Ted Backman

For other uses, see Backman (disambiguation).

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Ted Backman
Biographical information
Place of birth	Seattle
Occupation(s)	Art director Conceptual artist Illustrator Animator

 

Ted Backman is art director, conceptual artist, illustrator, and animator for Valve.

Biography

Ted Backman and Vanessa Slough around 1998, in an unused texture file found in the Half-Life files.

Backman has been a freelance artist and animator in the Seattle area since the mid 2000s. He is also black belt karate instructor. He is married to Vanessa Slough.

On Valve's official website, his function is described as follows: "Prior to joining Valve in the summer of 1996, Ted studied painting at the University of Washington. During his time at Valve, Ted has been responsible for designing and building many of the people, places and things that inhabit Black Mesa, City 17, and the outlying environments. A Seattle native, Ted finds drizzle comforting and insists Paynes grey is his favorite color."

Backman was the Lead Animator on Half-Life; his responsibilities to this project involved maintaining the quality of the game's sequences, weapons and monsters.

Backman said that one of his inspirations for the Half-Life creatures was H.R. Giger's Necronomicon paintings and its sexual innuendos. It is possible he was also influenced by Wayne Douglas Barlowe's paintings.

One of the early versions of the Black Mesa security guard in Half-Life was based on Backman, including the goatee he was sporting at that time. His likeness was used again for Half-Life 2, for the Citizen Male 02, "Ted", also used for the Conscript model or the RPGGuy.

He designed most of the Synth met in Half-Life 2.

Trivia

The Hospital Easter egg.

His name appears in Half-Life as an Easter egg on a Sector C locker and can be heard in announcements. His name also appears as an Easter egg on a sign in the Hospital featured in Episode One.

Work for the Half-Life series

Half-Life series

Half-Life (1998)

• The Barnacle
• The Black Mesa Research Facility
• The Bullsquid
• The Charger
• The Fast Walker
• The Flocking Floater
• Gonarch
• The Headcrab
• The Houndeye
• The Ichthyosaur
• The Kingpin
• The Leech
• Mr. Friendly
• Nihilanth
• Probe Droid (TBC)
• An unidentified creature originally designed for Quiver
• Several weapons
• The Zombie
• Silo D
• Sector E Materials Transport

Gallery

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Half-Life 2 (2004)

• The Advisor
• The Alien Combine Soldier
• The Alien Fauna
• The Antlion King
• The Combine Assassin
• The Combine Dropship (replacing the early design by Dhabih Eng)
• The Combine Guard
• The Combine Guard Gun
• The Combine Gunship
• The Combine Super Soldier
• The Combine Synth Elite Soldier
• The Consul/Wallace Breen (with Dhabih Eng)
• The new Headcrabs
• The Hydra
• "I.A. Latham"
• The Overwatch Elite
• The two first Overwatch Sniper versions
• The Overwatch Soldier (outfit)
• The Rebel/Citizen outfits (with Moby Francke)
• The Sacktick
• The Shield Scanner
• The Stalker
• The Stampeder
• The Strider
• The Tripod Hopper
• The Wasteland Scanner
• Several weapons
• The new Zombies

Gallery

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  Citizen Male 02.

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Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)

• The Zombine
• The Advisor Pod

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Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)

• The Antlion Grub
• The Antlion Worker
• The Hunter

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Half-Life 2: Episode Three (TBA)

Gallery

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  Concept art for Episode Three, showing an Advisor and Gordon Freeman (collaborative work by Ted Backman, Jeremy Bennett and Tristan Reidford).

Complete gameography

• Half-Life (1998)
• Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999)
• Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001)
• Counter-Strike: Source (2004)
• Half-Life 2 (2004)
• Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
• Portal (2007)
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
• Left 4 Dead (2008)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (2009)
• Alien Swarm (2010)
• Portal 2 (2011)

References

See also

• Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

External links

• Ted Backman of Valve Software - q & a
• Ted Backman's Steam Community profile