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Where Are They Now: Julia Lichtblau
Interlochen allowed Julia Lichtblau to immerse herself in music, theatre, and visual arts. Now she designs immersive video game environments.
Julia Lichtblau (IAA 02-06) arrived at Interlochen as a 13-year-old and immersed herself in theatre, piano, and organ before finding her passion in visual arts. She explored a variety of mediums at the Academy, including photography, ceramics, painting, and drawing. At James Madison University, she blended her love of traditional mediums with modern techniques like digital illustration and 3-D modeling. She received a Master of Interactive Technology degree at the Guildhall at Southern Methodist University and began her career as an environment artist in the video game industry, responsible for the modeling, materials, and lighting of props, structures, and landscapes in video game environments. At Telltale Games, she worked on more than 30 award-winning titles. She was the lead environment artist on Minecraft Season 2 and contributor to Walking Dead Seasons 2 and 4, Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Tales from the Borderlands, and Game of Thrones. She is now the associate art director at Ascendant Studios, working with a team of artists to develop a brand new fantasy world in the cutting-edge Unreal 5 Engine.
Interlochen allowed me to fully immerse myself in an environment of constant creativity. To see artists come from all over the globe and match their innate talent with immense dedication was formative to my work ethic and drive to be adaptable and continually learn new skills and technologies. As game developers our goal is to inspire players to happily immerse themselves in highly structured and self-motivated hard work, and then reward that practice and mastery. The faculty, friends, and environment of Interlochen continuously rewarded young artists like myself, encouraging us to be resilient, think creatively, and push ourselves. It's an experience I'll never forget, like a much beloved game that I encourage everyone to play.