01
I started out thinking I was going to be a 3D modeling and texturing artist.
That was the plan. I studied it, I cared a whole lot about it, and I spent a ton of time trying to get better at it. My core focus was character and environment work.
02
Then came the reality check... It was a tough a$$ industry. And still is.
I worked freelance on anything I could get a hold of and tried to hang on and keep the momentum. Some jobs were pretty fun. However, the career I had envisioned just didn't pan out at all. Not even gonna lie, even today I still wish I could do more of it lol!
That said, running into a wall so many times isn't fruitful. I eventually had to just move on. It genuinely felt like failure.
03
Looking back, I think I was learning something else at the same time.
I kept getting interested in the process. I liked building little tools. I made Maya and Python scripts and workflow helpers because I hated doing the same annoying thing over and over. I liked figuring out how to make the work move faster and make more sense. That was hella fun!
The tinkerer in me was already there, slowly building into something else.
04
Then I ended up in live production, and that changed a lot.
AfterBuzz was messy and fast and full of shows that had to happen whether or not everything was ready. There were cameras, audio, switching, streaming, computers, files every-damn-where, graphics, hosts, producers, and a bunch of random problems that always seemed to show up right when they were least helpful.
I don't know why, but I deal with stressors of work like that well. So I kind of thrived in that type of messy environment for a while.
ABTV was a pretty cool place and I met a lot of cool people. But holy-guacamole!!! That company was way more obsessed with quantity over quality and pretty much everyone who worked there got burnt right down to their keester. Not sure where my opinion lies on that still...
05
Like I said, I can thrive in a messy environment... But I prolly shouldn't state it that way. More like a difficult landscape that just requires a lot of different people and knowledge-sets.
When someone needs a file, something isn't routed right, the audio's weird, the stream needs to go live, the host needs help, the producer needs an answer, and the computer is doing something stupid for reasons known only to the gods, then you realize you wasted a bunch of time when you just needed to turn it off and on again.
I kind of vibed in that landscape.
06
From there, my career got harder to explain, but it also got more honest. I worked on digital shows, live streams, red carpets, telethons, award shows, sports packages, promos, branded content, original projects, editing, streaming, technical direction, studio support, and a lot of jobs where the title never really covered what the day was asking for.
Sometimes I was making something. Sometimes I was fixing something. Sometimes I was helping someone else make or fix something. A lot of the time, I was just flying by the seat of my pants... legitimately like every other person around me.
It was kinda fun. You know, till you needed some semblance of stability and sanity.
07
I didn't have a clean path nor a perfect job. I had freelance stretches, overlapping work, underpaid work, fun work, exhausting work, and a lot of years where I was trying to figure out what all of it was adding up to.
Moving back to Nashville changed things so much. LA had more of the kind of production work I understood, but it was hard to sustain. I genuinely don't understand how anyone makes it out there without having good safety net. I sold everything to move out there. Sometimes I still wonder if it was really worth it.
The thing is... Nashville gave me more room to build a life, buy a house, have a kid, and breathe a little. Professionally, it has been harder to figure out, but I am still here trying to live life.
08
So this is not really a timeline.
Not really sure what it is. I've written too many about me items over the years. And to be honest, I hate the over-polished nonsense I always had to spew in order to look picture-perfect for some dipsh...person. Who, let's be honest, could care so little about me.
I came from 3D animation and freelance work. Then moved into live studios, and live events, digital media, editing, streaming, technical direction, production support, workflow building, and a lot of situations where the job was basically, “Can you figure this 'ish out?”
Most of the time, I could. And I've truly enjoyed a lot of the journey.
Even so... I'm still figuring out what's happening, learning the foundational elements, and finding my own path through valleys and mountains.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
A practical snapshot of the tools, systems, and workflows I use across post-production, live production, 3D, and technical media work.