Daniel Dociu

• Name: Daniel Dociu

• Notable creations and work: Crimson Skies, SSX 3, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2

• Born: Cannot find

• Died: Still Kicking

Dociu's likeness was used for the character Father Grigori in Half Life 2

Biographical Summary

Daniel Dociu was born and raised in Cluj, the capital of Transylvania in Romania. Dociu got his Masters degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cluj, complete with "the highest grade point average in the country". He moved to the USA in 1990 after spending two years in Athens, Greece, and he has lived in the Seattle area since 1991.After working as a toy designer for two years (which was a "shitty job"), Dociu wisely jumped ship to interactive entertainment. “I’ve been working as an Art Director in the games industry ever since,” says Dociu, “for companies like Squaresoft, Electronic Arts (twice), and Zipper Interactive. I have done consulting for Microsoft and freelance work for Wizards of the Coast, Digital Anvil as well as a fair share of small developers who have come and gone.” For the past five years, Daniel Dociu has been the art director at ArenaNet, a fully owned subsidiary of NCSoft. More recently he's stepped into the Chief Art Director role for NCsoft, overseeing visual development for all of NCsoft's North American projects, with particular focus on ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 Dociu has also won many awards form the Spectrum and Expose publications, as well as from the Into the Pixel exhibition.

A complete list of titles on which he made great contributions (taken from Dociu's website):

2007-Present NCsoft North America, Chief Art Director• Overseeing several unannounced titles across all NCsoft's North American studios, with primary focus on ArenaNet's Guild Wars franchise.

2003-Present ArenaNet, Art Director / Concept Artist

• Guild Wars 2

• Guild Wars: Eye Of the North

• Guild Wars Nightfall

• Guild Wars Factions

• Guild Wars Prophecies

2000-03 EA Canada, Creative Art Director / Concept Artist

• SSX 3

• Triple Play 2003

• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

• James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

• James Bond 007: NightFire

• FIFA Soccer 2002

• SSX Tricky

1996-00 Zipper Interactive, Art Director / Concept Artist

• SOCOM: US Navy Seals

• Crimson Skies

• MechWarrior III

• MechWarrior: Pirates’ Moon

• Recoil

1994-96 Electronic Arts Seattle, Art Director / Concept Artist

• Reboot

• FIFA

1992-94 SquareSoft, Art Director / Concept Artist

• Secret of Evermore

• Worlds Within (development completed by Big Rain and Crave, published as “Shadow Madness”)

Freelance Concept Art

• Clients include, Microsoft, THQ, Wizards of the Coast, Tor Books, Honda, Sara Brightman

Work

In his early work, Dociu made great use of his Industrial Design degree when he jumped aboard Zipper Interactive, designing objects and environments for their largely industrial universes, such as Crimson Skies and MechWarrior. While at EA, Dociu began to further develop his environmental skills on such games as SSX 3, and James Bond 007: Nightfire. Eventually, when Dociu signed on with ArenaNet, his focus turned almost entirely to environments.

Dociu's environments are based on a deep understanding of perspective and light. It also seems that he makes heavy use of textures, overlay layers, custom brushes, and elements from photographic reference.

Project

Crimson Skies

SSX 3

Guild Wars

Guild Wars 2

References

• • Tinfoil Games - Daniel Dociu. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.tinfoilgames.com/index.php>.

  • "ImagineFX.com | The Art of Daniel Dociu." ImagineFX.com | Home. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. <http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754330751159385/the-art-of-daniel-dociu.html>.