I have a unique history of experience as I worked in Chicago doing graphic design and building websites back in '96 - '00 which then transitioned into working in Hollywood creating Visual Effects (VFX). While VFX may be art in it's final form, it's created with an insane level of technical know-how and experience.
During my 14 years in that industry, I taught myself how to write software. It all started slowly with 1-2 line scripts that would loop through a lot of objects in my scenes and change something. Once I realized how powerful it was, I jumped head first into it. I then started creating in-house pipeline tools to help optimize the flow at various studios I worked at. My drive and desire to get better kept growing. This for me, naturally led into jumping full-time into developing iOS apps as soon as Apple released the App Store. I've been a full-time developer ever since.
Favorite quote of all time:
The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it. - Jordan Belfort
Yes, that Belfort. Judgement aside, I LOVE that mentality.
Leadership
I've lead teams of up to 55 people on incredibly high stress projects with budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I love leading teams but I also love putting headphones on and just getting dirty day to day.
Technical background
I've been in one CTO type position or another since 2006 which has given me a very broad level of tech understanding in general. It's one of those things that you really have to put effort into to stay on top of all the new trends... because lets face it, this industry progresses fast
Visual Effects background
My background in VFX really taught me a level of understanding of graphics in general that helps with way more than I thought it would with Software Development. This stuff comes up almost every single day it seems.
Here are some awards I've won.
Skills:
Swift
8/10. This is my main weapon of choice these days. Pure love for this language.
Obj-C
7/10. I used to think a language couldn't get any better. I was proven wrong with Swift.
Kotlin
5/10. This one is much newer to me, however because it's so close to Swift, it comes fairly natural.
Javascript
6/10. I mostly use this for Node.js projects. I know it well enough :)
Python
6/10. Python was the language that pulled me away from the movie industry. Not a pro, but I know this one fairly well.
C++
4/10. C++ was the language that taught me all about object oriented programming. I figured if I knew this one I could code anything. Haven't really touched it since moving onto Obj-C.
Photoshop
10/10. Master of photoshop. Spent 18 or so years mastering it in my previous life.
Affinity *
8/10. Affinity (competitor to Adobe) has taken my heart. They make brilliant tools and I love them for it.
Sketch
9/10. I do almost all of my mobile work in Sketch... not because it's better than photoshop. But because the entire industry uses it these days. Great tool.
3D Software and Compositing
10/10. I'd be a bit rusty these days but I know most 3D tools extremely well. I also did almost all of my comping in Nuke.
