About
This is a really nerdy story. A short time ago, it was the mid-nineties. Like any ordinary kid in America, I was a dedicated Nintendo gamer. At that time, I was finishing middle school and spending a lot of my time learning about computers. I knew that somehow computers were used to create my favorite games like Zelda, Goldeneye, and Half-Life. Two of my favorite movies were released to theaters at that time, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. I was astounded. How could my Compaq computer with a 933mhz Pentium processor make Neo dodge bullets? By 2000, I had discovered online communities like Planet Half-Life and the Valve-ERC. These were web sites where creative people gathered to build projects based on Valve's Half-Life engine. Back then, when you bought a PC game, it was common to get some bonuses along with it. Half-Life shipped with the Worldcraft Editor, it was the game's level editor. Seeing what others had achieved with the free software was inspiring but I couldn't understand why it seemed so effortless for them. I had only skimmed the surface but I was determined to learn how computer graphics worked.
Chihuahua-pug.
During high school, I was a part of two mod teams. My time was heavily occupied with learning Worldcraft and the principles of successful design. I built several maps (game levels) that were never released publicly including a recreation of "The Facility" level from Goldeneye 64. With all the work I put in, I built a small portfolio. As my time in high school came to a close in 2005, I was accepted to Southern Maine Community College. I earned an associate's degree in web design there and subsequently transferred to The Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. I had an addiction to learning. Three years later, I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA.
Today I still have the same hunger for learning and I'm ever curious where we can take this craft.