If you would like to contact me, then, as you can see, please feel free. I only ask that if your interest is in DigiPen, then please check out my About DigiPen page instead. Please note that this biography was written in spring 2001.
Adam Morrell is Blatant Boy
Self Portrait: "Hey"
Adam Nevins is Spoon Boy
High School (fall '92-spring '96): Jake Mitchell, you've been there from the beginning. Thanks man.
I am originally from Anaheim, Southern California, a city based out of Orange County. Anaheim is the city of the Angels, the Mighty Ducks, Disneyland, and the "new" Disney California Adventure. I graduated from Southern California Christian High School, in the city of Orange. The school is now deceased. =^(
While in High School, I made varsity in Cross Country, Soccer, and Track. I was never the top person in any sport by any means, but I did contribute greatly and worked hard and always winning the awards for putting in the effort like "Most Improved", "Never Give Up", and "Never Say Die". Josh Cowan, thanks for letting our D Group use your house this year!
Academically I was always improving. My accomplishments include a 4.0 GPA through high school (straight A's), doing professional tutoring for other students, making the "Who's Who Among High School Students", being in the National Honor Society, and taking the highest available level of classes (Physics, PreCal, Spanish 4, etc.).
Ken Stansbury Rocks!
Let me go, you dirty ape!
Justin Key is Sarcasmo
Early Work & Disneyland (fall '95 -early '99):
I originally spent random amounts of time working for my dad. He ran his Cornerstone Construction and A-Z Escrow companies. I then moved on and, starting my senior year in high school, spent over three years working in Disneyland Restaurants (November '95 through January '99). In those restaurants I started doing fast food at Tomorrowland Terrace, and did everything including running a cashier, waiting tables, bussing tables, hosting, cooking, setting up and counting out cash register funds, washing dishes, cleaning, stocking, shipping and receiving, managing other employees, teaching classes on Disney business structure, giving tours of Disneyland to new Disney employees, and training newly hired employees. I decided to stay in the restaurant division of Disneyland due to the better opportunities I had (most people don't like to work with food so the turnover rate in restaurants is significantly larger).
Greg Joines is Mr. DVS
Self Portrait: "Aaah"
Jim Joines is Action Man
Fullerton College (fall '96-spring '98):
I attended Fullerton College for two years after graduating from high school. When graduating from high school, I decided to pursue my dream and make videogames. However, I wasn't sure how to go about it, so I contacted DigiPen and applied to get into the art department. Obviously, having no previous art training or interest, I was not accepted. However, this great guy who calls himself Raymond Yan (the head of the art department) did happen to tell me to take basic drawing, life drawing, and anatomical figure drawing classes. Dan McDowell is the Big Danny Mac
So I enrolled at Fullerton and spent two years there taking art classes: Basic Drawing, Life Drawing 1 & 2, Drawing From The Masters, Anatomical Figure Drawing, Cartooning, Basic Visual Design, 2D Computer Graphics (where I first used Photoshop), and 3D Computer Graphics (using 3D packages like Swivel and Strata). I also had very little previous experience with computers (I took a high school typing class, but that's it), and I knew that the only two main ways to make videogames is through art and programming. So I also learned about computers and computer science, taking these classes: Windows 95, Computer Information Systems, QBasic, and C ++. (Around this time I familiarized myself with newfangled ideas like e-mail, using an Operating System, and The Internet.) Not knowing if I was going to be able to get into DigiPen, I pursued my General Education, taking other various classes: Interpersonal Communication, Anthropology, Geology, Geology Lab class, Algebra, Philosophy, and US History. Let's see. That's 20 classes over 4 semesters with an average of 5 classes per semester. That's what I'm doing now at DigiPen. I received mostly A's here, which is the first thing DigiPen noticed...
Spencer Piro, thanks for being there for me!
Me and my roommate Nick drawing the male orangutan.
Ryan Merriefield, it's great hanging with you
Volunteer Work @ First Baptist Church of Anaheim (fall '96-summer '98):
When I started going to college, I also started doing something else. I've been a Christian and active in my youth group for the majority of my life. Because of that I've had random opportunities to do things like go down into Mexico and give food, clothes, help, and time to orphanages and poor families. But when in fall '96 the two people who had been working with the previous youth pastor at my church, Terri Coffin and Ryan Low, moved up and asked me to come in and help them run their ministry at First Baptist Church of Anaheim. So I spent two years there and started working with Ryan, Terri, and Perry Lytton (a nice lad whom I knew in my childhood and revisited that friendship through our volunteer work). We continued on and were joined by Dan Sawvel (a friend of mine whom I met in high school and brought to the church; he's now in the Air Force), Sean Gresch when he graduated the next year (he's now in the army), and I managed to talk my sister Naomi into joining us as well. I also introduced a friend from Fullerton College to the group, Daniel Frabotta. (Now Perry, Naomi, and Daniel were joined by new youth leadership Tom, Justin, and Alicia, and they are continuing our work. Terri is a stewardess flying around somewhere and Ryan Low moved on to an Evangelism ministry at Yorba Linda Friends Church, which is also where his wife Alyssa works.) I guess I mention all these people because the work I did with these friends is what made me into who I am today. My sister Naomi is my best friend.
Without going too far in depth, I'm just going to say that this was the best working environment I've ever witnessed. The reason is that we had a young high school and junior high staff (all of us were still in college) and although we hadn't been too close to each other earlier, there was definitely a lot of potential. We all became very close, spending time with each other in both work and play (almost the same thing here). This is where I learned the importance of teamwork and how effective a group is when they put faith into each other
Among the duties I shared there, I helped organize and lead groups of students on mission trips and conferences, including visits to the Orange County Rescue Missions, where we served food to the homeless, and put together boxes and bags of food and clothing for those who needed them. Thanks to Nick Trahan for his help with my demo stuff
Mike Larson, you think too much
Self Portrait: "Ooooh"
Luciano, thanks for learning our language, cuz I wasn't about to learn no Portugueze
DigiPen Institute of Technology (fall '98-spring 2001/Present): Hey to SCC formers Riley Marquis and Dan Sawvel!
After spending those two years at Fullerton College, I was finally accepted into DigiPen the third year I applied, only I was accepted into the programming department (DigiPen was in a transition period from moving from Vancouver to Redmond, and the art course arrived a year after the programming course did). And so I entered into the Science in Real Time Interactive Simulations Program at DigiPen Institute of Technology and was accepted because I am an academic student (which means I learn well and do well with tests and homework when I'm being taught). For one year I worked hard in the computer science department taking high end math, programming, and computer hardware classes. Because of this I know exactly what programmers go through. It's not easy crunching numbers, logistics, and algorithms. But for me, my imagination was being limited due to the time and brain cells needed to devote to code.
Here's the breakdown of art course classes: Stephen Schwitters, I love saying your last name. Schwitters.
Semester 1:
ART 100: Drawing Fundamentals I Andy Shepard, thanks for plugging in, I've been waiting for you to do it for years
This was a basic drawing class where we learned stuff like drawing objects, coloring objects, some character design, and drawing things in perspective. This was my second basic drawing class.
ANI 100: Animation - Theory & Techniques I Brandon Schock, Ash dies at the end of Pokemon, the Movie
This was a traditional 2D animation course. We had a bunch of simple animation assignments and animated them with a pencil, paper, and light board, shooting each frame with a digital camera of sorts, so we could see the animation play out on a computer.
ANI 110: Project Management Greg, any friend of Jake's is a friend of mine.
In this class we got into teams and worked on a simple 3D project together. Travis, Josh, and I did the animatics for a commercial for a military game, Domestic Rapid Deployment Force.
CG 100: 3D Computer Animation Production I
This is where we learned 3D Studio Max. Dan Simpson is Big Daddy
ENG 100: Creative Writing Carrie Palmer and Sarah Devoe, the only girls that "do that again. now do it backwards"
This was a fun class where we learned how to write through various wacky assignments. This was also great preparation for writing our scripts for our storyboards which became our projects.
PRJ 100: Animation Production I Anna Fenno is Wander Woman
In this class we had a bunch of small projects to help us learn the 3D software quickly. I did my mechanical demo of a Pez dispenser. My name logo animation was of a bowling alley where the pins are replaced by the letters of my name.
Semester 2:
ART 150: Drawing Fundamentals II Rob, thanks for showing me Quarters, good times.
This was partially life drawing. (My third life drawing class.) We also studied storyboards and character design.
ANI 150: Animation - Theory & Techniques II Katelyn Munson, poopy, hehe
This was my second 2D animation class. Most of the animations seen at the end of my Dis Appointment project were done in this class.
ANI 160: Sound Design for Animation Nicole Munson, These are spirit fingers. And these are worth their weight in gold.
Strangely enough we weren't taught how to create our own music and sound effects. This class was pretty much learning about what sounds good, the history and academics of music, and deciding what would sound best in our projects, so we could describe the information to the guys doing the sound for our projects.
FLM 100: Cinematography Brad Abrams, remember that time?
This was an interesting class where we learned the terminology and gained hand on experience using cameras and lights in a studio setting.
CG 150: Digital Graphics Tools Terrence Nevins, thanks for being my second family
The first quarter of this class is dedicated to creating textures in Photoshop. The second quarter is devoted to developing the technical knowledge to put together your own ultimate PC. Plus we get to "ooo" and "aaah" over the latest X-Box graphics.
PRJ 150: Animation Production II Brian Key, thanks for being my other second family
The assignment here is to come up with a one minute 3D animation (now reduced to 30 seconds). My project was Dis Appointment, starring Eliphaz, as he awaits the wrath of Leviathon.
Semester 3:
ART 200: Drawing Fundamentals III
This was supposed to involve animal and life drawing. The majority of this class was dedicated to life drawing (this is where I did all my hand, feet, and portrait drawings). We did go to the zoo occasionally though! (Thus my animal life drawings.)
ART 210: Art Appreciation Ken Larsen, When ever someone's in pain, you're there
We stare at art and appreciate it in this class. Well, kind of. We went through the history of art in one shotgun semester, taking a look at clips of art on the projector. This class was shared with first semester programmers and third semester artists. To get an idea that's about 120 programmers and about nine artists.
FLM 200: Visual Language & Film Analysis Steve Allen, You've got the passion for the Glory
This was a great class where we watched and studied movies, critiquing them afterwards.
CG 200: 3D Computer Animation Production II Jeff Neal, how's Texas?
This is where we learned Maya. My Good Knight character was modeled and created in this class.
ENG 200: Literature
PRJ 200: Animation Production III Paul Price, dad, thanks for helping me out in my time of need!
We worked on another 3D project where I began my Bartholomew Bear animation (titled "Hive & Go Seek").
Semester 4:
ART 250: Drawing Fundamentals IV Janet Price, mom, thanks for loving me in my time of need!
The class was half life drawing (my fifth and latest life drawing class) where I worked on my human gestures, and half character design (working on Leviathon, Bartholomew Bear, witches, and Good Knight).
ANI 200: Acting for Animation Ted Price, big brother, I love you man
In this class we learned a brief history of acting, studied the essence of acting, critiqued movies, acted out in four plays and animated a 3D skeleton to the three witches scene in Macbeth.
ANI 250: Industry Preparation
Hmm. We prepared for the industry by working on our website (this thing), where I learned Dreamweaver, some html, and continued in my knowledge of Flash. We also had "mock interviews" where we practiced out a professional interview. Plus we looked at X-Box graphics.
FLM 250: Post Production
This was a great class where we learned AfterFX and Premiere (editing software). I used this to put together my demo reel and to create the "Welcome to Ed Price's website" avi that you get when click on "welcome" on the front page of this site.
CG 250: Graphics for Games & Internet Grammy, I love the joy in your heart. Why would my grandmother be on the internet?
An interesting class divided in thirds, we spent the first third working on learning website stuff (Dreamweaver and Flash). The second third was devoted to doing GameBoy graphics (I converted Bartholomew into a 2D version for this). The third, um, third was utilized with some more Maya experience, where I put together SaluteMan, and converted Good Knight, Bartholomew, and SaluteMan into the Realtime Wild Tangent web browser.
PRJ 250: Animation Production IV Dusty Steere, the mathmagician
I continued work on "Hive & Go Seek" with Bartholomew Bear and the Bee Afraid Boys (the bees) and I worked on Leviathon, implementing him into "Dis Appointment" with Eliphaz.
And that's my DigiPen experience in nutshell. What's it doing in a nutshell anyway?
Christina Steere, you've got your way with those girls!
Me holding my classmate Chris as hostage. This image is hidden in a videogame.
Travis Steiner, thanks for thinking of me
Volunteer Work @ Crossroads Bible Church (fall '98-spring 2001/Present):
Not wasting too much time after moving up here (in Washington), I found Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue, Washington, I found a ministry there, and I immediately plugged in. Doing pretty much the same thing that I did in California, Glen Schaumloeffel and Steve Allen are the high school directors that I've had the privilege to work under. In this new environment I also have been honored to work with great fellow staff members like Terrence Nevins, Tamara Abrams, Mike Short, Christina Steere, Gordon Roberts, Dawn Wilson, Dusty Steere, Kristen Falkenberg, Matt Chapman, Rose Dias, Sherb Heath, Amy Chapman, Jill Gough, Ken Larson, and Brad Abrams (among others). At this new church I've continued the work I've done at my previous job to "put my mind and heart" into what I do. Of course I've continued to work in missions including helping lead a team to prepare and serve food at the Seattle Union Gospel Mission and joining a few staff to lead a group of students to do maintenance and counseling for a Native American Camp in Canada (Rocknest Ranch). Heather Morse, take care of Travis! Heather is Charlie's Angel.
Putting my heart into it means always being there for these students, always helping when the need is there, driving when the need exists, organizing and supervising and implementing events and meetings and retreats, teaching to the group when the opportunity is there, and leading a weekly discipleship group (of 11 great guys now) that involves social aspects (fellowship), accountability, counseling, Bible study, and prayer. (To these guys my job is to be their friend, their leader, their counselor, their authority, their father, their teacher, and their brother. The trick is to be all these things at the same time and to never really act different or "two-faced". Of course we (the staff) works hard at this, but we occasionally make mistakes.)
Putting my mind into it is the part where I get to be creative and to use the thing that got me interested in videogames in the first place: my imagination. That means I get to invent, use, or customize games and skits that involve upwards of 60 to 150 high school and/or junior high students. These games and skits take place within the confines of a packed room (you really have to be inventive with limitations like those), in a gym, at a park, or at a campsite. (If you are in the situation where you need to lead small or large groups in an original game, go ahead and e-mail me because this is obviously a lot of fun for me.) All those things I started doing when in California, but there is one thing that I began doing up here and have developed as well. That is doing video announcements. Just like the skits, these are used as an icebreaker (they're funny) and to relate to current events/announcements. So basically I recruit high school students to act, use the video camera (be the cinematographer), help come up with ideas (scriptwriter), and to edit the videos. Of course, since I've been cranking one 5-10 minute video out almost every week for about a year, I've been the cinematographer and editor countless times, and I'm always the director, main writer, and an actor.
Anna Simmons, the winner of all games
Here's a riddle: What do you get when you scan an Ed?
Daniel Peeples' ingenious idea: Scan our faces and put the printouts on our classroom window so tours can have a laugh.
Nintendo of America (summer 1999)
After one year in the programming course at DigiPen, I took a job at Nintendo for the summer, playing, er, testing video games. My two main projects during this time included the New Tetris on the N64. Proof 1: Apparently, Tetris on the GB and NES only go up to 999 lines, I got that on the Game Boy version and went up to over a million points (the score keeps going up though the lines stop). That particular game lasted about two and a half hours. Proof 2: Enter 2Fast4U as your name in the one player mode (this code has already been released; I'm not violating my non disclosure agreement) and the speed increase is about 13 times faster than the regular speed. I've played The New Tetris for two hours and seven minutes. That speed is almost twice as fast as the top speed on the NES and GB game (now you understand how going on forever in the GB version was no problem). Proof 3: In the credits, the game was tested by "Bill JJ Kinks and the Shampoo Daddies". That was my team. One of the New Tetris songs sounds like it's saying the words "shampoo daddy". Plus Episode 1 just came out and Bill JJ Kinks stands for Kill Jar Jar Binks. Proof 4: If you push the long straight white block to the right of your screen you'll notice you can't turn it. Unfixed bug.
My second major project was Starcraft 64. I did a lot of text fixes on that game, in addition to some audio write-ups. Other random projects I worked a little on include Jet Force Gemini and Lode Runner 3D (LR3D was done by guys now at NST). During my work there, I found a lot of bugs and was able to visit the NOA Treehouse on multiple occasions, getting stills and video of gameplay for commercials and box art for both Starcraft 64 and The New Tetris.
Jamie Waggoner, keep smiling and bring your brother to church!
This is me with my friends Lisa and Daniel. I heard that they were going out.
They usually double date with Ryan and Britney Duffin.
Some doubt that Ryan and Britney are married. Haven't you seen the photograph?
Edmark (summer 2000)
In summer 2000 I had the opportunity to work at Edmark as an art intern. Edmark is an award winning company (recently acquired by Riverdeep) that specializes in educational software sold to families and elementary schools. During that internship I did web design for the Edmark homepage and the NECC page. I used Director, Flash, Quark, and Photoshop to create art and animations for Millie Fair Share, eCarton, and the EdConnect dowloadable modules. It was quite a pleasure to spend my summer working with the artists there.
The Lisa picture was at E3 2000, I went with Daniel Frabotta, Jeff Kress, and Ryan Trowbridge
I win.
This was E3 1999. I went with Daniel F. and Travis Steiner.
Family:
My dad eventually moved on from AZ Escrow and Cornerstone Professionals, developed a partnership (Robert), and founded the successful Precise Grade (grading is a specific part of construction where large tractors level out the streets and landscape, getting rid of the excess dirt). My mom works at a library. She's done just about everything in one library or another, working her way up from a page. My sister (one year four months nine days older than me) is going to graduate from college at the same time I am (roughly), going on to get her teaching credentials, so she can be an elementary school teacher. (She's crazy. She's worked at Chuck E. Cheese's, Disneyland, Washington Mutual bank, Knott's Berry Farm, and now works for a law firm. That doesn't mention any of her music or club activities. My brother is the exact same. I think my family is where I get my busy=content mode. Look, the other parentheses: ) My brother (one year four months nine days older than my sister) is married, in the army and pursuing his masters in business arts (building off of his music degree as a french hornist at Eastman School of Music).
M. Arakawa and Alex St. John spoke at my DigiPen graduation. That was quite inspirational.
