Mike "Happy Slappy" McMillen
Modeler/Animator

Well, I was born in Southern California, moved to Seattle, Washington and back to California (don't hold that against me). After pretending to go to El Camino J.C. for too many years, I got off my butt and moved back to Seattle. I attended the Art Institute of Seattle in an attempt to do something with my life. I think it worked. I got a degree in Visual Communication in 2 years and started working for a company called Synergistic Software. There I worked on games like Hellfire and Birthright, as well as learning the basics of 3D Studio Max, model building, animation and the game industry. Synergistic was acquired by Sierra and here I am. I figured it was the only place for me to go, considering professional snow skiing, snowboarding and rollerblading don't make enough money to retire on. Neither does playing Quake, Tribes or Half-Life for that matter. Heh heh. ;)

Animation has always been a love, I guess more the fascination of how humans move and why some people move the way they do really. I could sit somewhere on a sunny day and watch people for hours. I do what I can to bring that to the games I work on. Currently I am working on Gabe Knight 3, doing some of the most exciting animation known to man. Such as Gabe picking up a coffee cup, and Gabe shaking hands with a bartender, and Gabe breathing, and Gabe pulling out his Uzi 9m, and Gabe emptying the clip into Mosely, and what game did I say I was working on? Seriously though. It's a challenge and great animation learning experience.