Before beginning in the game industry in 1996 I began interning at a small video production, and media duplication house.  By the middle of 1996 I had graduated from college with an Associate in Arts degree, and completed specialized training in 3D Graphics & Animation at “The School of Communication Arts” (SCA.)  I’m sure everyone has their own little or long story behind how they got started in the game industry, and I always find it interesting to hear the background of my co-workers, so here is how I got started, and where I would like to go.

How I Got Started

From the very young age of 14 I knew I wanted to pursue a career in computer graphics.  A computer animation video called “The Mind’s Eye” was shown in my 8th grade math class, simply because our teacher thought it was cool. Since that day I had a fascination with how computer graphics were created, especially special effects in movies, and television media animation (little did I know I would be getting into video games.) Since then I concentrated my electives in art, graphic design, printing, photography, computers, and a little programming. After graduating from high school I went to investigate a school in Minneapolis called “The School of Communication Arts.” After going on a tour of the facility, and talking with the admissions department, they suggested getting a two year arts degree before attending their school. I decided I could wait another two years while working on my AA degree, and then go back to SCA and that’s what I did. After getting almost enough credits to get my AA degree I had to enroll at SCA, so I spent a year (two 6 month courses with a break in the middle) learning Adobe Photoshop, CorelDraw, 3D Studio R4, and then Softimage|3D 3.5. By the end of the classes we had produced our own short demo reels.

Near the end of 1995 I got an Internship at Precision Tapes in Minneapolis, which had just created an educational software division. I worked there for 6 months creating graphics for their games, and designed their web site as well. I was in the last two months of training at SCA when the trade show E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) came up, and would be held in Los Angeles that year. I flew out to Los Angeles with a classmate (Scott Thurman) scouting for jobs. I lined up an interview with an Art Lead at Monolith Productions, and it went very well. I ended up getting my first “real job" in the video games industry at Monolith Productions, and I moved out to Seattle in July of 1996 to start the most exciting adventure of my life.

My Vision and Mission

Up until recently I was working in ACES Studio (part of Microsoft Game Studios) as the Vegetation Lead for our simulation products.  As many of you may know, Microsoft closed ACES Studio early in 2009, and now I am working for Panasonic Avionics as a 3D Modeler/Animation specialist in the training department.  On my off time I have been working on learning new cool stuff like the Unreal Editor (UnrealEd), HDRI Photography, Image based lighting with spherical panoramic images, Smart IBL, and am continuing to learn ZBrush, 3DS Max, Terragen 2, and Mental Ray.  Check my News section for the latest projects I am working on.

Summary

I have been working with 3DS Max now since v1.0 when it evolved from “R4” to “Max.” I am constantly learning new applications, and internal tools, and have been exploring the latest advancements in 3D pertaining to environment art, organic modeling, terrain, and vegetation (xFrog 3.5, and zBrush 3 for example).  I have also been exploring my passion for web development technology such as HTML5, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails programming.  I will continue to develop my technical side, art skills, and with some hard work I hope to continue to be surprised by what I am able to produce in the exciting industry of Video Games, Internet Technology, 3D Graphics,  and “Next Gen” media presentation.  Thank you for visiting!