Taking the tee for a yearly release cycle like Tiger Woods PGA Tour is a bit like staring down a 40-foot putt on the 18th at Augusta: the pressure is immense, the clock is ticking, and there are absolutely no mulligans. When I took over the Art Direction, I knew I couldn't just "grip it and rip it” and needed a strategic game plan.
Rather than attempting a single overhaul, I authored and implemented an iterative style guide that spanned three releases, from Tiger Woods 11 through 13. This roadmap allowed the team to achieve high-level visual milestones incrementally while preserving the creative flexibility needed to introduce fresh features with every new season.
Responsibilities
Art Direction
During my first cycle, I prioritized a visual overhaul of our golfers to ensure they looked like modern athletes, improving outdated silhouettes for a more athletic anatomy and trendier apparel.
Following the business decision to transition away from "UCap" technology, I led a massive production effort to implement a more flexible, bones- and blendshape-driven system for facial animation, together with a proprietary suite of realistic skin and cloth shaders that supported dynamic wind animation, allowing hair and clothing to react naturally to the conditions on the course.
With the environment team, we took the first steps toward fully dynamic lighting, balancing the entire texture library and authoring all shaders to ensure visual results remained consistent and predictable regardless of the setting. For the first time, dynamic skies with animated cloud maps was introduced to the game, which allowed players to experience the same course at different tee times with evolving lighting and weather conditions.
This systematic approach to both character and environment tech ensured that the franchise wouldn't just look better now but also in upcoming releases.
Hands-On
To keep a uniform level of quality, I personally finalized and maintained the master shaders for our 12 distinct skin tones and our 12 specific fabric presets. By meticulously calibrating materials ranging from cotton and wool to leather and rubber, we achieved a level of material "equipment" fidelity that brought a new layer of quality and realism to the project.
Characters
Skin Shaders & Facial Expressions
Cloth Shaders
Apparel & Anatomy
Environments
Animated Skies & Dynamic Lighting
