Professional Interest

The goal of any artist is ultimately the synthesis of new ideas and principals and their presentation to the world. There is a need for balance between purity of expression and approachability of the work. Bowing to the former can lead to a rarefied audience, the majority of the public being unable to relate, while catering to the latter can result in disposable entertainment made for the lowest common denominator. It is the responsibility of the artist to incorporate both in his work. My personal goal is to use my educational background in graphic design, my interest in creative writing, my knowledge of physics, coupled with my experience in three dimensional computer graphics to create art that is balanced and approachable to meet the needs of my clients.

Education

2007- current Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia

Major: Visual Effects

2007 BA State University of New York at Binghamton

Major: Studio Art

Specialization: Graphic Design

2002 New York State Regents Diploma, Pittsford, New York

Awards: National Merit Scholarship commendation, Who’s Who Among American High School Students, Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, Wegmans Scholarship

Employment

2008 SCAD Couseling and Support Services

Jump Start orientation assistant for students with disabilities

1998-2004 Wegmans Food Market

Service Clerk and Night Crew

Extracurricular Experience

2005 Israel Defense Forces Course Marva

An intense nine-week civilian training program tun by the Israel Defense Forces to teach foreign students about the history, function, and structure of the I.D.F.

2005 Ein Gedi Nature Preserve

Worked on park maintenance as a volunteer clearing old fences, planting trees and digging out a swimming hole after a flash flood.

2005 Natzerat Illit Fire Department

Worked as a volunteer firefighter at a station that serves both the town of Natzerat Illit and the city of Natzeret.

1998-2002 Church of the Blessed Sacrament

Worked as a dishwasher for the soup kitchen at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament.

Software Familiarity

NewTek Lightwave 3D, Autodesk MAYA, Adobe Photoshop, Apple Shake, Side Effects Houdini

Web 2.0

Hey guys! I've been doing a little bit of research on Web 2.0 layouts and graphics and found a site that does a good job of explaining the principals behind it. It's a pretty interesting read, and it's a good source of inspiration.



http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-2.0-design-style-guide.cfm

Reading 04.

Does anyone know what the reading is for today's class?? Last time I did chapter 03 for reading 03 when it was actually supposed to be chapter 04 for reading 03. Did really well on that quiz I can tell you. Anyway, what's the chapter for reading 04??

Thanks,
Ryan

Adobe makes easy things even easier

I never had a good grip on web design before this year. I taught myself enough of Dreamweaver a few years ago just to have a basic thesis project website. It was straight html, though I can hardly take any credit since Dreamweaver practically does everything for you. You just drag and drop assets where they need to be and create your buttons and links.

Maybe the slice tool was around when Photoshop 7 was the new version, but I didn't know anything about it if it was. That would have been much easier, even more so than the already simple Dreamweaver setup, to create a basic page. What I like about this class is we're getting a taste of the conventional ways of web design. Unfortunately, with projects being about 2 weeks apart, I don't know if I'll be able to get a portfolio piece out of it.

I'll speak on branding in my next blog...

Another Post

So what has changed...Well I came up with a new design for my website!

The SOX are in the playoffs!!!!!

The stock market is crashing??

That's about it for now. I am looking forward to learning a bit about flash and why the website that I have built is garbage.
I have already been animating a lot this quarter...which is fantastic and I hope to stay somewhat caught up with all my work in the process.

Here is a site to my old Blog..that I kept while I was in Iraq..some cool stuff on there.
http://jpranimation.blogspot.com/

And of course I leave you with one more animation resource site...since I am an animator :)
http://www.11secondclub.com/

See you in class....

John Paul

Fun Animation

Just thought I would share some fun animation with you guys. Some of you may already know about this, but just in case you don't...
It's a serious of 3 short animations called Simon's cat. They are very simple, but highly effective.
Cat Man Do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q
Let Me In: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rb8aOzy9t4&feature=user
TV Dinner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13dLaTIHSg&feature=related

Enjoy
~Melody

Fall in Savannah

So the fall is here, and I for one am stoked. I went for a run today at Lake Mayer on Montgomery Cross Road, and I could not believe that I actually felt cold! It's my favorite time of year that brings back the fondest memories of college and my childhood. I mean, so many great times happen during this time of year. Thanksgiving, yum, Christmas, the best, New Years Day!?!? I think I made my point. Oh, and let's not forget the World Series and college/pro football.

So classes haven't gotten too hectic...yet, though I expect them to soon. I'm kind of anxious to get started on my thesis because I have so many ideas! I know exactly what I want to do, but just getting all of my thoughts organized has become quite the undertaking. I guess that's why I'm in Studio I.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts for the week. I don't really have anything interesting to report from the news because I simply don't watch it. For some reason it really depresses me...I wonder why? Anyway, have a great rest of your day, and keep living the dream!

- D

Alex

Hi everyone. My name is Alex. I'm from Taiwan. My BA degree is Economics (Yes! it's ture!) and now I am an industrial design student. I know it's a big change and sometimes I still can't believe I am here. Before I was a math teacher at cram school in taiwan. So if anyone have math questions maybe I can help.
I know nothing about web. So hope I can learn well in the short eight weeks.
Here are two websites I visit everyday. It about new products and concept products.
Yanko Design
Engadget

Enjoy
Alex

Hello Everyone

So I'm an animation major who has an undergrad degree in painting from USC. I am mostly interrested in concept art and texturing. But I also love actually animating and ncloth simulation. I'm from upstate South Carolina and this is hopefully my last yr. at SCAD assuming I get the classes I need and complete my thesis.

As far as favorite website, Google is by far the one I visit the most. However, being that this is terribly uninterresting, I will share with you one of my favorite web resources. This is a link to a post on Conceptart.org that has many other links to free online art E-books. These books are old, out of copyright books that are amazing for fine art study. They are somewhat categorized and are more than you could ever want or need. I find it extremely useful, so here is the link: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=131117

Me!!!

Hello everyone, my name is Dennis Smith. I am a graduate animation student here at SCAD working on completing my last year and my thesis here. I received my AB in Drama at The University of Georgia, (I know, AB is really backwards, but that's what it was), and decided that I wasn't ready to enter the workforce. So here I am at SCAD getting the training I need to be successful in the competitive art world. I really enjoy sports...mainly football and futbol...and my five year plan is to be working at an animation/design studio as a character animator. I look forward to learning with you all in class! See ya.

Here is one of my favorite website...it's hysterical.

www.failblog.com

Zippidy-do-dah!

Hello class. My name is Mandy and I am an Advertising Design major. I have 3 dogs that I treat like my babies. Edward is my Great Dane, my biggest baby. Then there is my tiny princess, Madeline, a Jack Russel mix who was the runt of the litter. Finally, Molly, the American Bulldog who is quite content to sleep ont he couch all day. Sometimes we dogsit and the house gets really crowded. About two weeks ago we kinda double booked ourselves and had five dogs at the house at once. We decided to call that week Doggie Day Camp 2008 and tried to make little bandana's for all the dogs.

Here's a blog I like to visit, daily!

www.poppytalk.com

Laura intro

Hi my name is Laura, I'm studying Broadcast Design and this is one of the websites I like to follow for design-related tid bits: quipsologies

also, everybody should go to this website too. Ze Frank is funny.

Hi im kristal Marie

Hi my name is kristal Marie. I'm from Puerto Rico. I did my BFA in advertising and right now i am in my last year of my two M.A's which are, illustration and Broadcast design. I came to scad to improve and grow as an artist as well as a profesional in the comunication field. In this class i hope to learn more of the computer art and how to interact with it. My knowlege of web design is really limited so by the endof this quarter i hope to improve on that as quick as posible.

Hi, My name is Zulfiqar-ul Hasan and my nick name is zulfi which is used by every one, i am a Broadcast Design and Motion Graphics major doing my MFA from SCAD.Right now i dont know any thing about web but hopefully ill get a good grip on it by the end of this quarter. Here is a link a quiet useful website www.motionographer.com here you can have a good idea about what is happening in the motion graphics industry.

Enjoy!
zulfi

Ryan Peoples

Hello everyone. This is the second blog that I have started in less than two weeks. I have another blog floating around on wordpress that focuses on sound stuff and other random thoughts that I think. The address for that blog is http://ryanpeoples.wordpress.com/ if anyone is interested. I am looking forward to working with you all throughout this quarter. Blog blog, blogger, bloggy, bloggest.

Ryan

The race for October

Well it's getting to October so I am becoming more and more consumed by baseball and the Red Sox. I am from MA and there it's an exciting time of year as we are approaching the playoffs. So now you know I love baseball and the Red Sox.

I have just found this site back in the June and have been visiting quite a bit over the summer.
I have used this for developing my animation skills.

http://www.jasonryananimation.com/

Enjoy

First Post

Hey all! My name is Chad Steele, I'm from Nashville, TN. My undergraduate degree was is Visual Effects, but I also took several undergrad courses in the ITGM program. My focus in the ITGM Graduate Program is web/interactive design. I originally started working with HTML in 1997, making small personal webpages. My time at SCAD sparked an interest in scripting and coding. More recently, I've been teaching myself actionscript, PHP, javascript and ultimately would like to work with AJAX.

I really like to tinker. In my spare time I like to etch brass, among other random activities. At the moment, my favorite website is Instructables. A pretty cool website with a nearly limitless number of do it yourself projects.

My conceit is palpable!

Why else would I post about myself? How about because my grade depends on it? Did I draft some of you over to my team with that statement? Good, let's begin...

I received my MFA from SCAD back in 05. I was one of the last Computer Art kids and I loved the flexibility that program offered. I was able to create my own thesis project that welded sound design and animation together. What I learned at SCAD was that although there may not be a direct route to your dream job, there is always a way to trailblaze yourself one.

With that lesson learned, I worked in Orlando for a company that designs theme park rides. I was able to work on rides such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" at Alton Towers and a few other projects that are soon to be constructed.

The most rewarding time I had was during a brainstorming session for a 4D Haunted Mansion type ride we were developing. The problem was a hole in the story. The gist was we had a master of the mansion character that seems sympathetic, as he explains his mansion is haunted by the ghost of his jilted bride. As the story unfolds, it's revealed that he is keeping her ghost from resting because of her affair to a calvary soldier. The problem was we had to show the audience that the Master was also a ghost, but this could not be unveiled until the final scene.

After a few moments of idea knocking, I had the idea that the final scene would take place in a solarium where the audience would see the Master and his bride struggling and fighting. I suggested we have the Calvary soldier crash through the glass solarium on his horse, snatch the bride away, and run towards the Master with the intention of stampeding him. As the horse hits the Master, he would then mist away and reform as the bride and Calvary soldier rode off. This made the cut and will be the ride's finale scene when it is constructed!

After my wife decided Orlando wasn't for her, we came back to Savannah where she had a good job. I now work for SCAD and am pursuing a second degree since the school is paying this go-round. Web design is something I feel I need to know as we want to stay on the east coast, specifically, North Carolina, and jobs in animation and certainly theme parks, are fairly hard to come by. However, web design is needed everywhere and I view it as a new challenge and opportunity to flex my creativity.

Here's a few links for theme park news and rumors. I'm a junkie.

www.screamscape.com
www.jimhillmedia.com
www.miceage.com