Originally from Michigan, I now live in Durham, North Carolina.
In 1993, I earned my BFA in Art Direction from The Center for Creative Studies, a private College of Art and Design in Detroit, MI. After a short period working at an ad agency, I realized that advertising art direction was not what I wanted to do. I thought there had to be a better way to integrate art and technology. What I did find was a little multimedia shop in Ann Arbor, MI.
While MediaStation, Inc. (MSI) was starting to build up their art staff, I interviewed for a digital animator/graphic artist position. They created a storybook page demo that animated on a NeXT workstation, and were looking to do the same across both Windows and Apple operating systems.
I joined the MSI team and was quickly promoted to project lead on our second title for HarperCollins Interactive. Less than one year later, Disney Interactive (DI) asked MSI to use their proprietary engine to run the animated pages of the DI Storybook series.
The Lion King Animated Storybook was designed and engineered to release along with the film on June 24, 1994.
With my help, MSI created a CD-ROM of an engaging interactive experience of The Lion King. Just three years later, we had completed seven Disney titles as well as the translated language versions. With those projects complete, I decided it was time for my next step. And what a big one it was. I landed half a country away in North Carolina.
SAS Institute had started up a computer gaming division, SouthPeak Interactive (SPI). SPI was in SAS's video production studio in Cary, NC. I came on board as Art Director for their third puzzle solving/adventure game. Using a combination of cutting edge video based technology and Softimage CGI graphics, this "Video Reality" technology allowed users to move along paths inside interactive video based environments.
Over the next three years, technology began to shift, and I moved along with it. I am still with SAS as a Senior Interactive Media Designer/Developer, working on Educational products in the R&D group. I currently design online curriculum tools/lessons for Middle and High Schools in the US.