Joel's Resume | |
File Size: | 170 kb |
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I was born and raised in Knoxville, TN. Starting very young I was in band throughout middle school playing the trumpet my first year and a half and then being one of the only 4 trumpet players to earn the chance to switch to french horn. At 16 I bought my first guitar (Yamaha) and a $50 CRATE amp to practice on. Not knowing that in just a short 6-7 years later I'd be lead guitar in an all original band named SouLLacE in Huntsville, AL.
Let's not jump too far ahead though. At 17, I came to understand my girlfriend, now wife, was pregnant. Big reality check at 17. Sadly more and more of these cases are spreading. However, at this point I didn't have a degree. Didn't even start college yet. I joined the Army to do what was necessary to provide for my soon to be family.
January 4th 2006 I was at my first day of basic training in Fort Jackson (Relaxin' Jackson they say), SC. It was cold... Very cold but the heat that filled the air when drill sergeants were in your face, so close you could smell their breakfast, was almost welcome just to stay warm.
After basic training I was stationed/assigned to Fort Myer, VA (MDW) in which I worked at the Old Post Chapel/ Arlington National Cemetery being responsible for coordinating funerals, overseeing the funerals, aiding family members, etc. In just a year I was the lead coordinator for the Arlington National Cemetery Easter Sunrise Service which had over 3,500 in attendance and was televised by CNN, and FOX as well as local cable.
November 2009 my volunteering for deployment to Iraq/Afghanistan was accepted and in December 2009 I deployed to Iraq assigned as a bodyguard to one of the few Catholic Priests in theater (Combat). My responsibility was to serve as the protector of the Chaplain (who did not carry weapons) and ensure his safety as well as coordinate his travel (We traveled on average 4-5 times a week by Air/Land convoy). December 2010 I returned to my family and was ready to look towards my future and what I wanted to do with my life.
I chose a degree in Game Design. Having played games my entire life (since I was 3) I felt there's nothing I know more, and nothing I dislike about games. One of my favorite things about games is that they incorporate everything that life does. Things like happiness, fear, anger, dread, anticipation, vulnerability, control, no control... Things that even movies can't fully make a viewer feel.
Starting multiple projects from a blank 3D Space I've come to love seeing platforms turn into worlds, shapes turn to characters, cheap textures turn into environments... It excites me to see things take form as the snowball continues to roll.
During college we were required to (after 2 years of non game classes) work in the Unreal Development Kit and Microsoft Visual Studio. It took some getting used to, I must say. Learning, and remembering, hot keys, shortcuts, grid sizes (16 units is a foot!), functions, events, importing/exporting... You get the drift. However, in all of the things going on... I found out we, as students, could download Autodesk products for free. I jumped on it immediately, however I didn't work in Maya/3DS immediately. I took to their online support, watched some tutorials on navigation, learned how to export/import, and those sorts of things. I know, you're thinking "Amateurs," but we have to start somewhere right?
After I started to understand, and become more comfortable in, UDK I started to dive into creating meshes within Maya. I knew how to navigate and manipulate simple shapes so I started making simple objects like poker cards or the famous pokeball. I continued to hone my skills within Maya over the next 8 months to a year to eventually become the lead 3D modeler on the project Marble Gaiden.
I hope you've enjoyed my story, and I hope you've come to a stronger understand of who I am as a person and a designer. I love creating, collaborating, and seeing small ideas turn into full blown masterpieces. For the Marble Gaiden project I was lead level designer, lead 3D modeler, lead texture/material creator, music composer on all tracks in the game, and sound engineer for all gameplay sounds within the game.
*Skills*
UE3
UE4
MSVS (Microsoft Visual Studio)
Autodesk 3Ds
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Mudbox
GIMP/Photoshop
Unreal Cascade
Javascript
C++
Unreal FrontEnd
*Skills*
~Cheers~
Let's not jump too far ahead though. At 17, I came to understand my girlfriend, now wife, was pregnant. Big reality check at 17. Sadly more and more of these cases are spreading. However, at this point I didn't have a degree. Didn't even start college yet. I joined the Army to do what was necessary to provide for my soon to be family.
January 4th 2006 I was at my first day of basic training in Fort Jackson (Relaxin' Jackson they say), SC. It was cold... Very cold but the heat that filled the air when drill sergeants were in your face, so close you could smell their breakfast, was almost welcome just to stay warm.
After basic training I was stationed/assigned to Fort Myer, VA (MDW) in which I worked at the Old Post Chapel/ Arlington National Cemetery being responsible for coordinating funerals, overseeing the funerals, aiding family members, etc. In just a year I was the lead coordinator for the Arlington National Cemetery Easter Sunrise Service which had over 3,500 in attendance and was televised by CNN, and FOX as well as local cable.
November 2009 my volunteering for deployment to Iraq/Afghanistan was accepted and in December 2009 I deployed to Iraq assigned as a bodyguard to one of the few Catholic Priests in theater (Combat). My responsibility was to serve as the protector of the Chaplain (who did not carry weapons) and ensure his safety as well as coordinate his travel (We traveled on average 4-5 times a week by Air/Land convoy). December 2010 I returned to my family and was ready to look towards my future and what I wanted to do with my life.
I chose a degree in Game Design. Having played games my entire life (since I was 3) I felt there's nothing I know more, and nothing I dislike about games. One of my favorite things about games is that they incorporate everything that life does. Things like happiness, fear, anger, dread, anticipation, vulnerability, control, no control... Things that even movies can't fully make a viewer feel.
Starting multiple projects from a blank 3D Space I've come to love seeing platforms turn into worlds, shapes turn to characters, cheap textures turn into environments... It excites me to see things take form as the snowball continues to roll.
During college we were required to (after 2 years of non game classes) work in the Unreal Development Kit and Microsoft Visual Studio. It took some getting used to, I must say. Learning, and remembering, hot keys, shortcuts, grid sizes (16 units is a foot!), functions, events, importing/exporting... You get the drift. However, in all of the things going on... I found out we, as students, could download Autodesk products for free. I jumped on it immediately, however I didn't work in Maya/3DS immediately. I took to their online support, watched some tutorials on navigation, learned how to export/import, and those sorts of things. I know, you're thinking "Amateurs," but we have to start somewhere right?
After I started to understand, and become more comfortable in, UDK I started to dive into creating meshes within Maya. I knew how to navigate and manipulate simple shapes so I started making simple objects like poker cards or the famous pokeball. I continued to hone my skills within Maya over the next 8 months to a year to eventually become the lead 3D modeler on the project Marble Gaiden.
I hope you've enjoyed my story, and I hope you've come to a stronger understand of who I am as a person and a designer. I love creating, collaborating, and seeing small ideas turn into full blown masterpieces. For the Marble Gaiden project I was lead level designer, lead 3D modeler, lead texture/material creator, music composer on all tracks in the game, and sound engineer for all gameplay sounds within the game.
*Skills*
UE3
UE4
MSVS (Microsoft Visual Studio)
Autodesk 3Ds
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Mudbox
GIMP/Photoshop
Unreal Cascade
Javascript
C++
Unreal FrontEnd
*Skills*
~Cheers~