This Neverending

For those with limited time, if you just want to see some sample work, below are some examples of my scientific work.

Scientific Work

• Skull - Anterior

• Skull - 3/4

• Skeleton - Anterior

• Skeleton - Posterior

• Skeletal Chest - Profile

• Skeletal Chest - Front

• GlySpec Introduction Video

• Molecular Dynamics Simulation Tutorial Video

• Carbohydrate Builder GUI with animated GIF in the lower right

In the interest of showing my video editing and animation skills, here are some non-science related work as well.

Non-Scientific Video Work

• Rockwell Horror Picture - Motion Graphics in After Effects and Audition

• Senior Thesis Animation - Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush, AfterEffects, Audition, Premiere

• Senior Thesis Animatic - Photoshop, Audition, Premiere

Professional Background

School and Partner Software

Today I want to take the time to talk about my professional history. I got my first degree, an Associates in CIS (basically a degree that qualifies one to be a support professional) at Athens Technical college. At the time, all I knew was that I needed to stop doing massage therapy because my wrists were experiencing more and more pain, and I wanted to pursue my interest in "computers." I still did not have a well defined understanding of how broad a statement that was, but that was my mindset at the time. I did manage to land a job as a programmer at a mapping company, and spent several years cutting my technical teeth programming and training mapping specialists how to integrate datasets into their maps. I was eventually promoted to Head of Certification due to my comfort explaining complex concepts to non-experts.

GGDA

I also had a deep interest in how computers could be used to extend what I was capable of doing with art. This all came together by inspiring me to take part in a local Athens chapter of the Georgia Game Developers Association (GGDA).

At first I attended as a Sound Designer, because I had over a decade of time invested into recording my music at home. This led to some amazing experiences and friendships. I got to do the foley and sound design for multiple weekend game jams.

RMCAD and Cogent Education

This inspired me to attend the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (RMCAD) and major in 3D Animation. While I was studying this I attended the right game jam and was recruited as a programming intern at Cogent Education. In that role I got to assemble simulations that demonstrated complex scientific concepts such as Photosynthesis, Dialysis, and Concentration Gradients inside the Unity game development engine.

CCRC at UGA

As it was only an internship, and the grant funding for that position ran out, I did need to move on to new opportunities. I found one at UGA's Complex Carbohydrate Research Center. I was again hired for my programming experience, this time specifically for Python in the context of web development. The Woods group was modernizing their Django website at the time and needed someone to manage this work so scientists could focus on more scientifically relevant code.

Even though at the time I still didn't really understand how websites worked, I was happy to learn, and did well enough that I was promoted to Senior Web Developer. I owned full responsibility for the website, including generating assets to build the pages and the graphical user interfaces (GUI).

This meant that I had the privilege of building 2D and 3D assets and using these on the website. I actually automated integration into 3D Modeling services on our server to generate data-driven 3D models of complex carbohydrates. Some of our tools would allow building simulations of carbohydrates in complex with proteins. For some instructional animated videos I was able to use these 3D models along with text to generate tutorials and introduction videos explaining how the algorithms were making decisions behind the scenes.

We used our own software to build the 3D models based on logic that I did not build, but rather interfaced with. The output of that software is in Protein Data Bank (PDB) format, which is a fixed-width text file that lists atoms and their properties. These are analogous to an Object file in animation. These were the models.

I would load a model into VMD (open source molecular viewing software), chose an appropriate representation for the molecule or system, and then render out any images I needed as PNG files. I would then use GIMP to remove backgrounds or add in highlighting as needed. I then used Adobe After Effects and Premiere to handle motion graphics, animation, and scene editing. I would also use Audition to handle voice overdubbing when that was desired.

Alternatively, I would sometimes create GIFs in Photoshop if the illustration and movements were simple enough.

I also spent a good deal of time and effort generating 2D assets for things like 2DSNFG symbology so carbohydrate scientists could recognize molecules at a glance without needing 3D images or long text-based sequences as labels. To keep these responsive, and to remain compatible with the open-source tools used by these scientists, the icons were built in Inkscape.

Publications

The website did well enough that we received recognition in the form of 2 scientific publications in which I am listed as a coauthor for the work I did on these interfaces. The Journal Nature Methods https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12247649/, and the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jcim.5c02282.