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Selected Experience:
Spectrum HoloByte, Inc.(Major computer game company; Alameda, CA)
Assistant Game Designer, Star Trek -- The Next Generation: A Final Unity
- Created initial specifications for player interface and functionality for U.S.S. Enterprise Navigation, Tactical, and Ship's Computer modules, and worked with software engineers and artists to produce final versions. Researched astronomical background for game universe and ship's navigation system.
- Scanned, sized, corrected, and converted to game format, all 2D background art for game. Set standards for scanning and for art to be scanned, and devised scan repeatability techniques.
- Edited and expanded Ship's Computer data base from cartridge game format.
- Provided reference materials and information on Star Trek to other team members.
- Devised methods, forms, and computer files for screen design, prior to creation of in-house screen design tool. Instructed team members in use of world editing tool.
- Helped create, with story team, game background and story lines, and general look of game.
- Documented game flow and game design process.
- Created preliminary masks for game testing, some concept art, and PostScript Klingon alphabet.
- Software used: Photoshop, Freehand, Word, DeBabelizer, HyperCard, MacFlow, MacDraw II, Fontographer, Infini-D, DeluxePaint II, and various in-house tools.
Schlumberger Palo Alto Research
(Basic research division of large corporation; Palo Alto, CA)
Member of Technical Staff
- Managed the Electronic Measurement Lab, a collection of test and measurement equipment for use by any of the design or technical staff.
- Mastered operation of Cadnetix CDX-5000 PC/CAD system at all levels, with training at Cadnetix's Boulder, CO facility. Produced large 4-layer board, going from designer's pencil schematic to loaded and tested boards. Installed upgrades, maintained system documents, and assisted other Cadnetix users with design problems
- Produced small wire-wrap and hard-wire circuit boards, and small mechanical parts, for design prototypes. Did troubleshooting and repair of circuit boards. Designed and built mechanical portion of Virtual Reality Goggles. Set up and equipped numerically-controlled milling machine.
- Produced schematics, mechanical drawings, and technical diagrams.
- Advised design staff members on interface for Virtual Reality system. Negotiated special exemption of my VR work from company ownership.
Hawley Laboratories
(Contract product design & development lab; Berkeley, CA)
Special Projects Manager
- Assisted Owner Jack Hawley in all phases of design and prototyping, including design concepts, drawings and schematics, machine tool operation, circuit board fabrication, assembly, and testing. Projects included instrument systems for oil well logging and the first digital-output versions of computer mice (for Xerox PARC).
- Purchased, configured, and customized lab's three S-100 bus computers. Wrote programs in FORTH, BASIC, and 8080 machine code. Set up word processing and spreadsheet applications.
- Maintained lab's instruments and tools. Wrote specifications, procedures, and press releases.
Northwind Technical Services
(My own art and design business; Albany, CA)
Owner
- Designed and built "Space Probe of Extraterrestrial Origin" with message analogous to the Pioneer Space Probe plaque, and explanation of message, for National Air & Space Museum, Washington, DC. (Part of the Life in the Universe Hall. "Certainly the best part of the exhibit, and the one requiring the greatest imagination to develop..." -- Spaceflight Magazine)
- Designed and built various other scale models including: spaceship (Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch educational filmstrip division, San Francisco); proposed computer technology (Sun Microsystems, Mountain View); alien cities (Dimensions night club, San Jose); alien warriors, weapons, spaceships, etc. (Voyage Productions, Hollywood).
- Did pen and ink drawings for publication covers and interiors, for: Off-Centaur Publications, Owlswick Press, NESFA Press, The Chaosium, Isaac Asimov's Science-Fiction Magazine, and others. Did T-shirt transfer art for Mach III. Did computer art and graphics for Missing Lynx Productions, Unlikely Publications, etc.
- Created hundreds of drawings, paintings, sculptures, and computer graphics (including computer fonts) for private individuals and for sale at science-fiction convention art shows.
- Installed one-man exhibitions of my sculpture and drawings at Dream Masters Gallery (Los Angeles, CA; 1979) and at Earthlight Gallery (Boston, MA; 1980).
- Designed and produced the bases for the 2002 Hugo awards for achievement in science fiction and fantasy.
Education:
- B.F.A., California Institute of the Arts; Valencia, CA
Former Affiliations:
- ASFA (Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists)- BMUG (Berkeley Microprocessor Users Group)
- YLEM (artists using technology)
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