I have always been an artist. In my family, among my friends, in my bands, in my schools, whenever someone wanted a picture made, I was always happy to oblige. When I found out (in 1982) that my brother’s computer company, Online Computer Systems and their sister company, Metamedia were looking for an artist as a guinea pig to develop a graphics system, I jumped at the chance, asking me what an artist would want in a virtual tool set.
 
That was fulfilling but they needed graphics sooner than their home grown system could deliver so they turned to NYIT and their Images II system. Trouble is, they hadn’t written the manual for it yet. Never one to give up, I hunkered down with it for a few months and learned how it worked. Soon, I was the only one in the area who new how it worked so I was being loaned out to other private and some government agencies to train their artists.
 
This was a very rich environment for a fledging computer graphics artist to learn about the digital tools as they were being developed around me. I soon fell in love with 3D animation. It had everything I hoped for, modeling my own characters, setting my own scenes and rendering my finished animation, all inside the computer.
 
In 1990, I my interests pulled me to a more commercial job at Capitol Video and Cap Disc where I first got hold of the Video Toaster and, more importantly, it’s bundled software, Lightwave 3D and immediately began a love affair with that software that has lasted to this day.
 
In 1995, EMM (Ehren’s Motion and Music) gave me a chance to do the 3D and video compositing on a couple of commercials. I put together a system in my house and soon was able to start my own company, which I ran successfully for years making 3D animation, special effects, compositing and video editing for TV commercials and TV shows on Discovery, TLC, HGTV and others.
 
This led to a stint at Brainbox in 2005 in Silver Spring, where I developed a taste for the 9 to 5 world. I liked having someone else worry about the marketing, taxes and health insurance and 2009 found me working full time at Windwalker Corp. in VA making training and eLearning software for Government and private agencies. Not as exciting as TV but rewarding and regular. 

 

Four and a half years later I am moving on, ready to do my most challenging and rewarding work. We'll see what the next stage of my career has to offer.