Elijah McNeal is a Concept Artist at Cloud Imperium, working on Star Citizen. You’ve probably seen his work here at the RSI site or in the monthly Jump Point magazine. You can check out a gallery of his art above and then plan to tune in to this week’s Wingman’s Hangar for a full interview!
How did you get started in the game industry? I came into contact with Chris Olivia through a mutual friend that was my rigging instructor while studying animation in college. This is my first studio, I started working here before I graduated from The Art Institute of Dallas.
What projects have you worked on? I did some minor work for Transformers Prime, coloring for promotional art on Ben 10, and I did multiple package illustrations for Skylanders Giants (Eye Brawl, TreeWrex, Stump Smash, among others) while I was an intern during my college education.
What are you doing for Cloud Imperium? I’m a Concept Artist. I was the first brought on the project (in house), back in February. My notable contributions are designing all of the hangars for the module release, various systems paintings, the style language for the Xi’An fleet, and large scale environment vistas.
What are you most excited to see in Star Citizen/Squadron 42? I can’t pinpoint one thing, the concept of the game excites me and its potential for visuals are grand. I wish I could work on everything.
What are you playing right now? Nothing, I’m eyeing Battlefield 4 and Killzone Shadow Fall though.