01
The Original Plan
I started out thinking I was going to be a 3D animation person.
That was the plan. I studied it, I cared about it, and I spent a lot of time trying to get better at it. I liked modeling, animation, rigging, rendering, all of it.
Messy Path
Professional Context
A less-clean version of how I got here.
02
The Reality Check
I also learned pretty quickly that it was a hard world to break into. I did freelance work. I sent things out. I tried to get bites. Some jobs came through, but the big 3D career I thought I was chasing never really happened.
For a while, that felt like failure.
03
The Process Brain
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 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 part stuck with me.
04
The Live Production Turn
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, graphics, hosts, producers, and a bunch of random problems that always seemed to show up right when they were least helpful.
That place taught me how production actually works.
Not the clean version. The real version.
05
The Real Version
The version where someone needs a file, something is not routed right, the audio is 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 God and maybe one driver update from 2014.
That kind of work made sense to me.
06
The Middle Space
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 did not really cover 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 trying to understand the room and keep the thing moving.
That is probably the part of my background I trust most.
07
The Life Shift
I did not have a clean path. I did not walk out of school into the 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 too. LA had more of the kind of production work I understood, but it was hard to sustain. 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 make the pieces fit.
08
The Current Version
So this is not really a timeline.
It is just the professional version of how I got here.
I came from 3D animation, freelance work, live studios, digital media, editing, streaming, technical direction, production support, workflow building, and a lot of situations where the job was basically, “Can you figure this out?”
Most of the time, I could.
That is still the part I like. Figuring out what is happening, finding the pieces, and helping make the thing work.
Loadout Menu
Software & Systems
A practical skill loadout across post, live production, 3D, code, and gaming.
Motion, Edit & Post
- Premiere Pro LVL 10
- After Effects LVL 10
- Photoshop LVL 10
- Illustrator LVL 7
- Audition LVL 10
- FL Studio LVL 8
Live Production & Systems
- OBS LVL 10
- Networking LVL 7
- IT / Systems Knowledge LVL 7
- Data-Driven Workflows LVL 8
3D & Interactive
- Autodesk Maya LVL 8
- Substance Painter LVL 6
- Substance Designer LVL 6
- Unreal Engine LVL 8
- Blender LVL 5
- 3D Printing / Fabrication LVL 8
Code & Tinkering
- Visual Studio Code LVL 8
- Codex LVL 8
- Vibe Coding LVL 9
- Programming LVL 5
Gaming
- Minecraft LVL 8
- Valheim LVL 7
- Forza LVL 6
ABOUT
Start Here
I’m at the point in life where I have accepted a few things about myself.
I like making things. I like playing Minecraft. I like spending time with my wife. I like being a dad. I like a good board game night, even though getting one together with a young kid in the house is basically a side quest with scheduling mechanics.
Peace
I have been around a bit. I have worked a lot, made a lot, tried a lot, and lived through enough weird chapters to know that peace is underrated.
These days, I am less interested in chasing chaos and more interested in building a good life, making good work, and keeping things as sane as possible.
Games + Music
I grew up on games, music, and the kind of creative hobbies that quietly take over your personality. Halo over GameSpy. Age of Empires. Warcraft. Baldur’s Gate. Old Sega Genesis games with music that somehow still lives in my head.
Later, I wrote songs, made albums, played with sounds, and accidentally gave myself a pretty useful education in audio by caring about it way too much for a very long time.
Brain Tabs
I still like making things, but I am more honest now about what that does to my brain. Creating is fun, but it is not always relaxing.
Sometimes it feels like my mind has twelve browser tabs open, three of them are playing music, one is trying to solve my future, and another one is asking if I should redesign something nobody asked me to redesign. Catch me with forty tabs open, almost out of RAM, and fully in the brain-fuzz.
The Work Part
The job part of being a creative person is the strangest part. There is a lot of effort in applying, presenting, formatting, explaining, reframing, optimizing, and sending pieces of yourself into a void to be filtered by systems you never get to see.
It can make every opportunity feel like a performance of identity instead of a conversation between people. That part wears on me.
Digging Holes
Some days, the idea of digging a hole sounds kind of peaceful. Not forever. Just for the clarity of it.
You start with ground. You do the work. At the end, there is a hole. Nobody needs a personal brand statement for the hole.
Still Here
But I am still here, still making things, still trying, still putting one foot in front of the next.
I did not put this much effort into a life, a career, a family, and this weird little website for no reason.
The Point
I like thoughtful people. I like funny people. I like people who can care about something without turning it into a war. I like work that feels useful, creative, and grounded. I like projects with a little personality.
I like making something better than it was before, then logging off if my brain will allow it.
Current Build
That is probably the most honest version of me right now.
I am a poppa bear, a maker, a gamer, a former music kid, a board game person, and a guy trying to build a calmer life without turning off the part of me that still wants to make cool stuff.
So here’s to keeping one foot in front of the next, and remembering that for me, the journey is the destination.
