I have always had a passion for animation. As a kid I would draw my favorite cartoons for hours: - The Ninja Turtles, Mickey Mouse, and my favorite, Bart Simpson. As I grew older my fondness for art matured, as well as my appreciation for more technical skills like math and science.

At the age of 13 and in grade 9, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to 3D Studio Max R2.5 at my high school. The reality that I could merge the two things that I truly

loved, and do it as a career became apparent very soon. I practiced throughout high school and became really proficient at using 3D Studio Max for just about anything.

I am now 23 and have been doing 3D for a total of 10 years now. 6 years teaching myself, 1 year as a student at VFS, a year and a half professionally, and one year as a Teaching Assistant at VFS.

When I graduated from VFS, I worked for a startup company named Ironclad Games. At Ironclad I was given the position of Lead Modeler. My first assignment there was to help compile scenes and edit footage for the Sins of a Solar Empire trailer. Second order of business and a huge obstacle in our way was finding a publisher. We worked for a few months night and day to get the game to a point where we were confident enough to go out and seek a publisher. We were fortunate enough to have Stardock Entertainment pick us up. Once on board, Stardock and Ironclad worked side by side for months to bring the game up to current generation game standards. As Lead I worked directly with the game's engine designer to optimize system memory. Our aim was to have the game able to run on low end and high end gaming rigs. With an understanding of how the .dds format manages image bits, we devised a file structure to compile all our images into 3 basic files. This approach helped us achieve a memory saving of over 600 megs. Also, I helped set up the use and implementation of Softimage XSI into the production pipeline.

Once Ironclad got in to the groove of production, more artists were hired. I was put in charge of training the new guys on our pipeline, and what was needed for model export from XSI. On many occasions some technical issues would arise that would need a shader rewrite or an exporter rewrite. I would work with the programmers to be sure that the implementation was achieved successfully.

I heard there was an opening at VFS for a Teaching Assistant. Although I had experience in the industry I felt it was time for me to move on and work on my own for a while. Every artist would like a chance to work on their own artwork, and I jumped at the opportunity. At VFS I am getting an opportunity to train students and help them be efficient in their work flow. I am currently working on a new Demo Reel that will hopefully get me a Modeling position in the Film or TV industry. Not just that, I also have a huge desire to start learning compositing programs such as Nuke. I feel being able to offer more to a company would help me be a better employee.

As an worker to a company, I bring my previous knowledge and a real ability to learn new processes, apply them to my work habits, and become productive really quickly. I have an excellent understanding of 3D space which translates to me being able to learn a 3D package fast.