Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational women from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Rachel Copp, Senior Producer (Art) on Icarus at Rocketwerkz. Read more about Rachel in this interview:
 
Hi Rachel! How do the production processes from your work in film & TV compare to the games industry?

It’s the same but so so different! I come from a background of fast turnaround TV and advertising, so I spent the first year of my current project feeling like I had missed an episode deadline or on air date! 

The core process of  vision > execution > product is the same and so, too, are the individual parts such as modeling, animation, concept, VFX and that’s where it stops. 

In film, you get to the point where you have rendered, comped it all together and sent it all off for audio and grade and finally off for distribution. In games, all assets are added to the game and then play tested, tweaked and optimized, revised, balanced, updated, play tested again and the cycle continues even after it has gone out into the world.

What does the day to day job of an Art producer look like?

Meetings, catch ups and more meetings. We have core hours during the day that meetings are scheduled to take place. I usually start early to catch up on the status of different outsourced tasks like cinematics, animation or film production and look at what needs attention from the previous day. It is also a time where I can catch up with team leads or some of our remote artists who are in different time zones.  

We have our daily sync at 10am for individual departments, followed by a project wide production stand up. I float between the meetings depending on what the project needs are at the time. This is usually followed by cross departmental conversations on what is top priority that week.  

I try to always leave the office at lunch every day to go to the gym. I find it a great way to process all the information I’ve taken in throughout the morning, though right now New Zealand is on a snap Covid-Delta lock down and going to the gym is one thing I miss the most – that plus the office coffee machine! 

After lunch is a company wide production meeting for all our games, I followed up any outstanding requirements for the next “ICARUS” Beta weekend, as well as organising future work, reviews of assets in-game and individual catch ups with artists about their workload and priorities.

Which values are important to you personally in your role as Women in Games Ambassador?

I am just new to being a Women in Games Ambassador in New Zealand. What I want to achieve in this role and the values that are important to me are: 

    • Building a community and networks for women in games within New Zealand and across the globe. 
    • Being visible, not just to those in the industry but for kids in school, so that this becomes a recognized career pathway.
Thank you for your time, Rachel!

Rachel’s links: LinkedIn │ ICARUS on Steam │ ICARUS on Twitch

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories Feature by Sophie Brügmann