Andrew Jones

Andrew "Android" Jones is an American digital and multimedia artist. He has worked for ILM, Black Isle Studios, Retro Studios and Massive Black, and now works independently. Jones was a major concept artist for the Metroid Prime series.
Jones was interviewed by Time Extension about his role on the Prime series in 2022.
==Early career==
As a child, Jones had a natural talent for the drawn arts, and his parents enrolled him in an after school art class to hone his skills. As a teenager, Jones joined an atelier, learning to draw from real life. He would sketch and paint homeless people and children on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, eventually making a living from tourists who would pay him to paint their portrait. At a later point, Jones had to have brain surgery and isolated during his recovery. He played Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus and Super Metroid during this time, giving him a distraction and another world to immerse himself in.
Jones graduated from high school in 1996 and then attended the Ringling College of Art and Design, where he learned digital art, modeling, CGI and other animation skills. However, these interested him less than digital illustration itself. Thus, Jones searched for work as a Concept Artist and found an internship with Industrial Light & Magic before working at Interplay on the Heart of Winter expansion pack for Icewind Dale. Eventually, Jones grew disenchanted with living in Southern California, and was let go after accidentally printing his resumé at work. He decided to travel across Europe afterwards, and returned home for Christmas. An old classmate from Ringling emailed him about a job opportunity at Retro Studios, to work on a new Metroid game. Jones accepted, and was flown out to Texas for an interview, after which he was hired.Murphy, L.D. The Story Of Retro Studios' Secret Weapon In The Development Of Metroid Prime. Time Extension. November 18, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022. https://www.timeextension.com/features/the-story-of-retro-studios-secret-weapon-in-the-development-of-metroid-prime
==Metroid Prime series==
Jones was integral to Metroid Prime, and his first task was in translating the game's protagonist, Samus Aran, to a 3D world. He used a figure model and ballerina he had worked with in Colorado before as a muse, having her pose for drawings, on top of which he would draw the Varia Suit. Her body became the anatomical base over which Samus's body was built. Jones crunched during development, as with his colleagues, sometimes sleeping over at the office. Interestingly, his concepts of the Varia Suit and Space Pirates for the Metroid Prime resemble their appearances in the sequel Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and subsequent Prime games, rather than the designs used in Prime. They likely represent alternate appearances that were revisited for the sequel.
Aside from Samus and the Space Pirates, Jones' concepts include the Chozo, Luminoth, Ing, Mutated Emperor Ing and Reptilicus, among other bosses and enemies.http://ca.ign.com/articles/2004/08/06/the-art-of-prime?page=1 Jones created many of the menu designs for Prime, and all of the the images that accompany scans.SpeedDemosArchiveSDA. Metroid Prime :: Speed Run in 1:24:31 by Miles #AGDQ 2014. YouTube. March 20, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_yaHHofJIo (starts at 1:37:21) Examples of his work can be found in the gallery below. He had more freedom to redesign the Space Pirates and Chozo for Prime, but less for the Varia Suit.
Jones' Prime work was sent to Nintendo in Japan for feedback, which he would receive as soon as the following morning. Once he adjusted his designs based on this feedback, it would often need to be sent again for further evaluation. Jones, described by Richard Vorodi as Retro's "secret weapon", was later tasked with assisting Nintendo Software Technology in designing the Bounty Hunters of Metroid Prime Hunters in a single week. Vorodi informed him of the stories and abilities of each Hunter, and Jones would create designs for the characters. He also designed the futuristic city in which Weavel is chased in the Hunters attract mode, and the facility destroyed by Kanden in his escape."Actually Retro Studios was very busy with Metroid Prime 2, so they weren’t very involved with NST and our work. They had already laid out some incredible design choices with the Prime franchise, so a lot of the heavy lifting was done per se. They did send their secret weapon to us from Austin though. A concept artist by the name of Andrew Jones. Dude was the best artist I had ever met at that time. Turned out, he was a huge influence on the art style and edginess of the Prime series. I was one of the folks working on designing the new bounty hunters at the time.
I remember delivering Andrew some quick fiction on what each Hunter was about and possibly what their abilities were. From there, he would create a bunch of different silhouettes, which would inform new fiction ideas, and then facilitate more sketches. I remember that time was filled with such explosive creativity. The team was really starting to hone in on what we were making. The programmers were pushing the limits of the hardware. Life was good." Interview: Richard Vorodi, Shinesparkers, 2020-08-06. Retrieved on 2020-08-06. In the final game, he is credited under special thanks. Afterwards, Nintendo flew Jones to their Seattle office to consult on artwork for some of their games developed in Japan, acting as a sort of art "localizer" to adapt their designs to the American market.http://composeyourselfmagazine.com/2017/02/hacking-droid-interview-android-jones/
Jones completed a series of one thousand self-portraits and later claimed that "my portraits are quite a departure from my metroid concept work, but I think you would be surprised that there are a few of the portraits that were the inspiration behind the final bosses in prime 1 and two." [these being Metroid Prime and Dark Samus]http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=535222&highlight=metroid#post535222
Kynan Pearson alluded to a concept done by Jones in which an Ing's legs are extended like outstretched fingers, with a Luminoth below it, suggesting a puppeting scenario. This concept has apparently never been released.Interview: Kynan Pearson. Shinesparkers. November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
While at Retro, Jones created ConceptArt.org, a now defunct art community for concept artists on which he started to hold art workshops. This eventually became its own studio, Massive Black. Although he hoped to juggle his roles at both Retro and Massive Black, the latter decided to base itself in San Francisco, California rather than Austin, Texas. Jones decided to work on Corruption remotely in a reduced capacity than the prior two games, after which he would depart from Retro. He felt that his artwork for this game had more detail, form and dimension. Despite this, he has admitted to never playing Corruption, and not being as invested in it since he had a reduced role in its concept art.
==Subsequent career==
Following his departure from Retro Studios, Jones was able to focus on Massive Black. His game output there included Hellgate: London. As time went on, Jones felt himself becoming disenchanted with video game concept art and the industry culture generally, since he hardly had time to play games. He discovered the annual Burning Man festival, where artists were free to create what they wanted without the strenuous competition and expectations he was used to, and Jones officially retired from game development to become a fine artist. He now creates fine art for albums, events and other media.
==Gallery==
Nov18samuss.jpg|Self portrait made on the shipping day of Metroid Prime. 
Android Jones Samus reference concept.jpg
Blue back.jpg
Btight line samus.jpg
Krocuss.png|Krocuss
Alpha blogg.png|Blogg
Spacepirate concept2.png|Dark Pirate Commando
DkSam concept front.png|Dark Samus
Grenchler.png|Grenchler
Ing concept1.png|Ing
EmperorIng final.png|Mutated Emperor Ing
Amorbis.jpg|Amorbis
Shrieker sketch.png|Shrieker
Shrieker gray.png
Image:Shredder artwork.png|Shrieker
Pirate Trooper Echoes.png|Space Pirate
Darkquad.jpg|Dark Quad
GFtrooper views.pngFederation Marines
Ajones weavel environment.jpg|Weavel Environment
Ajones ice station.jpg|Vesper Defense Outpost
Android Jones Sinister Laboratory concept.jpg|A Sinister Laboratory
Reptilicus Android Jones concept art.jpg|Reptilicus
Berserker Concept.jpg|Berserker Knight
Android Jones Fleet Troopers and PED Marine.jpg|Fleet Troopers and a PED Marine. This is a variation of two pieces in the Corruption Concept Gallery.
Android Jones Samus mech concept art.jpg
Ultra beat down 1000.jpg|Artwork for DragonForce's 2008 album Ultra Beatdown, with a figure resembling Samus Aran.
==External links==
*Concept art postings
*Website
*Jones on MobyGames
*Jones on deviantArt
*Time Extension interview
==References==
ru:Эндрю Джонс
Category:Retro Studios employees
Category:Andrew Jones
Category:Concept Artists
Category:Special Thanks