- CV Detail -
EARLY CAREER
Abandoning studio art, I moved to the Bay Area in 1987 looking for work in computer graphics. I interviewed for a Video Game Artist position at a company in San Rafael called Broderbund Software. They admired my figure drawing portfolio (PDF), asking if I'd like to create comic book-style graphics and animation for a fantasy role playing game. I didn't draw comics or play video games, but the prospect was intriguing. (Titles & Credits - "Centauri Alliance", 1989. Graphics and Animation: Tom Wilcox)
Broderbund's bohemian culture was invigorating. For my effort as a model sheet maker, character animator, and level designer on "Centauri Alliance", they promoted me to Research & Development Artist while I redesigned "Shufflepuck Cafe" binary graphics for color Amiga computers. Simplifying cross-platform software development and porting, I adapted Truevision TARGA graphics boards with device drivers emulating various display types. Rather than juggle multiple computers, artists and animators using my innovation switched video modes with a keystroke. (Titles & Credits - "Shufflepuck Cafe", 1989. Special Thanks: Tom Wilcox) See also "Shufflepuck Cafe" (Wikipedia).
When Broderbund co-founder and CEO Doug Carlston asked how remaking the company's flagship product might exploit IBM's proposed high color Multimedia PC, I recommended alpha masks for overlaying digitized cel animation onto scanned photographs enhanced with a kernel filter. Using the prerelease of a now popular raster graphics editor and an early game authoring platform with a native scripting language, I demonstrated interface design concepts to team members with unique prototypes of Broderbund's award-winning and best-selling cultural geography game. (Titles & Credits - "Where In The World Is Carmen SanDiego? Deluxe Edition", 1990. Design Team: Tom Wilcox et al.) See also "Carmen Sandiego Deluxe Edition" (Wikipedia).
Broderbund created another position in 1990, promoting me to Project Designer for my futuristic prototype of an astronomy game featuring rotoscoped characters from the Star Wars trilogy, digitized cutscenes from the movies, a first-person interface, and modified Carmen SanDiego gameplay. The "Han Solo In Space" project ended when Lucasfilm renegotiated Broderbund's license. A year later, I was freelancing as the contract designer of an eccentric magic kit published by Philips for their experimental CD‑i platform. With my real-time dialog and animation sequencing, the main character was recognized by the European Multimedia Association as the first software synthespian (virtual actor) to perform live in a computer game, earning the product an EMMA award for Best General Entertainment Title of 1994. In rehearsal mode, "Max Magic" behaves like a software agent, practicing tricks with the player in a virtual teaching and learning environment. (Titles & Credits - "Max Magic", 1994. Designer: Tom Wilcox). See also "Where In Space Is Carmen Sandiego" (Wikipedia) and "Max Magic" (Moby Games).
Hired as a Producer on "The Pagemaster CD-ROM" project, I was also a Designer. I developed concepts for a first person interface, a level editor, and a generative game challenge engine. I developed a method of digitizing original cels from the traditionally animated film, collaborating with Hanna-Barbera in Burbank, and Turner Entertainment in Atlanta. Collaborating with a screenwriter on loan from Twentieth Century Studios, I developed branching dialog and backstory concepts for the game. When investors demanded a traditional motion picture producer, I resigned from the project. (Titles & Credits - "The PageMaster", 1996. Designer: Tom Wilcox et al.) See also "The Pagemaster CD-ROM" (Moby Games), and "The Pagemaster" fantasy-adventure film (Wikipedia).
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I was a contract interaction designer while my partner was in graduate school. She was writing her dissertation when we launched the software startup Mindforge Inc. to develop a product based on the prototype I created for her doctoral research in educational psychology. "Mindforge Fractions" broke new ground with its applied learning theory, a lavish video game-style interface, and artificial intelligence for student performance modeling and prediction with an inference engine. Without a competition component, "Mindforge Fractions" has video game appeal, yet draws on cognitive science to teach fundamental mathematics. (Titles & Credits - "Mindforge Fractions", 1998. Codesigner, Director, Producer: Tom Wilcox)
In 2000, I returned to freelance contracting with a reference design for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and their eponymous interactive media division. This six part learning object about the American Revolutionary War augmented Children's Television Workshop programming, becoming the first PBS and broadband multimedia simulcast for K-12 distance education. "The April Conspiracy" is an extensible product, conceived as the pilot for a catalogue of educational CD‑ROM and World Wide Web publications. My last commercial project was in 2007, when I authored game concepts for "Rosetta Stone", the once ubiquitous language learning software sold at airport kiosks. (Titles & Credits - "The April Conspiracy", 2001. Designer, Director, Programming, Graphics: Tom Wilcox). See also Rosetta Stone Inc. (Wikipedia).
Abandoning studio art, I moved to the Bay Area in 1987 looking for work in computer graphics. I interviewed for a Video Game Artist position at a company in San Rafael called Broderbund Software. They admired my figure drawing portfolio (PDF), asking if I'd like to create comic book-style graphics and animation for a fantasy role playing game. I didn't draw comics or play video games, but the prospect was intriguing. (Titles & Credits - "Centauri Alliance", 1989. Graphics and Animation: Tom Wilcox)
Broderbund's bohemian culture was invigorating. For my effort as a model sheet maker, character animator, and level designer on "Centauri Alliance", they promoted me to Research & Development Artist while I redesigned "Shufflepuck Cafe" binary graphics for color Amiga computers. Simplifying cross-platform software development and porting, I adapted Truevision TARGA graphics boards with device drivers emulating various display types. Rather than juggle multiple computers, artists and animators using my innovation switched video modes with a keystroke. (Titles & Credits - "Shufflepuck Cafe", 1989. Special Thanks: Tom Wilcox) See also "Shufflepuck Cafe" (Wikipedia).
When Broderbund co-founder and CEO Doug Carlston asked how remaking the company's flagship product might exploit IBM's proposed high color Multimedia PC, I recommended alpha masks for overlaying digitized cel animation onto scanned photographs enhanced with a kernel filter. Using the prerelease of a now popular raster graphics editor and an early game authoring platform with a native scripting language, I demonstrated interface design concepts to team members with unique prototypes of Broderbund's award-winning and best-selling cultural geography game. (Titles & Credits - "Where In The World Is Carmen SanDiego? Deluxe Edition", 1990. Design Team: Tom Wilcox et al.) See also "Carmen Sandiego Deluxe Edition" (Wikipedia).
Broderbund created another position in 1990, promoting me to Project Designer for my futuristic prototype of an astronomy game featuring rotoscoped characters from the Star Wars trilogy, digitized cutscenes from the movies, a first-person interface, and modified Carmen SanDiego gameplay. The "Han Solo In Space" project ended when Lucasfilm renegotiated Broderbund's license. A year later, I was freelancing as the contract designer of an eccentric magic kit published by Philips for their experimental CD‑i platform. With my real-time dialog and animation sequencing, the main character was recognized by the European Multimedia Association as the first software synthespian (virtual actor) to perform live in a computer game, earning the product an EMMA award for Best General Entertainment Title of 1994. In rehearsal mode, "Max Magic" behaves like a software agent, practicing tricks with the player in a virtual teaching and learning environment. (Titles & Credits - "Max Magic", 1994. Designer: Tom Wilcox). See also "Where In Space Is Carmen Sandiego" (Wikipedia) and "Max Magic" (Moby Games).
Hired as a Producer on "The Pagemaster CD-ROM" project, I was also a Designer. I developed concepts for a first person interface, a level editor, and a generative game challenge engine. I developed a method of digitizing original cels from the traditionally animated film, collaborating with Hanna-Barbera in Burbank, and Turner Entertainment in Atlanta. Collaborating with a screenwriter on loan from Twentieth Century Studios, I developed branching dialog and backstory concepts for the game. When investors demanded a traditional motion picture producer, I resigned from the project. (Titles & Credits - "The PageMaster", 1996. Designer: Tom Wilcox et al.) See also "The Pagemaster CD-ROM" (Moby Games), and "The Pagemaster" fantasy-adventure film (Wikipedia).
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I was a contract interaction designer while my partner was in graduate school. She was writing her dissertation when we launched the software startup Mindforge Inc. to develop a product based on the prototype I created for her doctoral research in educational psychology. "Mindforge Fractions" broke new ground with its applied learning theory, a lavish video game-style interface, and artificial intelligence for student performance modeling and prediction with an inference engine. Without a competition component, "Mindforge Fractions" has video game appeal, yet draws on cognitive science to teach fundamental mathematics. (Titles & Credits - "Mindforge Fractions", 1998. Codesigner, Director, Producer: Tom Wilcox)
In 2000, I returned to freelance contracting with a reference design for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and their eponymous interactive media division. This six part learning object about the American Revolutionary War augmented Children's Television Workshop programming, becoming the first PBS and broadband multimedia simulcast for K-12 distance education. "The April Conspiracy" is an extensible product, conceived as the pilot for a catalogue of educational CD‑ROM and World Wide Web publications. My last commercial project was in 2007, when I authored game concepts for "Rosetta Stone", the once ubiquitous language learning software sold at airport kiosks. (Titles & Credits - "The April Conspiracy", 2001. Designer, Director, Programming, Graphics: Tom Wilcox). See also Rosetta Stone Inc. (Wikipedia).
EDUCATION
EARLY CAREER
MIDDLE CAREER
LATE CAREER
