Meet the PlanetQuest Team: Introducing Art Director Jon McCoy
Over the past two weeks we have been completely blown away by the tremendous amount of excitement and support we have received from our rapidly growing community. With the end of the year slowly approaching, we thought it would only be right that the last thing we do in 2021 is to start introducing you to the amazing team that is making this project possible. And who better to start with than our very own Art Director, Jon McCoy?
After posting some exclusive concept art in our Discord server (in case you still needed another reason to join us at planetquest.io if you haven’t done so already), a few of you already figured out that they were created by none other than Jon McCoy. Even if you’re not familiar with his name, you will certainly be familiar with his work. Jon has been a concept artist and designer for the entertainment industry since the early 2000s and has been a part of over 20 Hollywood feature films and a few video games. You might spot his name in the credits of Star Wars: Rogue One, Blade Runner 2049, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Battlefield 2042, just to name a few. Jon brings a tremendous amount of experience and artistic skill to the table, which makes him the perfect creative lead for PlanetQuest.
If you ask Jon what made him want to pursue this particular career path, he would tell you: “I am a child of the movies. I was raised on science-fiction.” Jon grew up on Alien, Blade Runner, Ghostbusters, The Matrix and many other films with groundbreaking cinematic universes. He has always been laser-focused on being a creative within the entertainment industry and has the resume to prove it. Taking after his art and design heroes, he decided to get into 3D Industrial Design. He spent two years studying Graphic Design, before moving on to Automotive Design. As someone who has always loved spaceships and cars, this is where Jon learned to create designs that were logical, consistent, as well as artistically pleasing. A skill which he has since applied in all of his other projects, including PlanetQuest.
By the time Jon finished his studies, he had already built an extensive portfolio and his own website. This helped him land a job at a Crytek where he worked on the Crysis franchise. After this he went on to work for a Visual Visual Effects company, where he got to be a part of projects like Wrath of the Titans and World War Z. He did this for about 2.5 years before deciding to start freelancing as a Concept Designer. In the years that followed, he has made a name for himself in Hollywood and has played a role in shaping many of your favorite films. This includes 3 Star Wars movies, 5 Marvel movies, Blade Runner 2049, and even the upcoming Batman movie.
The number of incredible projects Jon has worked on is a testament to his talent. For this reason, we’re sure a few of you could be wondering how we snagged this incredible artist away from Hollywood. Well, as he explained it himself: “The main part of being a Concept artist and Designer, unless you are the writer or the director, is to support and facilitate the vision of others.” Although Jon has definitely left his mark on everything he has worked on (the last scene of Rogue One being an amazing example of his vision), he has always wanted to have more creative freedom. So when some other members of our team approached him with this idea, some might say it was like the… planets aligned.
Jon says he was immediately struck by the simple, clear and compelling premise of the game universe. Something which he considers can only be described as “true world building”. Over the last few months, Jon has been playing a vital role in all creative aspects of PlanetQuest. From our logo, to our landing page and the visual elements of our Genesis Engine, Jon has created beautiful pieces of art and has guided our artists and developers in creating something that could be worthy of the big screen. But there is more, Jon has also played a significant part in shaping the story of our universe. As we’re building PlanetQuest from the ground up, Jon has been our main driving force in creating the cinematic look and feel of our universe. He even stated: “While PlanetQuest is a game that will be played in the browser, it’s going to be built on a lot of the principles of real Hollywood filmmaking. Which is what I’m trying to facilitate and push for at every angle.”
Jon mentioned that previously he felt like he did his job best when he correctly communicated the thoughts of the director or writer into an image. While doing this, he excelled in realistic images, great attention to cinematography and more generally, the creation of something that communicated a certain atmosphere. As the thoughts he is trying to capture within images are now his own, it should be no surprise that this sense of cinematography, lighting and drama will be present in each and every single one of our planets, all other art work and design of the worlds themselves.
PlanetQuest, as Jon describes it, is a project that excites him on many different levels. Besides the creative freedom it has brought him, he has been very impressed with the way in which PlanetQuest has struck a cord with the community. He thinks people have an surprising instinctual understanding of what we’re trying to achieve and that they have been thirsty for something like this for a long time. Specifically, he has been amazed with how the community is already taking the fairly minimal amount of material we have given them, and used it to start to organically grow the depth of the universe. The response of the community and Jon’s story is very representative of what is at the forefront of PlanetQuest: a project where talented and passionate people create something in front of, and in collaboration with the very people that they are creating it for.
As you can imagine, we are very lucky and excited to have Jon as a part of our team. Perhaps even more luckily, he shares the same sentiment. When asked about the other members on the PlanetQuest team he described it as an awesome group with amazing skillsets in all the different departments. According to Jon, the things we have achieved so far are already at highly sophisticated levels, and we’re only going to keep raising the bar. The Genesis Engine is a prime example of that and Jon is looking forward to seeing this particular technology continuously being refined and pushed further and further. He mentions: “As a team, we have great leadership and a great vision which everyone is sold on. And that is all we need. I look forward to growing that team and vision together.”
If you would like to know more about Jon, we highly encourage you to check out his website and Instagram. Here you’ll be able to see some more of his incredible stuff. However, to stay updated with his latest work on PlanetQuest, be sure to join our community at planetquest.io and follow us on twitter. As we continue our journey of building PlanetQuest in the upcoming year, we are preparing many more exciting things to share with you. This includes other members of our team, as well as some updates on the Genesis Engine, game mechanics and much more. We want to end this year by thanking you for the amazing support so far, and look forward to further exploring the world of PlanetQuest alongside you in 2022.
