Isaac. A Brief Intro.

I have been developing websites and web applications nearly since my family signed up for Internet access in 1997. I came across a simple book about HTML and was amazed how a simple tool like notepad could make a web site with links and images on the world wide web. And so I created a my first website, dedicated to my favorite video game.

In high school I had aspired to be a 3D animator, but in my senior year a friend of mine showed me something called Active Server Pages. Suddenly the web pages I was writing could actually do things. Like talk to databases and send emails. I was hooked. This interactive thing was just to good to pass up as a career.

Luckily one of the schools I was looking at for 3D Animation also happened to have a interactive media program and in and the Fall of 2002 I enrolled and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. AIP was a great experience for me I was given the freedom to explore a variety of new media and deepen my knowledge of areas I was already working in. While there I learned about audio, video and how to better design with an eye for interaction and how to bring it all together with programing to make it truly impacting. School also offered up opportunities for freelance work and internships which first introduced me to the professional field.

After graduation I join a interactive marketing firm on Pittsburgh's north shore where I learned to deepen my skills and hone them on real world problems of design and programing. Additionally my skill set grew to include many different server and clients side development techniques, including valid and semantic X/HTML and CSS, Flash, .Net technologies and Javascript / AJAX.

In fall of 2008 I decided that I could expand my skill set and experience by delving into a related but significantly different occupational field, video game development. I joined a firm in Pittsburgh's south side where I have been learning many new techniques and approaches, both technically and philosophically, to interactive media, story, and entertainment.

Today I continue to pursue new and better ways of producing great user experiences online and off.

Skills and Technologies

Sever Side Languages

  • ASP.NET
  • APS Classic
  • PHP
  • some Python and JAVA

Client Side Languages

  • HTML / XHTML
  • CSS
  • Javascript
  • AJAX Techiniques and Frameworks (YUI, Prototype, ...)
  • Flash Actionscript 2.0/3.0

Data Languages and Tools

  • XML
  • SQL
  • MS SQL
  • MySQL
  • MS Access
  • Some familiarity with nHibernate

Applications (heavily used)

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Flash
  • Adobe Flex Builder
  • Adobe Dreamweaver (code view)
  • MDM Zinc
  • MS Visual Studio .NET/2005/2008
  • MS Office

Applications (lightly used)

  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe Primer Pro
  • Adobe Audition
  • Adobe Director
  • Adobe Fireworks
  • Apple Final Cut
  • Apple QuickTime
  • Digidesign Pro Tools

Version Control

  • SubVersion
  • Some experince with Git and SourceSafe

Operating Systems

  • Windows
  • Linux (mostly debian based environments)
  • OS X