Hey guys. As of June 30th I am no longer working for High Moon Studios. Activision, in all of their wisdom, decided to make cuts across the board to all of their developers and I was one of the unfortunates who got let go. Great. High Moon wanted to keep me but they had no say in the matter. So now I'm going to be pro-actively looking for a new space to make fellow employees rue my presence! I'd like to stay in the video game field and in San Diego, but I'll go where the work takes me, be it in video games, TV and film storyboarding, animation... whatever. Anybody know of any leads? (Tom Carroll, any possibilities over at Rockstar?)
Anyways, it's unfortunate, I really loved High Moon. If anyone has any ideas or direction I'd love to hear from you. I'm putting together my resume as well as a webpage of portfolio work, I'll post a link soon.
Thanks! Gotta go hit the bricks.
Well Scott. Sorry about the news. Get the unemployment going. You can do it online. It's totally automated. You've got a lot of connections now. It's rare that I've got a job without some sort of in.
ReplyDeleteHope you get something soon.
By the way, that rabbit kicks ass.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt, I will walk your name into HR at Rockstar tomorrow ... And I'll press to make sure the right people know your qualifications. ...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Sony has been cutting back on expenses too (no actual layoffs yet), but I'll keep an eye out here as well.
ReplyDeleteThat terrified bunny caught my eye, too. Fear not, though, Buncake ... the SMM (Slick and Mighty Machine) may appear to have flattened you like so much back-country roadkill, but you -- and the rest of your awesome TAG brothers -- cannot possibly be kept down for long. That would defy the rules of animation.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck with your prompt re-animation, Scotty!
I wrote this to various people in the food chain here at Rockstar S.D.:
ReplyDeleteBad things happen to good people.
Scott Benefiel was laid off June 30, 2010 from High Moon Studios after the company’s Transformers game shipped. Scott was told that the management at High Moon did not want to lay him off, but they had their orders from Activision to cut and so they had no choice. Others were involved in the layoff, not just Scott.
This is a very talented artist. He’s done comic books (Ghost, Ghost/Hellboy, The Incredible Hulk, The Defenders, The Rampaging Hulk, Tomb Raider, and Witchblade), comic strips (Cork), was the creature designer for Star Trek: Hidden Evil for Activision, and at High Moon he worked on concept art, storyboarding, and other art-related tasks.
He did a great job there.
If there were a slot available for a concept artist, Scott Benefiel would be someone I would recommend you consider. If that slot were with another studio within the Rockstar network, he’s prepared to move. I don’t always stick my neck out for everyone (though sometimes it seems so), but this guy is the real deal.
Scott is preparing his resume and online portfolio and will have it ready shortly. I hope you’ll consider checking it out.
Nice Tom. I'd hire him
ReplyDeleteScott. Does this affect Ghost Provokers. Were the cohorts part of High Moon?
ReplyDeleteNow that you have a bunch of story boards to show people perhaps you can pick up some of that work. Rick Hoberg does a lot of that stuff, loves doing it and makes a pretty good living off of it to boot.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep my eyes and ears open for stuff up here. I don't have anything that suits you at PopCap right now, but I'll let you know if something turns up.
ReplyDeleteI'll post something on the TAG North blog and see if anyone knows about anything that might be available.
Thanks Tom C. For your help so far! I very much appreciate it! Just for giggles though, I never worked on the Hulk or the Defenders. I also worked on Bourne Conspiracy and starred in various straight to DVD porn titles. Let me know if you here anything else. Thanks to everyone else who commented as well! Ranjo should just give me work now that he's suckling from Roy Disney's teet.
ReplyDeleteSorry, "hear" not "here."
ReplyDeleteBrace yourself for irony if Scott gets hired at Rockstar.
ReplyDelete