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Vince Joly

So far in my career I've played pivotal roles in numerous AAA franchises, most notably as a creative director and art director. My foundation in this industry was laid during my years as an artist and animator, experiences that equipped me with invaluable insights and skills for future leadership roles.

 

During my 14-year tenure at Nintendo's Retro Studios, including a decade as Director, I developed a keen understanding of game development, from creating visually immersive experiences to fostering productive team environments. I take immense pride in my contributions towards building healthy creative teams and delivering several critically acclaimed games.

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CREDITS

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SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: The Sims 4

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Hugo Hup, Coin Hole, 3D Pixel Shooter

CREATIVE DIRECTOR:  Donkey Kong Country;Tropical Freeze

ART DIRECTOR:  MarioKart 7

ART DIRECTOR:  Donkey Kong Country Returns

ANIMATION LEAD:  Metroid Prime Trilogy

ANIMATION LEAD:  Metroid Prime 3

ANIMATOR:  Metroid Prime 2

ANIMATOR:  NARC

ARTIST:  World Series Baseball 2K3

ANIMATOR:  Kill Switch

LEAD ARTIST:  Pac-Man World 2

3D ARTIST/ANIMATOR:  Pac-Man World

3D ARTIST/ANIMATOR:  NBA Basketball 2000

3D ARTIST/ANIMATOR:  NHL Powerplay 98

3D ARTIST/ANIMATOR:  NHL Powerplay 96

3D ARTIST:  Al Unser Jr's Road to the Top

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Tropical Freeze

As Creative Director for this title, one of the things I wanted to do was to develop a unique set of baddies with tons of personality. I wanted enemies that felt like they fit in DK's universe, but not from his island. From there we developed the "Snowmads", the charming gang of arctic invaders who commandeer DK's island. Layering in the necessary visual queues into their designs for the player to quickly determine how they should engage them was a gratifying challenge.

One of my favorite achievements for this game was writing, and boarding the story, including the Game Intro, all the Boss Intros, and the Game Outro.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

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MK7

For this project we were paired up with the Mariokart team in Japan to design and create several new Tracks, new Karts, and model several Player Characters. Between directing the artists and animators I got the chance to model the low-res Donkey Kong.  Working so closely with our counterparts in Japan on this title really taught me about the small attention to details that are so important.

If you get the chance, try to beat the Expert Staff Ghost of 1:58.539 by Ret★Vince in Luigi's Mansion!

ART DIRECTOR

Returns
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ART DIRECTOR

After years of our creative team becoming proficient and comfortable with making art and animation for the Metroid Prime series, we now had to expand their skill set to take on an entirely different stylization. Working with the team to develop these skills was hugely rewarding. We aimed for a bright clean look, not too simple, but easy to read with rich color palettes. Many of our textures were painted using marque selections that were then hand-brushed in with gradients of color. This method really brought a sharp vibrant look to the characters and worlds. I personally created several animations for DK to help establish the animation style.

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LEAD ANIMATOR

As a team we cranked out tons of quality animations in a short period for MP3.

As an individual contributor I think my proudest achievement was personally redoing all of Samus' base movement animations; her walk cycle, jog, run, idle stance, as well as building a better "into" and "out of" animation set for her morphball transitions. The cinematic lead from Japan asked me if Samus' walk cycle was mocap... This was a flattering compliment!

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Shortly after moving to Austin in 2004, I started doing cinematic, and in-game animation work on Metroid Prime 2 at Retro Studios. In this video you'll see a few of the cinematics I animated, including the camera work. It was a huge honor to be part of this franchise.

ANIMATOR

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ANIMATOR. CHARACTER MODELER

For Kill Switch I modeled, textured, rigged, and animated 100% of the main character, Bishop. I also modeled, textured, scripted, and did the lighting for the tutorial training facility at the start of the game.  We were at the forefront of "Blind Fire" systems with this game, and developing the animation system for this was both fun and challenging. 

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LEAD ARTIST

Pac-man World 2 was such a fun game to work on. I played a large role in the story and storyboards for this game.  I was responsible for 100% of Pac-man's animations, model, and rig. I designed the Pac-Village; modeled, textured, lit, and scripted it. I concepted and modeled several character designs, including the first boss, Blinky's Frog. I also arted and scripted several of the levels in the first world.

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