Instructors
Harry Teasley
Game Art Instructor, Seattle
Harry Teasley graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art, covered in charcoal and oil paint, back when the Earth's crust was still doughy. He somehow landed a job at Microprose Software as an associate artist working on computers, where his boss said, "We'll teach you the computer part, we need people who can draw and paint." His first game was Sid Meier's Civilization.
In his 30 year career since then, he worked as a Production Artist and Art Director at several companies, on games like Half-Life, Lord of the Rings Online, and Magic Arena. His favorite aspect of being an Art Director was mentoring junior artists, so he decided to stop bothering with the other bits, and joined the AIE faculty, to make the best part of his job the only part of his job.
He lives with his wife and daughters in a house dominated by two ridiculous dogs. When he's not out shooting one of his too-many cameras, he spends his time thinking about cleaning out the garage someday, and getting chewed on by an adorably destructive bulldog puppy.
Donald Gremillion II
Art and Animation Instructor, Lafayette
Donald Gremillion II is a 3D Artist who has been working professionally in the field since 2009.
Donald was born in Lafayette, Louisiana and earned his BFA from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2009. Throughout his career, he has worked on several games, virtual reality applications, music videos, industrial animations, and feature films, including Secretariat and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Donald has strived to continue improving his artistic skills and knowledge throughout his personal and professional life.
Donald hopes to continue to improve his own skills, as well as help others with their own creative endeavors.
Ian Rich
Skills Center Instructor, Seattle
Ian is an artist and programmer who loves all forms of audiovisual interactive art. After getting his BA in Studio Art, he moved on to work in graphic design, video production, and event production. Wanting to shift careers, he attended AIE Seattle for Game Programming studies.
Ian currently enjoys teaching programming and 3D art to high-schoolers in AIE's "Skills Center" program, and is the Tech Artist / Audio Director for an independent game project.
When he's not busy studying new software, Ian likes to watch a lot of movies and cook food. He's also trying to improve his jump roping skills, "the first step towards becoming a ninja" he will tell you.
Terry Nguyen
Programming Instructor, Seattle
Terry is one of many secret wizards of the modern age. His first act of magic occurred at the age of seven when he cast an incantation that led to the creation of a handful of colorful letters on a web browser. He has since continued to travel across the digital sea in hopes of parchments and treasures that would aid him in the creation of newer and more exciting tools of experiences.
By day, Terry serves as the Assistant Programming Instructor at the AIE. His duties include putting out figurative fires on student projects, sharing solutions to interesting problems, and actively professing his love for source control solutions (Git is life). A wealth of knowledge and experience with mobile development as well as general engine experience with Unity3D and Unreal Engine 4 work well to supplement his ability to advise and propose solutions to practical problems in the classroom. Students are keen to query his knowledge to hear some insights on engineering efforts or test his aptitude for first person shooters in a game of Reflex or Team Fortress 2.
Terry graduated from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment with an Advanced Diploma in Game Development Specializing in Game Programming. He has also performed some contract work with other development firms and continues to work on Vextar, a first person shooty disk game with some alumni from the AIE.
Drew Funderburk
Game Programming Instructor, Lafayette
Drew Funderburk is a multi-year programmer with a deep love of game systems, design, and audio. He has many years of coding and scripting under his belt with languages from C++ and C# to Python, Java, and even JavaScript.
Drew is an AIE graduate himself in the field of game programming and has since gone on to work in the Virtual Reality sector before returning to AIE to teach. He is experienced in Unreal Engine and Unity, and even a few custom engines have made their way into his repertoire
Having spent a good portion of his life overseas, Drew brings a multinational, broad worldview to life. He strives to see the bigger picture in the lives of those around him, and to show it to others.
Luke Fisher
Game Design and Production Instructor, Seattle
Luke Fisher is a Game Design and Production Instructor at AIE Seattle, with a diverse career spanning museum exhibit design, software engineering, localization, motion graphics, and 3D animation. Luke eventually found game design, as it satisfied his lifelong interest in exploring the intersections of creative disciplines and his endless desire to learn new things. Throughout his professional career, he has always prioritized educating others. His diverse background and extensive teaching experience enable him to offer a comprehensive learning experience to his students, preparing them for various roles in the games industry.
When not working on games, he enjoys learning languages, playing DDR, and spending too much time skateboarding.
Hardy Lebel
Game Design and Production Instructor, Seattle
Hardy has a bachelor’s Degree in English from Boston University, He is a veteran of 20+ years in the games industry with game design, producing and publishing credits on AAA titles like Halo series, FarCry, PacMan World and more.
Robert Rood
Game Programming Instructor, Seattle
Robert is a freelance C# Developer/Technical Artist focusing on Cross-Platform Virtual Reality Development in Unity; three years’ experience teaching Game Development using C# and Unity to students from US, Netherlands, Mexico, and China; co-organizer for the Seattle Unity User Group.
Sam Viator
Game Art and Animation Instructor, Lafayette
Sam Viator has been a 3D artist since 2015, with a specialty of hard surface modeling.
Sam is a graduate of the class of 2015 from AIE and has been working in Industry since 2015 at Digital Twin Studios, focusing on Virtual Reality training environments. Some of his clients he has worked with include Virgin Hotels, Carnival Cruise Lines, Shell, the Louisiana Department of Health, and several others. He also worked directly with Unity for a time.
When he isn't working, he enjoys watching sci-fi movies, rollerblading, listening to music, and playing his favorite games.