Programmer / Artist / Musician / Dilettantrepreneur
This is my Portfolio of creative and technical work. This includes work for hire as well as personal projects.
For Cartoon Violence’s second studio album, the CDs are being produced on demand by Amazon.com. I modified my digital art designs to fit within the templates provided by Amazon and this is the physical result. The insert opens up to reveal advertisements for other albums and T-shirts on the inside.
This podcast website I built features a simple design which makes the podcast episodes front and center, with eye catching images and an easy play/pause button connected to the inline media player. I used WordPress and customized plugins to enable podcast episodes and contributor bios to be added by the producer. The site is set up as a multi-site network to facilitate the adding of additional podcasts with their own blog and podcast feeds.
This booklet for The Sincerelys’ debut CD was made in close cooperation with the lyricist and artist, Bernard McKenna. First, the lyrics were typeset to fit within a 20 page booklet. Then, the typeset lyrics were printed out and Bernard drew line drawings in the white space around the lyrics, using tracing paper over the printouts. After those were scanned, the line drawings were cleaned up and printed out on high quality paper. The line drawings on that paper were then colored by Bernard, scanned in one final time, and composited against ink marbling backgrounds we had made together and scanned separately. Finally, the lyrics font was changed from a standard system font to one which I made with Bernard, converting a sheet of his handwriting into a reusable font so that the hand written look could be achieved while still leveraging the previously typeset lyrics.
www.featuretrips.com
I wrote the front and back end of this web site for a client who wanted to create a matching service, pairing local experts with people seeking unique experiences in various cities. I developed a node.js app using mongodb with responsive design, user management, admin features, payment processor integration, SMS messaging gateway, subscription-based email notifications, and an email template system. Also included was a custom algorithm for matching users based on interests. For the front-end, I chose Bootstrap to facilitate a mobile-first design which could scale to a desktop size well.
Responsibilities: UI design, technical design, hosting infrastructure, database design and administration, automated testing, mobile-first front-end development, back-end development.
This 16 page color booklet was made for the album Robots and Dinosaurs by my band Cartoon Violence. I did all the layout work and contributed about a third of the artwork. I assembled all the text in Adobe InDesign, then composited all the art assets into Photoshop layouts which were then imported back to InDesign for final rendering.
24-page storybook with original art based on a real handicapped dog
Responsibilities: App Development: UI design and programming, character animation, page layout and interactions, book framework code, iTunes Connect.
I was approached by a producer to build an interactive iPad storybook for kids, based on a story about a handicapped dog named Geoff who lives in Australia. This project received funding from a successful Kickstarter campaign. I completed the app with the assistance of a few contract programmers and animators after developing the base system of page interactions, animation pipeline, UI, and audio.
Touch-screen photo-booth sticker app with photo printing
Responsibilities: Application state machine, Unity scene setup, Custom NGUI components, State Machine control of UI, Multi-Touch Plugin and Driver interfaces, logging, WWW form submission.
While at Tribal Brands, I served as lead engineer on the PhotoCard project. Armed with a Mac Mini, a Logitech Webcam, and a 42″ Touch Screen HDTV, I helped build an app which lets the user take their photo, add and arrange stickers via multi-touch gestures, and send their photo to a local printer and/or an email address. This app has been deployed for multiple events, each time using custom UI and sticker graphics.
I built this website for a small live video streaming and online media collective. Features include:
From 2011 to 2014, I lived in a house in San Francisco where the landlord had built a sound proof room as a rear addition. While living there, my roommates and I transformed the room into a functional practice space and recording studio, renting it out by the hour and becoming the #4 studio on Yelp in San Francisco. The landlord moved back in 2014, so we had to shut down operations, but the web site remains archived at OceanBeachStudio.com.
I built this website for the home business I used to operate from the sound-proof music room behind my house in San Francisco. Features include:
A redesign included clearer contact information and a photo slideshow in the header against a sunset photo background which was also used on print postcards for advertising.
Electronic Arts, Nintendo 3DS (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Training/Mentoring, Gameplay Programming: Pet Socials
The last of 9 Sims games I helped make at EA/Maxis was The Sims 3 Pets for Nintendo 3DS. As an expert in the proprietary language used to write gameplay behavior in The Sims games, I was brought back for the final project to use that technology. EA had just acquired a company called Playfish in Salt Lake City, Utah, and had assigned a team of their engineers to do the bulk of the work. I spent some time in Utah training and supporting the staff there before returning to Redwood City, CA to complete the game.
My long term friend Stephen Cocconi, who does personal consulting, teaching, and channeling, asked me to transform his old static HTML site into something dynamic that he could maintain. I interpreted his existing web site design in a modular fashion and built a WordPress site with custom plugins to address his desired features. I then trained him on how to use the WordPress interface, my custom plugin administration panel, and to add new custom content. Live features include:
2009, Electronic Arts, Windows/PC (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Gameplay Programming: Movie Theater
The Sims 3 reinvented the way Sims games were built, leaving behind the proprietary scripting language used on the Sims 1 and 2, and adopting C# as the behavior language for object interactions. I joined the team late in the project after completing a series of Sims 2 console games, and assisted in the completion of the downtown area in the game.
I built this website for my band, Cartoon Violence. It integrates our social media, songs, and concert events all into one page, while keeping a visually striking look. As the band progressed, the style of the site changed to match the album art. Features include:
2007, Electronic Arts, PS2/Wii (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Game and Lot Design, Prototyping, Lot Transition Portals, Gameplay Programming: Harvesting, Crafting, and Music Systems
As a radical departure from the traditional “get a house, get a job, buy stuff” gameplay of The Sims, Castaway pitched the player onto a tropical island where they had to harvest materials to build their own shelter and find their own food. I helped design and prototype the crafting system which allowed players to unlock recipes as they explored the island, finding ingredients, and exploring ancient ruins.
2006, Electronic Arts, PSP (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Training/Mentoring, Porting Code, Gameplay Programming: Pet Interactions
The Sims 2 for PSP was a hybrid game which copied the Sims 2 Pets base game from console, but made its own changes to the game design and code. I was sent to train a team of engineers at EA Canada and support the process of merging code from the Pets game being finished in California while implementing the custom behavior changes. After five weeks of hard work we finished the port and I returned home.
2006, Electronic Arts, PS2/Wii/GameCube, (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Gameplay Programming: Pet Plaza Buildings and Store Interactions
The Sims 2 Pets was a simultaneous release which shared assets between a PC expansion and a Console game. I worked on the console game, which was a sequel to The Sims 2 Console but with added pets content. As someone familiar with developing both the console and PC versions of The Sims, I was able to assist modelers and animators from the PC team who were unfamiliar with content requirements for the console games.
2006, Electronic Arts, PC (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Gameplay Programming: Store Manager AI, Employee Assignments, Crafting Stations
After working on the base game The Sims 2 and the first expansion pack The Sims 2: University, I was called back to the PC team following the release of The Sims 2 Console to help make an expansion pack about building a store for your sims to shop at.
This project was the first which introduced the programming language Lua, as an alternative to the built-in proprietary language normally used to write The Sims behavior. Lua allowed for more complicated scenarios to be created easily by the engineering team, such as realistic poker games played by sims, and my assignment, which was a store managerial AI.
I learned the Lua language during this project, and used its strengths to help design the sorting and prioritization algorithm of the Store Managerial AI. When you told a sim to watch your store, they would intelligently manage which other employees should stock, man the register, take a break, etc, taking into account the various skill levels of the sims working in the store, as well as the skill levels of the manager. Beware of hiring a manager who isn’t very smart.
2005, Electronic Arts, PS2/GameCube/XBox (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Game and Interaction Design, Gameplay Programming: Anti-Gravity Hot Tub, Wave Machine, Fire-related Systems, Food Sources
As an experienced engineer with The Sims 2 programming language, I was transferred to the console team to help bring the gameplay of The Sims 2 from the PC to XBox, PS2, and GameCube. On the PC, a mouse would be used to send the sim to places and interact with objects, but we wanted to avoid having a cursor. I helped prototype a system which gave users direct joystick control of sims for navigation, with proximity and direction determining which objects the user could interact with.
2005, Electronic Arts, Windows/PC Expansion Pack (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities:Gameplay Programming: Fashion Photographer Camera, Hydroponic Garden, Bubble Hookah
The first expansion pack for The Sims 2 game included many objects and experiences surrounding College life. The camera was the most complex object I worked on for this expansion, as it needed specific engineering support to turn a screenshot into an in-game texture for a canvas.
2004, Electronic Arts, Windows/PC (view on MobyGames)
Responsibilities: Game Design, Prototyping, Gameplay Programming: Candy Factory, Playing Tag, Autonomous Urinal Selection Behavior
The Sims 2 was the first commercial video game I helped program. I was hired by Maxis, owned by Electronic Arts, to learn the proprietary language used to script behavior in the game. As part of the extended development to improve the game design of The Sims 2, I was placed on a “SWAT team” to design behavior for Sloppy sims, as well as contributing to the design and testing of death scenarios.
During August 2014, I was challenged to draw something every day, This is something I drew on one of those days.
During a challenge to draw something every day in August of 2004, I wasn’t sure what to draw so I just took whatever I knew about vanishing points and perspective and squeezed it slightly.
For this work, created as one of a series of daily drawings in August 2004, was a combination of colored pencil and oil pastels, a pair I had not yet experimented with. I’m not sure where the idea of moose dressage came from, but here you go.
During a month of drawing daily in August 2014, I spent some time on celebrity portraits, specifically trying to draw characters from The Kids In The Hall. I only did this one and Cabbagehead before inexplicably stopping. I should finish this series soon.
An experiment working with dark colored oil pastels, this was a drawing I did during a challenge to make something every day of August 2004.
This is an oil pastel portrait I drew of my friend Valie, sourced from a photo I took with my first digital camera, back at the turn of the millennium. I drew this as part of a challenge to draw daily during August of 2004.
An experiment with drawing every day of August 2004 plus learning how to work with oil pastels resulted in this particular piece.
I always meant to do a full series of colored pencil portraits of The Kids In The Hall. I started with Bruce McCulloch as the character Cabbagehead, and only got as far as Mark McKinney’s “I’m crushing your head!” character before I lost my way.
During August 2004 I was drawing something every day as part of a challenge. Somehow I came across a picture of Swedish actress and model Christina Lindberg and was inspired to draw her. There are many things I would do differently if I were drawing this one today, but it’s not bad for a portrait from my youth.