Jonathan Cooper is an award-winning video game developer from Scotland, and is author of GAME ANIM: Video Game Animation Explained. Starting professionally in 2000. He currently works at Apple across Edinburgh, London and Los Angeles and has led teams on large projects such as the Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect series with a focus on memorable stories and characters, and cutting-edge video game animation.
In 2008 Jonathan started the BioWare Montreal studio, leading a team to deliver the majority of cinematic cutscenes for the 2011 British Academy of Film & Television Award (BAFTA) Best Game, Mass Effect 2, and in 2013 directed the team that won the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS/DICE) award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation on Assassin’s Creed III. He has most recently been creating interactive cinematics in the latest chapters of the DICE and Annie award-winning series, Uncharted and The Last of Us.
Jonathan has presented at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco and at other conferences across Canada and the UK, and holds a Bachelor of Design degree in animation.
Full resume available on LinkedIn.
Awards
- BAFTA Best Animation: The Last of Us: Part II
- BAFTA Best Game: Uncharted 4
- ANNIE Outstanding Achievement For Character Animation In A Video Game: Uncharted 4
- DICE Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Uncharted 4
- SXSW Excellence in Animation: Uncharted 4
- DICE Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Assassin’s Creed III
- BAFTA Best Game: Mass Effect 2
Presentations
- Animation Exchange: Interactive Cinematic Sequences in Uncharted 4
- Game Developers Conference: Women Are Not Too Hard To Animate
- Game Developers Conference: Animating The 3rd Assassin
- Eurogamer: Assassin’s Creed III Developer Session
- Montreal International Game Summit: Cinematics Sans Cutscenes
- IGDA Montreal: Converging Discipline’s Breathe Life Into Mass Effect’s Digital Actors
Press
- Edge Magazine: Motion Plus
- Creative Bloq: 15 Pro Tips For Crafting The Perfect Showreel
- Game Informer: How Uncharted 4’s Most Memorable Sequences Came Together
- Kotaku: How To Create A Game Character That Doesn’t Suck
- Polygon: Animating Women Should Take Days
- Game Informer: AC3 Animation Director Moves Over To Naughty Dog
- Kotaku: A Man Who Makes Video Games Move