My First Blog

So this should be the first of many blogs, I hope. I've known about this portion of the site for a while but haven't really had anything to say. Perhaps I should start with a little about myself. I grew up all over the OC in southern California. The longest I stayed in one house growing up was 7 years in Anaheim. I moved to Tempe, AZ in '94 to go to ASU with a major in architecture. After dropping out I went to work at an industrial design shop where I would work as a model maker and machinist in the model shop. During that time I went to the University of Advancing Technology and earned a degree in Multimedia. Somewhere shortly there after I started to make maps for Halo Custom Edition on the PC. After gaining the attention of the community and Bungie, I started to feel that this is what I want to do from now on. In the early winter of '06, I was asked to participate in a survey group for Halo 2 Vista, led by Ske7ch Factor and Shishka. After a few months Bungie decided to give the members a leg up. They desperately needed help to finish the fight in the form of contracted 3D artists. Being that they had a group of experienced Halo Custom Edition map makers, they opened up the job application process to us. After a long application and testing process, myself and another were offered jobs. These were to be nine month contracts and my wife and I decided this was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities. So I packed my things, made the 1500 mile drive to Kirkland, WA, and rented a tiny 400sqft studio while my wife stayed home in AZ. We flew back and forth every two to three weels for the entire time. I was hiree number three of what would become twelve. We made everything from crates, to doors, to equipment, etc., etc. More to come on that in future blogs. After 5 months or so myself and two others were given promotions from 3D Artist to Environment Artist. We were no longer making objects but doing prime time map work. Painting textures, modelling terraing, and lighting became my daily routine. Along with our promotions came an extension of our contracts from 9 months to 11 months. Yeah!!! So, I worked at this for a number of months and it was decided that my work was good enough to stay on full time. They had me do a 4 hour interview and they made me an offer a week later. Painfully, I turned it down. After a very long and painful weekend of yelling, crying, and making up, I realized that I loved my wife and my life with her too much to end it in pursuit of this dream. June 29th, 2007 was my last day at Bungie and I'm back in AZ anxiously awaiting the game I helped create. I have accumulated quite a library of screenshots of my work. It is my intention to reveal these works on this blog following the release of Halo 3. I hope you will all come back to enjoy the fruits of my labor. See you soon!