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I've always been endlessly fascinated by how computers work, and how I can get them to do or create what I want. Be this through programming, editing film, audio or any other type of digital art. There are very few jobs in the fields of 3D animation, film making, and programming that I haven't seriously dabbled in, learned about, and practiced my hand at after 15 years of joyful tinkering. I like to be something of a jack of all trades.
My BA is in Computer Science from Denison University with a minor in Communication, and my Associates is in 3D Animation from Washtenaw Community College. In developing this breadth of skills, I ended up taking a combined 60 credit-hours of art classes, which I believe is more than most colleges require for an art major. My hope is to find a job where I can continue my work in multiple fields.
For two years I was a Game Designer for The Michigan Cyber Range at Merit Networks where I worked on two projects, including Griffinville, a project for the Michigan National Guard. In 2017 I spent a large portion of my time re-creating 26 multi-story buildings which make up CACTF (they combined arms combat training facility) at Fort Grayling, MI. I created a complete retexturing/reconstruction of the facility from original construction CAD 3D blueprint. This project was shown to the current Governor of Michigan, and several multi-star generals at The North American International Cyber Summit 2017.
For about a year I developed web apps with my best friend from college in our spare time. Through this work I gained a solid footing in both front-and-back-end web development, and a deep understanding of its best practices and theory. I've also been working on an extended animation project on and off for my associate degree since early 2015.
I'm the type of person who watches technical tutorials for fun, and actively looks forward to reading the release notes on open source software. Normally I won't start a large project unless it requires me to pick-up new software of some kind, this is the stuff I do for fun. :)
I look forward forward to gaining more work experience– being anything from continued computer game development, car AI, machine learning, application scripting/programming, 3D modeling, life drawing, character animation, or film production.
Feel free to email me at colin@colinleet.com with any questions, or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Education
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Freelance Game Developer |
November 2019 - Current |
Currently I'm working as a freelance game developer. My first major multi-month project was for Neaton Mathematics creating a Unity version of their math education platform called NumberDNA. I ported their web page version of the platform to Unity by making a entirely new codebase written in C#, while focusing on making the level design table-driven: allowing levels to be quickly made.
When between paying projects I like to do volunteer freelance projects as well, especially open source projects.
Let me know if you're looking for a talented Unity programmer, or 3D generalist -- who can work part-to-full-time remotely with flexible scheduling. My part-time work as the primary caregiver for my immunocompromised mother with cancer is my top priority, and prevents me from working onsite positions at this time due to preventative Covid-19 isolation to keep her safe. Fortunatly it does leave me with a lots of freetime to freelance.
Primary Caregiver For Cancer Patient |
October 2019 - Current |
I'm the primary caregiver for my mother as she goes through cancer treatments this year. She is doing quite well and is close to remission, but will need to go through more intensive treatments in the months ahead (after the coronavirus shutdown has ended). Because of this I'm limited to remote freelanceing work at this time, as my mother is slightly immunocompromised; and after her final intensive treatment will be heavily so for several months.
Game Designer/Developer Created Griffinville & Alphaville |
March 2016 - May 2018 |
For 27 months I was a Game Designer/Developer at Merit Network making two projects.
Alphaville was a 36 sq km island with roads. It's a full city-wide car simulator: which I intended (but wasn't used) as an automotive AI development/testing platform-and=a/vr=video-game. Primarily it was intended to be used as a setting/visualizer for virtual machines which recreate the computer network of a minor town, where hacks on the virtualized network are mirrored in the 3D world.
Griffinville was created for the Michigan National Guard. It's a game level copying they combined arms combat training facility at Fort Grayling, MI. It consists of 60 PBR textures on 5,000 objects, networked: intractable physics, weather, for Oculus (VR) and first person shooter (FPS) interfaces.
Internship for Denison Religious Understanding |
September 2012 - May 2013 |
I led Denison Religious Understanding at The Open House at Denison University, a student group that discussed inter-religious, political, cultural, and moral topics and concerns through dialogues. Learned about various religious and spiritual ideologies and how to approach talking about them in an open and respectful manner (for four years beyond this internship as well). I engaged frequently with fellow students in conversations and dialogues becoming experienced in conflict resolution. For the 2012-2013 I headed weekly planning sessions for future dialogues, managing their publicity, quality, along with setting up several weekend retreats every semester. I also managed, planned, and cooked weekly meals for the student body participating in these dialogues. Scheduled meetings and worked with other leaders to generate topic ideas. Additional I coordinated enjoyable student programs such as professor speeches.
Internship at Affordable Computers |
June 2011 - August 2011 |
Fixed used hardware for bulk resale, including inspection, cleaning and imaging: laser printers, desktops, laptops. Along with taking inventory.
Game Programmer for Project Rising Pheonix |
July 2019 - Current |
I'm currently developing AI and the targeting system for game's NPCs in Unreal Engine, using Blueprints, C++, and EQS (Environmental Query System). Project Rising Pheonix is a 3rd-Person-MOBA similar to Paragon. It's a small indie studio made out of volunteers developing all around the world.
Web App Development |
Fall 2014 - 2015 |
I developed distributed
web/mobile-apps with my best friend from college in our spare time. I
mentored my friend in software development for months through daily
code critiques between classes, and in the evenings I would add on
code of my own. This work gave me a solid footing in both
front-and-back-end web development, a deep understanding of its best
practices and theory, and of life in a small start-up environment
which I grew to love. Our main project was a geographic polling and
question/answer mapping web-app called Percept. We finished a
prototype of it in early 2015 before abandoning the concept.
The Shape's Race |
September-December 2013, Winter/Spring 2015, Continuing on and off |
An extended 6-7 minute thesis animation for my animation associates was an outgrowth of a project to make simple geometric shapes into emotional, physical creatures I started in 2013. I'm using this as a capstone project to help me fill out and polish my skills as a 3D generalist. I am doing all of the work for this project.
College Game Development |
Fall 2012 - August 2013 |
I designed several video games using Unity for a 400-level undergraduate Game Design course. These were programmed in JS within Unity Game Engine. I developed all of the artistic assets used in both games from scratch before I started my Associates in 3D Animation. The summer after the class ended I updated two of these games for public release.
DAFT - Student Animation Workshop |
Crabs (2008), Hue (2009) |
Twice I was involved with Digital Arts Film and Television's Student Animation Workshop where I spent several weekends per semester creating animations. Both times I ended up spending multiple months extending these projects far beyond their originally intended scope resulting in two animations which gathered numerous awards.
Acting & Theater Work |
2007 - 2010 |
Acted in four plays (Scapino, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Moon Over Buffalo, and Pride and Prejudice). I also performed technical work (set construction and painting, designed lighting, sound, filmed backdrops) for 5 other productions as well with Community Ensemble Theater.
OS(s): Windows, Mac, Linux, Android
For me there is something intrinsically magical about being far removed from humanity. I imagined this space being a remote village far and away from the sprawl of civilization; with the sound I tried to imagine what tree spirits would experience -- as the village is destroyed, and then rebuilt through-out the piece. The tree spirits from Princess Mononoke were in large part my inspiration for this piece.
Created in Logic Pro
Computer Science BA from Denison University
I used these Unity packages extensively through 27 months of
professional game development making Alphaville and
Griffinville.
I've used and tried out many others as well.