The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

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Former student jams with Aerosmith for video game

Aerosmith walked into the Neversoft Entertainment studio in Woodland Hills to record their motion-capture session of Guitar Hero.

Before Steven Tyler began his session, he had one question: “Where’s Adam Jennings?”

Tyler wanted to know who this guy was, so the studio called Jennings in, and he got to watch Aerosmith do their session.

But who is Adam Jennings?

Jennings is the 24-year-old front man for the wildly popular video game series “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith,” which was released on June 29. Jennings attended CSUN for one year in fall 2001 as a theater major. He soon realized that college was not for him, so he chose to pursue something else.

“I left school because college was fun, but I didn’t like the classes part,” Jennings said. He took some time off and moved to San Francisco. About a year later, he decided to come back to Los Angeles and pursue an acting career.

When Jennings returned to Los Angeles, he got in touch with an old friend from CSUN.

“We were in the same group of friends, but I didn’t know him well,” said CSUN student and Jennings’ girlfriend Kate Hubbell. “He left, and we didn’t talk for a couple of years. Then one day I saw him on instant messenger, so I sent him a message and we’ve been together ever since.”

Within a year, Jennings got an agent and booked some voiceover work. One day, his agency sent him to an audition during which he was asked if he ever considered working as a motion-capture actor. Jennings liked the idea and decided to give it a shot.

Coincidentally, Jennings skateboarded since he was a kid, so he felt right at home when one of his first jobs was for a series of Tony Hawk video games including “American Wasteland,” “Project 8” and “Proving Ground.”

In no time, Neversoft declared that Jennings would be the only actor to do motion-capture for the company in seven different languages including English, Spanish, Swedish and German.

“They asked me to lip sync and I could do it perfectly, so they booked me,” Jennings said.

Hubbell said that when Jennings gets a new song assignment for “Guitar Hero,” he logs on to YouTube and studies the band members’ moves.

“He will sit there for hours and study how they blink their eyes, cock their heads and move their mouth,” Hubbell said.

“I act out the men, women and kids for all of the games,” said Jennings, who is excited about the fourth “Guitar Hero” release called “Guitar Hero: World Tour.”

“The new game includes guitar, bass and vocals and it’s coming out in the end of summer in late August or September,” Jennings said. “I’m also working on a few top secret things that I can’t talk about.”

Mark Savage is a 45-year-old staffer for the San Francisco Chronicle and he was assigned to take photos of Jennings during one of his sessions.

“We had a great time,” Savage said. “I hadn’t met him before then. We got along great. He’s a great guy.”

Hubbell said Jennings is “a very hard worker. He is an actor first. His passion for acting is amazing.”

When Jennings is not hard at work for Neversoft Entertainment, he is waiting tables at Caf’eacute; Bizou on Ventura Boulevard. Jennings said the video game development company pays him well but that he enjoys the typical actor’s job of waiting tables.

When asked about his future in motion capture, Jennings said, “The industry is using a lot of motion capture for films, and this is where I want to go with my career. Video games are really popular right now, so I’m set.”

“I would love to finish school and get a degree, but in the mean time I’m setting out to build a career in motion capture,” Jennings said.

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