About me
I was born in Leicestershire and have lived there ever since with my family. Being 17, I still live at home but spend a lot of time at my brother's house, who is 26, as we get along surprisingly well considering the age gap. I've always thought the age gap was the actual reason that we get on so well, as we weren't in each others hair when we were younger and have grown to enjoy each other's company, usually just playing video games or watching our favorite shows.
I come from a family that gets along well with each other, and I'm a self confessed 'mummy's boy' as I get on with my parents very well, which is unusual for most teenagers, apparently.
From a young age, I enjoyed computers. Though at the age of around 9, it was purely video-game related. As I grew up, I began appreciating the work that went into web sites and games, and became interested in making my own.
The first thing that I got into was game modding. I bought a game from a garden centre, Battlezone II, for 50p. Its still one of my favorite games to this day. This is the game that I began modding, and made an entire new race of aliens with their own ships, buildings and weapons, as well as maps for the community to play on. Unfortunately, the mod never got past alpha as, being young, I didn't back up any of the assets, and a hard drive failure resulted in the loss of the mod. I've made a few models since then, aimed at the same idea as before, but I've never got past the UV mapping stage due to being so busy with college work. Its rather disappointing, and many of the members of the bz2 community were sad to hear of the end of the mod.
That being said, I'm still a pretty active member of the community and help others out who are striving to create their own mods, be with model related, artwork, or more on the programming side, such as how the ships handle, effects that spawn from the weapon shells etc.
It was actually Flash animation that nudged me into the realm of web design. Flash captivated me since the first time I saw a movie online. Now I'm a regular visitor to newgrounds and I am still stricken by the sheer quality of some of the work that the authors there pump out. They make it look so easy! I've never really got into the movie side of Flash, but I'd love to be able to work on that aspect some day. For now, I've stuck to interfaces for web sites, such as introduction pages, navigation sections or galleries. I'm proud of what I can do, considering I'm completely self-taught.
I've always loved music, and play the guitar (although I'll openly admit that I'm not the best at it.) Taking music at GCSE, and music tech at AS and A2 level has given me extensive knowledge of how music works, and I can appreciate the work put into it. In my spare time during the holidays, I sequenced some of my favorite songs from video game sound tracks, and submitted them to newgrounds. I was rather surprised at how high they scored, as I had completed them as a hobby rather than serious work. These submissions can be found on the portfolio page, under the audio works section.
As of September 2010, I am employed as an apprentice at the Zenos IT Academy. My course finishes in February, and so far, I have gained two internationally recognized vendor qualifications; the CompTIA A+ and the CompTIA N+ certifications. The A+ was part of the course, but I studied during my own time to gain the N+. This means that I am a qualified IT Technician, as well as a network technician. The last vendor qualification I have to achieve from the course is part of the MCITP; Windows 7 Desktop Support. I feel that the work I am putting in at Zenos, right now, will give me a huge head start in the IT industry and lead to an excellent career.
The other qualifications I will gain from Zenos are as follows:
- Level 3 Diploma in ICT Systems and Principles
- Level 3 Diploma in Professional Competence
- Level 2 Award in Employability and Professional Development
- Level 2 Key skills in Application of Number and Communication - (Proxied via GCSEs)
Well, that's pretty much it, I'm fairly certain that there's no need to show what I look like (though I am in several pictures on the portfolio page) or describe my personal life!
Thanks for reading.