Who I Am

Hello! My name is Lee Scheinbeim. A games industry veteran of over eight years, I have worked on four AAA titles, an expansion pack and several pieces of DLC. Most of my time in the industry has been spent in the environment art department at Bioware on the Dragon Age franchise. I recently relocated to the Seattle area to join the lighting art team at Airtight Games.

My focus in the games industry has always been centered around environment art and while more recently I have focused on lighting, I consider myself to be a well rounded multidisciplinary artist. I also have a high level of technical skill which originates with my degree in Computer Engineering from Rutgers University which I completed in 2004.

Like most people in the games industry, I am passionate about games and excited to continue exploring how games can grow as a medium. In addition to games and working on my skills as an artist, I also enjoy photography with a particular interest in landscape, portraits and off camera lighting.

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Work at Bioware

I joined Bioware in mid-2006, initially as a Technical Artist on the first game in the Dragon Age franchise, focusing on supporting the environment team. As production ramped up, I moved into the environment team where I stayed for the next six years. My various responsibilities over the years included creating tileset assets, making terrain exterior levels and constructing interior levels out of tilesets. In addition, I handled outsource asset management and integration, tool debugging and lighting. As I was one of the more technically oriented members of the art team, I spent time in a support role with technical issues and also interfaced with both the tools and graphic programming teams when necessary. My work on level layouts also had me working closely with the design team and I took several levels from whitebox all the way to final polish.

In the fall of 2011 the team began preproduction of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Whereas previous Dragon Age games were built entirely on Bioware’s in-house engine, for this project we moved to the Frostbite engine which was built by DICE. I spent the next year as one of the main points of contact for lighting tech, as well as learning various other systems as the entire team ramped up on the new tools. I worked to educate the rest of the art team including writing several pieces of documentation. I also did preliminary color palette and lighting work for some of the areas of the game.

"Lee has great insight into the technical side of creating game art which makes him an extremely valuable member of an art team. The art he produces is that rare combination of good visuals, good gameplay and hits all the technical targets."

− Sheila Nash, Lead Tech Artist at EA

"Lee is self motivated, not only achieving his tasks but also going out of his way to handle parts of development (especially tech) that ultimately benefit the team. Lee is active in ways that contribute to team and individual progression while being able to incorporate feedback into his own work."

− Rohan Knuckey, Lead Tech Artist at Bioware

"Lee has proved to be a hugely influential member of our team who constantly comes up with creative yet doable solutions to all our problems. His excellent understanding of 3D techniques and engines has made him the go to go guy on our team when questions arise about specifics aspects of game production."

− Andre Santos, Environment Artist at Bioware

Work at Airtight Games

I joined Airtight Games in October, 2012 as one of two Lighting Artists on the AAA title Murdered: Soul Suspect. I completed the initial lighting passes on most of the game’s levels. I then shifted focus to do final lighting on half of the levels as well as the corresponding in game cinematics. I also spent time working with the Art Director to help establish a distinctive visual language for the ethereal “ghost objects” that existed in the game world. In addition, I helped to establish distinct color palettes for both the “real” and “dusk” versions of the game world. Furthermore, I performed final visual tweaks and polish to the levels for which I was responsible including shader tweaking and color palette adjustments.

At the time I joined the project it was already in full production with most of the major technical questions already answered but when issues arose with lighting from both an environmental and cinematic perspective, I assisted various team members in debugging, diagnosing and solving problems. I worked closely with the environment art, visual effects, design, tech and animation teams. I also worked very closely with the other Lighting Artist as well as the Art Director to help create a consistent and solid lighting palette for the game.

"Lee has a great balance by being both art and tech savvy. He would always take time to help out any of his colleagues but never missed a deadline. His contribution to the team was invaluable. Any team is lucky to have him."

− Sarah Kauzlarich, Lead Lighting/Environment at Airtight Games

"Lee possesses that rare trait of harnessing the artistic aesthetic and the technical at the same time. This one is a unique snowflake that you don't want to slip through your grasp."

− Dennis Price, Art Director at Airtight Games

"Everything thing that we were trying achieve would have come off flat and unbelievable if it was not for Lee and the lighting team's deep knowledge of their craft and hard work."

− Koen Wooten, Cinematic Director at Airtight Games

All of the testimonials on this page can be viewed in full on my LinkedIn profile. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or just want to get in touch. Thank you for your time!

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