A little back story | The internet has changed the way that we can learn, and at a young age I took advantage of this by creating my own graphic design and 3D self-study programs thanks to the many tutorials that are available. Around the age of 13 I began making my own small modifications and tweaks to the RTS classic "Command & Conquer: Red Alert." Years later, after working on a number of small mods, I founded the total conversion mod An Act of War as a member of the modding studio Derelict Studios (the creators of the extremely popular Blitzkrieg mods). Throughout my four years of high school, I led a team of 10-15 people from around the world in the development of this total conversion, also serving as the lead artist and taking my first steps into 3D design with the free 3D tool gmax. While I started college before my team and I could finish the massive mod, we reached several beta releases that totaled well over 100,000 downloads and we established a reputation for producing professional caliber work in the modding community.

Formal education | In the fall of 2006, I began attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia and majoring in Visual Communication Arts with a concentration in graphic design and I will be graduating in Summer 2011. My freshman year at Liberty University I was offered a student worker position with the Creative Media Office at Liberty, designing content both for the university's web projects as well as their 3D projects. Eventually, my work would consist almost entirely of 3D design, primarily using Cinema 4D. In December 2008, Liberty University hired me on as full-time staff, and placed me in charge of the university's various 3D projects, including Digital/Virtual campus and real-time Google Earth initiatives.

Major projects | Besides the An Act of War modification project, I have been involved in several other high-profile modding projects recently. In November 2007, I began work on a multiplayer map for Massive Entertainment's RTS game World in Conflict, simply titled "Virginia". In February 2008, Massive Entertainment contacted me about making my map, “Virginia”, an official map, available for play on ranked servers. After working closely with the developers at Massive, Virginia was released as official game content in April, 2008. It was the first official map not designed by Massive Entertainment.

In March 2008, I began work on a second map for World in Conflict, set in Hawaii, called “Paradise”. Over 400 hours of total work went into the map, and it features a full 3D custom road system, 3D surround mesh, sky, textures, and even custom 3D props in the form of palm trees and tropical plants. When Massive Entertainment announced a Map Making Contest, I decided to enter Paradise. On July 3rd, 2008, Paradise was awarded the grand prize of $1,000 and two nVidia graphics cards. In a Massive Entertainment news release, representatives said the entry “features some of the best blending of custom graphics, game play design and original artistry seen yet within the World in Conflict Map-Making community. The sheer amount of work behind its creation sets this map apart from all others.”

Click here to read a Liberty Journal article about the map design contest and the award.

In 2010 Josh Klint, the CTO of Leadwerks Software, hired me to design and create a full-featured AAA-game quality level for the Leadwerks 3D Engine. This scene is called "The Zone" and is based off of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in the Ukraine. You can follow the progress on this project on my Leadwerks Blog here: The Zone Blog 01