Amyellen's Web Portfolio

Quote:  "I've never met a deadline I couldn't meet."

Greetings!

Welcome to my Web Portfolio.  Here I hope to demonstrate a number of my skills including:

Pixel Artist Web Designer Writer Graphic Designer Video Editor Animator

I am "bi-platformal!" I have 15 years experience on IBM PC's and 10 years experience on the Macintosh.  I also have UNIX experience.

A great deal of my commercial work cannot be used in my portfolio because the items were created for the U.S. Marine Corps (in fact, I no longer have access to any files I do not show here).  I was a civilian contractor creating models, animation and art for web-based instructional software.  Because virtually all of what I did was considered "sensitive," I am not allowed to use it anywhere outside the Marine Corps.

Despite this, I managed to put together a few Flash items that were allowed, along with a small number of 3D pieces.  I have added a number of other things I have done, including CD covers, logo designs and layouts.

There is a large representation throughout this portfolio of original artwork, done because I enjoy it.  I am a Pixel Artist; I paint with a mouse in Photoshop.

The programs I use, and have used, for development, design and creation include (but are not limited to):

Over the years I have completed a wide array of projects, including:

 

Link to YouTube:  A video created by me with virtually no software (except Sony Vegas Movie Studio) or equipment:

Just Another Free Energy Messiah?

My career thus far has taken me many places, and often I have done pro bono work for friends and needy acquaintances.

My long-term goal is to become a Game Designer.  (I have ideas, indeed I do! – see "Letter to Game Companies" below)  In the meantime, I am hoping to gain a foothold in the CG industry in any capacity.  The movie industry is another option, as I have worked with and enjoyed editing footage, syncing sound, and so on.  And I have a knack for animation.  In fact, most any position offering me a creative outlet would be perfect.

If you would like to add me to your team, I welcome your email.  Thank you for taking the time to review what I offer.

--Amyellen

Letter to Game Companies

Dear Game Company:

In my life, I have scored off the scales in two (that I know of) very crucial tests.  Let me tell you about them, if I may.

The first one took place when I was helping out a Psych major in college by going through, as a test subject, some intelligence tests a course she was taking required that she give.  One test had red and white cubes along with pictures of red and white patterns.  The idea of the test was to recreate the pattern in the picture with the cubes.  She flipped through cards, timing my work, and I flipped cubes.

When the test was over, she said to me, “I don’t know how to score this.”

I asked, “Why not?”

“Well,” she explained, “The shortest time on the chart is two minutes and thirty seconds.  You did it in one minute and fifteen seconds.”

I was taken aback.  Half the shortest expected time to complete?  She went on as I processed this, “I guess I’ll just put you down as the highest and leave it at that.”

I had no idea at the time what being really good at flipping colored cubes meant about me, but I surely felt it meant there was something I was especially good at.

Years later, when I was working for the State of Nevada, I was being trained to administer a skills assessment test to at-risk youth, a test we called “Gatbee” which stood for General Aptitude Test Battery:  GATB.

We were required, as part of the training, to take the GATB ourselves so that we could better understand what the youth we would administer the test to were experiencing.  I took the various sections of the GATB, having to read things and answer questions about what I read in one section, do math problems in another, and so on.

One section was called “Spatial Perception.”  Drawings of figures and other drawings of possible orientations, cubes splayed out, stuff like that.  I answered as many questions as I could in the few minutes the section lasted.

The results of the test came back and I scored reasonably – 98th percentile or above in all except one section – but in Spatial Perception…  Well, to understand where I scored, you need to know the scale of the test – which I know because my training included how to interpret the scores, using my own results.

If you get a score of 100, you are in the 50th percentile.  You are average.  If you score 130, you are in the 99th percentile.  I scored 159.

So why do I tell you all this? you may ask.  I tell you this because, as a prospective Game Designer, I think it’s important to put forth the evidence of my capabilities in that capacity (and what’s more handy for that than seeing the whole and the parts – from all angles – in one’s head?).  That job is my goal, and I come questing with ideas in mind, and the hope of working with others and seeing what worlds we might build.  I want to be a member of a cyberpantheon!

[grin]

Years ago I read a science fiction story and was captivated by the possibilities it brought up.  I thought it would make a marvelous game – if only games had good graphics and real-time interaction.  At the time, the old text-based Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was the awe of the die-hard gamer, and I was envisioning something that today’s consoles and computers deliver.

I was so captivated by this story that I kept the images and functionality of such a game in the back of my mind.  When I got an X-Box and played the games designed for it I knew the technology had caught up with what I could see in my head.

I contacted the author of the story.  He wrote back explaining that licensing and other related concerns needed to be addressed to his attorney, and he gave me the name and address.  I wrote the attorney, explaining that I was a sole designer with no company to back me up, but that I wanted to design a game around the story in question.

I suspect that, because I was one individual with no corps of programmers or legal department, I was not taken seriously.  I did not hear back from the attorney.

So I am trying to hook up with a company that will give my dream a sound basis in reality.  Yes, I have written to a wide array of gaming companies, and will continue to do so until one opens the door to my knock.

I have other game ideas, as well, of course.  I have mapped functions to controllers, I have envisioned levels, I have developed stories of my own and seen how they would play.  I have been trying to get into the industry for a very long time and have taken jobs that taught me skills such as Photoshop and 3D Studio Max used in creating games.  I am struggling to learn C++ in a course on video game design and development.  I have read article after article on Gamasutra and other game development-related sites on what needs to be done to create a game, on keeping game assets under control.  I understand what programming can and cannot accomplish.  I’m a pretty good writer.

And I want to see my ideas realized.  The question is, who will take me up on the challenge?  Who will benefit from my ideas?  Who will work with me and give me the programming and legal support needed to bring my dreams into reality?

Please don’t shy away from the fact that my experience in the industry is seemingly so limited; I have educated myself as well as one can without the actual hands-on experience, and know that I have something very good to offer.

I am prepared to devote myself to the company that gives me a break.  As I said before, I want to work with a creative team to fully flesh out my ideas, to add other creative elements to the backbones I have to offer.  I am prepared to share the wealth.

So this is what I propose…  You take a chance on me, and I will do my damnedest to build worlds we all can be proud of.

Failing a position as Game Designer, perhaps I could fill some area less risky – I do have work that displays my skills as a digital artist:  I have my web portfolio.  I have anecdotes of being told to slow down or “we will run out of work.”  And I have some pretty decent scores, for whatever value you might think they’re worth.

I place the ball in your court and await your play.  [grin]

Thank you for your time and consideration!

--Amyellen

If You're Still With Me…

Having stumbled down the crumbling steps of my humility, you earn the truth.  It is your reward for your intrepid journey.

I am indeed that most fabled of beings, the Game Writer.  But, what?  You have never heard the lore of the Game Writer?  You know not what nearly unique status you have in finding me?

Ah, a Game Writer is one who can spin the elements into adventure, capable of writing the details of that adventure in ways that even the exalted Programmer will see the path clearly!  (S)he can build the images in the eyes of the Artists so that they can glorify the path.  (S)he can file, retrieve, and manipulate data as bits of faery upon the fingertips.

Worlds (s)he can construct, globes of adventure, and then hone the myriad choices into the pocket size universe that can be both programmed and anticipated.

A Game Writer is a Situational Analyst/Developer with the skills to communicate in all directions - in writing (with verbal coming in a close second).

"Game Writer" is not a job description; it the aspect of godhood that is most manifest.

So I honor you, o bold one, and offer my awesome skills; I offer to become a Cybergod in your pantheon!

(That being said, I'm certain that there will be plenty I can learn.  For after all, the nature of life is to learn - oh, and I learn so well!  Truly, it will be fun for all!)

…And If You Care.

It's hard for me to discuss my genius.  I am humble, as a rule, but it is something that is not immediately apparent and it is quite crucial to my goal.

What being a genius in spatial perception seems to be, or be related to, is the ability to see processes - be they applied to game play or game development.  I can see the worlds I might develop as they unfold, from the player's perspective, building a strong empathy and sense for what is enjoyable and what is not, and I can see from all other points of view as well.

I can see the brainstorming, writing, designing, graphics, programming, and peripheral support as they flow from a spark in an initial mind, bringing sparks in other minds to add to the richness.  I can see the interconnected web of communication that grows from the beam that is transmitted, the initial goal met of the scaffold having been built.  As well, I can see the revisions and hurdles, met and surpassed, as the product matures and then the focus comes back to the gleaming beam that is the Game.

I can place myself in any of the points within the process.  (Though I can code, I also must debug…a lot.  I have the logic of the process but I struggle with syntax, so a programmer I am not.  LOL!)

With what I do know about the components of game development, I can also see deeper still.  I have had my hands on 3D software and have learned the processes of modeling, texturing and animating in 3D; I have had my hands on 2D software and learned the processes of painting in pixels and vectors; I have had my hands on office software and have supported corporate function through communication, presentation and advertising.

And I have had a bazillion hours playing games of all kinds.  And analyzing them.  (My father was a gambling mathematician (amongst other things) who never bet more than the minimum and only played blackjack when he did.  He was most fascinated by the probabilities of the game and passed on his analytical bent to me.  The analysis is part of the game!)

And since my Quest is to design games, I reveal my genius.  It is the only card I hold that might trump all others who are leaping before you with seemingly high hands.  I don't have an Industry Experience card to play - yet.