One of my most beloved projects during my time as a programmer. I was still in school at TSTC when I made this application as part of my special topics class. The whole premise of the assignment was to create whatever I wanted using C# with oledb and mssql integration. I figured the most fun thing for me to do was to make a simple video game. My professor was skeptical when I presented my idea to him, but after convincing him it was going to be amazing, he gave me the go ahead. The game's core mechanics are very simple, all the user has to do is click on a specific object to generate a currency, then spend that currency to reduce the effort needed to generate more of that currency. I decided the theme of the game would be necromancy, because it is a game afterall, and who wouldn't want to raise a massive horde of undead and demons to conquer the world?
The most notable of my achievements as a designer are the series of reports I had done for my Advanced Social Media class at Texas State. These were designed in photoshop to turn boring old analytical data into a more visually appealing format for general social media use. In the same realm, I created a fictional brand complete with style sheet and Instagram advertisements using similar methods.
Despite being a certified software developer, I still think of myself as more of a creative type of person. I learned how to do photoshop in high school and havent stopped making really weird pictures and making things that I find to be interesting or appealing. I have mostly just made things that classify as memes. I only included a couple of the 30+ pictures, but I went through a phase where I photoshopped Nicolas Cage onto various people/things.
More Art
Commissions
I don't always make these pictures for myself. I've made a couple of things for other people just for the fun of it. Occasionally I'll use my skills to touch up pictures for people who feel like spicing up their vacation photos. The most fun I have in photoshop is when I'm making things for other people. I like to see how happy they are when I help them with their vision.
Music
In progress
Ever since I was 8 years old, I've been playing around with sounds and instruments. A few years ago I decided that I should learn how to produce, mix, and master songs, so I went off and trained myself with the help of the internet. To practice my new skills, and to test the limits of my ability, I made a few songs and ended up with an ep of 4 of the most complete ones. I've been wanting to explore music more since then, but have never had the time to sit down and work on a project. I have published the ep through a licensing agency called Distro Kid, so all those songs are on spotify and itunes under the name Mafo.
Click on the above picture or here to view my songs on Youtube.
Research Project
Product Development
Bestiez was a group project for my Digital Media Innovation Capstone course where we followed the Stanford School Design Thinking Process 6 step model to develop a product of our choosing. We settled on creating an app that people from the lbgtq+ community can use to find friends.
Click Here or on the picture to check out the prototype app I made for this project.
Additionally, I created a separate product/app that was a precursor to the Bestiez project. Click here to view Bird Brain.
Websites
Web Development
I've worked on a considerable amount of websites including the one you're on now. Most of them no one has really seen, but they exist. A couple that I'm willing to let be seen are both "final" projects for school (and the one you are currently on). The first is Simp4Joel, which was a website made using wordpress to cheer my friend up. The second was made for my DMI Capstone course in accordance with the research project that myself and a couple group members were involved in. Both are listed below.
Video production was a major part of my college education. Being able to convert an idea or concept into a consumable form of media is an important skill for a creative type. Since creating videos is a lengthy and arduous process, all of my portfolio samples are projects from various college classes. I'm most proud of the animated one, which was all drawn in photoshop by hand (or mouse, rather). I didn't have to make an animation for that project, but did anyway because I've always admired animation. It was one of the most difficult projects that I had in college.
Lifelong Student
There is always more to learn
Even though I may not go back to computer programming, the wisdom I've aquired from my time as a software developer, both during my time as a student and as an employee, has given me so much additional insight to the way everything works. I hope to always be gathering life experiences and intellectual knowlege as I continue my journey to wherever I'm headed.
