborts: Invaders

2013 — NAVGTR

Game, Original Role Playing – Nominee

Path of Exile

2013 — PocketGamer

Gold Rating

Real Racing 3

2012 — IGN AU Black Beta Select Awards

Best Aussie/NZ-Made Game – Winner

Mass Effect™ Infiltrator

2012 — IGN

Best Mobile Graphics – Winner

Need For Speed™ Most Wanted (iOS/Android)

2012 — Apple Inc.

APP STORE BEST OF

Need For Speed™ Most Wanted (iOS/Android)

2012 — BAFTA Awards

Mobile & Handheld – Nominee

Dead Space™ (iOS)

2011 — Apple Inc.

iPad Game of the Year Award – Winner (U.S. and Canada)

Dead Space™ (iOS)

AWARDS

It’s Nice That
AIGA
Fonts In Use
The Dieline

CONTACT

email@domain.com

646-987-2345

— Instagram

— Twitter

— Facebook

PUBLICATIONS

2023 — Authority Magazine

Michael McDonald on The Future of Gaming

2023 — @NVIDIA YouTube channel

Need For Speed No Limits Dev Diary on SHIELD

AWARDS

It’s Nice That
AIGA
Fonts In Use
The Dieline

CONTACT

email@domain.com

646-987-2345

— Instagram

— Twitter

— Facebook

GAME AND FILM CREDITS

2023 — Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

(Senior Lighting Artist)

Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft

PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Luna (Launches 7 Dec)

2023 — Ghostbusters VR Academy Blitz

(Lead Lighting Artist)

Sony Pictures Virtual Reality/HOLOGATE

Valve Index, HOLOGATE Blitz VR

2023 — Call of the Wild: The Angler

(Senior Lighting Artist)

Avalanche Studios Group

PC, SteamOS

2021 — Chorus

(Senior Lighting Artist)

Deep Silver/FISHLABS

PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Luna

2020 — The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two

(Matte Artist)

Wētā FX

Netflix

2018 — Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders

(Senior Artist)

Magic Leap/Wētā Workshop

Magic Leap One

2019 — Dr. Grordbort’s Boosters

(Senior Artist)

Magic Leap / Wētā Workshop

Magic Leap One

2016 — Need For Speed: No Limits VR

(Lead Environment Artist)

Electronic Arts/EA Firemonkeys

Google Daydream

2015 — Need For Speed: No Limits

(Lead Environment Artist)

Electronic Arts/EA Firemonkeys

iOS, Android

2013 — Real Racing 3

(Mid-Level Artist)

Electronic Arts/EA Firemonkeys

iOS, Android

2013 — Path of Exile

(Environment Artist)

Grinding Gear Games

PC, Xbox One, PS4, macOS

2012 — Need For Speed: Most Wanted (iOS)

(Mid-Level Artist)

Electronic Arts/EA Firemonkeys

iOS, Android

2012 — Mass Effect: Infiltrator

(Mid-Level Artist)