Q&A with Naree Song, 3D Artist

Tell us about yourself, and what you do here!

I’m NaRee Song, I’m a 3D Artist. I first started in 2008, and have been involved on and off at Ripple Effect since then. I started in general props, and around the time of BF1 I started focusing more on vegetation. I hopped off for a little bit, but came back to it cause I feel one with nature!

What inspired you to get into gaming?

When I was a child, I wanted to become an animator since art was always a passion of mine. My uncle was a 2D animator, so he was a big inspiration to me – I loved watching animated movies and cartoons. I got introduced in high school to the idea of going into art for video games. Games were something I’ve always had a deep love for - growing up my brother and I fought a lot and the one activity my parents could get us to sit down and not fight was playing video games with each other! So they’ve always been a deep-rooted love for me. It didn’t hit me that going into video games could be a career until I met someone who was going to school for video game design, and he kind of introduced me to the world of 3D and it blew my mind.

How did you turn that into a career?

I had a bunch of friends and schoolmates when I was in art school that were at EA interning, and once it was time for me to look for an internship they suggested it, I got interviewed and interned for a little bit. Unfortunately, the project I was on got canceled, but in those short 2 months I got to know my lead well. He said he’d keep in contact with me and bring me back as soon as he could, which unfortunately wasn’t until 3 years later! In that time I did other internships and work, but once I got a call back from EA I came over and I’ve been here on and off ever since!

What inspires you in your work?

I like getting outside – forest therapy! Which seems odd for someone that lives in Los Angeles and grew up here. Once they asked if I wanted to focus on vegetation I jumped on it, I was pretty excited.

Artists should always keep an open mind and always be learning, always learning new software, talking to people. The challenge and inspiration for me is always learning. And we have a lot of collaboration with people at other studios, like DICE, so being able to talk to artists at other studios is really exciting. Everyone is so good at what they do, and they continue to be a big inspiration for me.

If you were talking to a young woman interested in getting into gaming, what would you tell them?

They can go in without fear. I feel like in older times it was a lot harder to enter the field because it was so male-dominated, but I think people are more aware now and it’s a lot more accepted, people are a lot more open minded. Just do it. It’s a lot more open now and we’re not going to get shut down if our representation keeps growing.

When I was younger, I always felt shy of admitting I liked games because that was a ‘guys thing’ but now it’s a cool thing for anybody and everybody, that’s a really cool shift from the early days. It’s really nice to see more women represented in games. Come join us!

Learn more about our team and careers at Ripple Effect here.