Hello,

My name is Gretchen Grajales Mark, but my friends call me Gretch. I am a digital artist meaning I can pretty much do anything on a computer regardless of software. I love technology; I'm a total Geek … hehe. I spend my time fixing computers and practicing my art, with the occasional video game here and there. I really love games but what I love more than playing them is making them.

I started my schooling down in Florida in my hometown of Orlando. My art background comes from just overall loving art, and just enjoying esthetically pleasing designs. I went to a visual performing art school called Dr. Phillips High School. I became more technology oriented during this time, where I took all four years of TV production. I managed to go through about 5 to 6 different TV production classes along with being part of the after school clubs called M.E.D.I.A and 2nd Unit. We worked on a number of shorts as well as the daily announcements. Entering local competitions, as well as getting some hands on mentoring from production studios such as Universal Studios across the street and smaller local studios as well. After high school I still continued to work on a number of shorts as well as some freelance videographer work.

For the start of my higher education, I went to the D.A.V.E (Digital Animation Visual Effects) School, where I spent a year mastering Photoshop and Lightwave 3D. I worked on about 5 different award-winning shorts some during the school year and a few more after graduation. During my year at the D.A.V.E. School I concentrated in 3D character modeling as well as the art of texturing. My graduating class project "DragonFellow" won the 2005 Bronze Telly. On "DragonFellow". I was one of the lead Character modelers, lead texture artist as well as an Animation Lead on

Once out of the D.A.V.E School things got tough and I started to realize there really wasn't all that much down in Orlando, so I headed up north where I decided to go back to school as I continued in my job search; during this time I whent to the College of Lake County and worked part time.

I managed to land a job with Midway games on the cinematic team. I would have to say it was the best production environment that I have had. It was a challenge to prove myself to the team but I never gave up, and managed to win over the team not only for my personality but I worked extra hard to make sure I knew the proprietary tools they were using for the different games. I started out being a render monkey archiving the team's cinematics for "Stranglehold" (2007), and managed to work my way up to layout artist, where I worked on "Wheelman" (2008) and "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe" (2008). I also worked on an "untitled" game during pre-production development where I worked as a rough layout artist. During this game, organization of the teams seemed rather lacking and I worked hand in hand with the Art Director to better organize his team of contractors and Interns. As a contractor my six months were going to be up and the team scrambled to try to keep me but the company's finances seem to have fallen off the deep end and rumors of layoffs had been going on. With not enough work to keep me on I was laid off. Two weeks after my layoff, the company announced another 250 employees would be losing their jobs as well. Eventually Midway declared bankruptcy and now was bought out by WB games.

After a period of no work and the economy shot, I thought best to go back to school. So I started to work on my Bachelors in Graphic Design with a concentration in Photography at Robert Morris University. I felt like I wanted to know more of design and camera composition to better understand layout and 3D environments.

I managed to get a lead on some freelance work and landed a job with Pipe Dreams 3D. Where I worked on SC Johnson test commercials for an ad agency who held focus groups. I was brought on as a generalist so modeling, animation, textures, and layout. The quality of work was close to full cinematic level, lighting and all. I worked with them as an on call freelancer for a few months, until school schedules became too hectic and dedicated myself to school and took up a regular hourly job as a Geek Squad full time agent.

I will be completing my Bachelors in Graphic Design on December 2010. I am now back to taking commissions and freelance work. I want to get back into games primarily Cinematics, and then eventually work my way up to films. Currently working on sharpening my modeling skills to make a jump into environment modeling.

I really enjoy working on production, something about short deadlines and long hours that I really enjoy. Maybe the lack of sleep that makes me delirious but there's nothing like being in production to really get your blood pumping. In a nutshell I work hard, I want to prove myself to others, show them I can on. Dedication, and drive is what pushes me to continue improving my skills. Loyalty as well plays a large role in who I am, its what guarantees me to make sure I get the job done right.