Daniel Dociu is a Romanian video game

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

and concept artist. He was the chief art director for

NCsoft NCSoft Corporation (stylized as NC, formerly stylized as NCSOFT; ) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher headquartered in Pangyo, Seongnam, South Korea, primarily known for the distribution of massively multiplayer online role-pl ...

North America and also worked for its subsidiary

ArenaNet ArenaNet, LLC is an American video game developer and subsidiary of NCSoft, founded in 2000 by Mike O'Brien (game developer), Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain and located in Bellevue, Washington. They are most notable as developers o ...

until February 2017. Dociu was born in

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

. He obtained his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

at the Fine Arts Academy in Cluj in 1982. Throughout the decade, he taught at the academy as an assistant professor and later worked as a

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

er in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Greece, a product designer and a freelance artist. He moved to the United States in 1990. From 1992 to 2003, Dociu did work for various video game developers including

Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

, and

Zipper Interactive Zipper Interactive was an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington and part of SCE Worldwide Studios. It was founded in June 1995 by Jim Bosler and Brian Soderberg. It is best known for developing the '' SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs' ...

. His face was also used for reference for the character Father Grigori in the critically acclaimed video game ''

Half-Life 2 ''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It was published for Windows on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' is played ent ...

''. His son, Horia Dociu, is also an artist and Art Director for the video game company

Sucker Punch Productions Sucker Punch Productions, LLC is an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington. It is best known for creating character action games for PlayStation consoles such as ''Sly Cooper'', ''Infamous (series), Infamous'', and ''Ghost ...

and will replace him as the chief art director for NCsoft North America.

Awards

Spectrum, The Best In Contemporary Fantastic Art * Spectrum 19, Silver Medal, Concept Art * Spectrum 17, Gold Medal, Concept Art * Spectrum 16, Gold Medal, Concept Art * Spectrum 15, Gold and Silver Medal, Concept Art * Spectrum 14, Gold Medal, Concept Art * Spectrum 13, Silver Medal, Concept Art * Spectrum 13-19, numerous pieces published

Lürzer's Archive ''Lürzer's Archive'' (also known as ''Luerzer’s Archive'') is a bi-monthly magazine for the advertising industry which features advertising campaigns for print and TV from around the world. The magazine was founded in 1984 and has a global circ ...

* 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 2011–2012 * 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 2009–2010 Into The Pixel * 2012 gallery show selection, one/16 pieces * 2010 gallery show selection, one/16 pieces * 2009 gallery show selection, one/16 pieces * 2008 Judging Panel * 2007 gallery show selection, one/16 pieces * 2006 gallery show selection, two/16 pieces EXPOSÉ, Ballistic Annual * EXPOSÉ 9, Grand Master, Career Achievement :Past honorees: Syd Mead, H R Giger, Ralph McQuarrie * EXPOSÉ 7, :Master Award, Concept Art :Cover Illustration, Limited Edition * EXPOSÉ 6, :Master Award, Environment Art :Excellence Award, Science Fiction Art * EXPOSÉ 5, :Master Award, Transport Art :Excellence Award, Creature Design :Excellence Award, Science Fiction Art :Excellence Award, Concept Art :Excellence Award, Environment art * EXPOSÉ 4, :Master Award, Best Environment :Master Award, Best City-scape

Works

* Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge *

FIFA Soccer 95 ''FIFA Soccer 95'' is a 1994 football video game published by EA Sports. The game was released for the Sega Mega Drive in 1994. It is a sequel to ''FIFA International Soccer'' and the second game in the ''FIFA'' series. Gameplay ''FIFA Socc ...

FIFA Soccer 96 ''FIFA Soccer 96'' (also known as ''FIFA 96: Virtual Soccer Stadium'') is a football video game developed by Extended Play Productions and released by EA Sports in 1995. It was released for the Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sega 32X, Game G ...

* FIFA Soccer 2002 *

Guild Wars 2 ''Guild Wars 2'' is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the core game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedi ...

* Guild Wars: Eye of the North *

Guild Wars Factions ''Guild Wars Factions'' is a fantasy action role-playing game and the second stand-alone campaign in the ''Guild Wars'' series developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCSOFT corporation. It serves as both a standalone game and first expansion pack ...

Guild Wars Nightfall ''Guild Wars Nightfall'' is a fantasy action role-playing game and the third stand-alone campaign in the ''Guild Wars'' series developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCSOFT corporation. ''Nightfall'' was released worldwide on October 27, 2006, h ...

* Guild Wars Prophecies * James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing * James Bond 007: Nightfire *

MechWarrior 3 ''MechWarrior 3'' is a vehicle simulation game, part of the ''MechWarrior'' series. It featured a new 3D accelerated graphics engine at the time of its release. The game contains over 20 missions, with access to 18 different Battlemech, mechs. A ...

* MechWarrior: Pirates' Moon * Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 *

Recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, for according to Newton's third law the force requ ...

ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

Secret of Evermore ''Secret of Evermore'' is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America on October 17, 1995, in Australia in February 1996, and in Europe in March 1996 ...

Shadow Madness ''Shadow Madness'' is a role-playing video game developed by Craveyard Studios and published by Crave Entertainment for the PlayStation. Set in the fictional world of Arkose, the player takes the role as Stinger, whose town has just been destroye ...

(as ''Worlds Within'') *

SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs ''SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs'' is a series of third-person tactical shooter video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable created by Zipper Interactive and released between 2002 and 2011. The title for the series comes ...

SSX Tricky ''SSX Tricky'', also known as ''SSX 2'' or ''SSX 2: Tricky'', is a snowboarding video game, the second game in the '' SSX'' series published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label and developed by EA Canada. A direct sequel to '' SSX' ...

SSX 3 ''SSX 3'' (standing for "Snowboard Supercross 3") is a 2003 Sports video game, snowboarding video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. It is the third installment in the ''SSX'' series. The g ...

* Triple Play 2003

References

External links

Daniel Dociu's art website
* with biography and artbooks on Inside Your ART
Daniel Dociu
on Facebook {{DEFAULTSORT:Dociu, Daniel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Romanian illustrators Romanian graphic designers People from Redmond, Washington Video game artists