Mike Sneath

Mike Sneath is an American video game 3D artist. From 2000 to 2003, he was a Senior Character Modeler at Retro Studios, where he created several models for Metroid Prime, particularly the bosses. Following the completion of Prime, Sneath left Retro Studios for Edge of Reality with LeRoy Strauss. He is currently a Staff Environment Artist at WB Games San Francisco.
==Metroid Prime==
Mike Sneath came to Retro Studios along with several of his friends and colleagues from EA Canada, who were transferring to Retro to work on NFL Retro Football (later cancelled). Sneath was initially hired as an environment artist, but was given character concepts to work with since no environment concepts were ready. The studio's leadership was happy with his work and he was given the role of a character modeler. He and the other new hires were excited about developing a new Metroid game and simultaneously nervous about the pressure Retro, an unproven studio, was under to deliver a title that would meet fan expectations. As Retro's other projects (including Football) were cancelled and staff were laid off, Sneath worried that he might be let go next. His worries, and those of other employees, were assuaged when Prime was halfway through development and Nintendo requested that a demo of it be prepared in time for E3.
Sneath created the original Varia Suit model for Metroid Prime under a tight deadline, with Rodney Brunet creating its textures and Ludovic Texier modeling the Arm Cannon. The model had to be created so it could be animated in time for the Space World 2000 demo, where it was unveiled. When Gene Kohler joined the project a year later, he was asked to reskin the model, and then to completely remake it, resulting in the model of Samus seen in the finished product.""The original Samus looked fantastic in my opinion and the fans seemed impressed and excited by what they saw. When I came on board I was first asked to re skin the original model. Later I was ordered to create her from scratch (model and skin)." - Gene Kohler. Retrieved from https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/08/06/the-art-of-prime?page=3 Sneath also created the models of the Phazon Suit, Parasite Queen, Flaahgra, Plated Beetle, Baby and adult Sheegoths, Flying Pirates, Chozo Ghosts, Thardus, the Omega Pirate, Meta Ridley, and both the exoskeleton and core essence of Metroid Prime, as well as the unused Sabergauth.http://ca.ign.com/articles/2004/08/06/the-art-of-prime?page=1 With the encouragement of Todd Keller, he created the Phazon Suit over a few days by changing the shaders and textures, as he was skilled at this and there was not enough time to concept or model a new build for Samus.
Sneath created a year's worth of classic Metroid enemies based on their appearances in Metroid, Metroid II and Super Metroid, which were cut when Nintendo asked for new creatures to be created. Some of the scrapped enemies had models, animations and even AI programming done. However, Sneath was glad that Nintendo had made this decision as he preferred the new enemy designs created by Andrew Jones and Keller. Jones worked with him to ensure that the environments he designed would contrast well with the new creatures. His primary responsibility was to model each creature as closely to Jones' concept art as possible, and fully modeled and textured each boss over 22 days. Sneath only concepted one character himself, the injured Space Pirates seen aboard the Frigate Orpheon.
Sneath was previously involved with "another of Retro's mysterious fledgling projects", but was vague due to the lack of details surrounding it. He stated the project was not Thunder Rally, NFL Retro Football or Raven Blade, meaning it was most likely Metaforce."To my knowledge very little is known about the title Retro was working on before Metroid, so it is best I not say anything specific about that title. Basically, I was not working on Thunder Rally, Football or Raven Blade." - Mike Sneath, July 26, 2004. Retrieved from https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/08/06/the-art-of-prime?page=3
Sneath was interviewed by Shinesparkers in 2010 regarding his work on Prime.
Following his time at Retro, Sneath went to work Edge of Reality on Pitfall: The Lost Expedition and Shark Tale, as well as two projects that were cancelled. He later worked at Eat Sleep Play (on Twisted Metal) and 2K Games (on The Bureau: XCOM Declassified) before joining WB Games.
==Trivia==
*Sneath mistakenly used female pronouns to describe Meta Ridley in his Shinesparkers interviewhttps://web.archive.org/web/20111015135122/http://www.shinesparkers.net/interview-with-mike-sneath, when Ridley is identified in Prime Logbook and non-Logbook scans as male. This was later corrected. In the same interview, he indicated that he had not played Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption or Metroid: Other M.
*Sneath used Deep Paint 3D, a paint program to create his textures for Prime.
*Kohler claimed (also in a Shinesparkers interview) that he beat Sneath at NFL Blitz and ping pong during coffee breaks. Sneath countered that Kohler is better at football video games than him, but not ping pong.
*Sneath has also taken up sculpting, creating lifesize zombie busts that he sold on eBay.
==Gallery==
Samus RETRO.jpg|The original model of Samus Aran for Prime, modeled by Sneath.
Flaahgra beta.gif|Animation of Flaahgra in a swampy environment, in contrast to the Sunchamber where it is fought in Prime.
MetaRidleyGoesRound.gif|Panoramic view of Meta Ridley's model.
Mike Sneath Baby Sheegoth gif.gif|Baby Sheegoth
Mike Sneath Metroid Prime gif.gif|Metroid Prime
Mike Sneath Chozo Ghost gif.gif|Chozo Ghost
IceBoss gif.gif|Sabergauth animations.
File:Flying Pirate beta.gif|Flying Pirate, based on Greg Luzniak's concept.
MPoriginal-crabpirate.gif|Parasite Queen
Mike Sneath Plated Beetle gif.gif|Plated Beetle
==External links==
*Website
*Sneath's Prime models
*Shinesparkers interview
*Sneath on LinkedIn
*Sneath on MobyGames
*Sneath on IMDb
*Sneath on Metacritic
*Sneath on Vimeo
==References==
ru:Майк Снит
 
Category:Retro Studios employees
Category:Artists and Designers