This simple portfolio represents only a fraction of my work experience, so if you have any questions about my abilities or my accomplishments, please do not hesitate to ask.
Everything here is currently divided into two sections:
The Web sites below represent a decent mix of my software development, visual arts, and writing work, but if there is anything in particular that you would like to see, please do let me know. I have a lot of work samples that are not currently posted and I have been integrating a lot of smaller projects into a suite of Web tools, so I do have plenty more to show.
<http://www.brianbystarlight.com/>
Brian by Starlight is my personal journal (or "blog" if you prefer). It is a casual chronicle of my observations and thoughts about both my personal life and issues of public concern. It also serves as a development and testing site for my content-management software, PageDrive, demonstrating that PageDrive is not only for large-scale publishing operations—simple blogs can use it too.
My elegantly simple main personal Web site formerly featured my personal journal, my résumé, and my portfolio, but I have spun my journal off into its own site, Brian by Starlight, and I am planning to move my résumé and my portfolio to their own site as well, leaving this site in place as a hub and point of contact.
This site features both a default style sheet and an alternate style sheet for easy reading (Firefox and other modern browsers provide menus for alternate style sheet selection), a printing style sheet (use print preview to see how it reformats the pages for printing), and programmatic page-generation via PHP. It previously employed a JavaScript work-around for Internet Explorer PNG image compatibility, but since Internet Explorer 7 includes much-improved support for PNG and I prefer to support Internet standards and avoid browser-specific work-arounds, I removed it. Some Apache trickery may remain here and there, but at least some of it moved with my journal to Brian by Starlight.
<http://www.calendarworks.com/>
My calendar site serves as an outlet for some of my original artwork and graphic designs, which vary from classic simple elegance to modern to just going nuts with Photoshop and Illustrator. Some calendars have also featured original artwork by artist G. Scott Heckenlively as well as some nice, but non-exclusive images such as NASA photography.
CalendarWorks also features its own portfolio section, so if you are looking for examples of my visual arts work, make sure to check that out too. And while you're looking at CalendarWorks, remember to check out the front page for my newest calendars, which are offered there before being added to the portfolio section.
ColorFX, Inc. is a printing company in Glendale, California. I was the primary developer of its new Web site, implementing visual designs and functionality requests and combining provided HTML, Flash content, and images with original PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (including AJAX)—first as a regular employee of WebEnertia then later as an independent contractor to WebEnertia. Customers can use the new site to do such things as check shipping rates, place and pay for orders, add and manage contact records, upload files, and view their order histories.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company. The private administration system (not accessible via any public URL) developer was Valod Amirkhanian, WebEnertia's Programming Director and the other partner in the company. Additional Web production was performed by Naro Vartanian.
I am aware that attempting to validate the HTML and CSS at the ColorFX Web site results in various error and warning messages. While I fixed many of them in the course of my work on the site, I was not the only developer to work on the site and unfortunately, the final invalidity of its HTML and CSS was not my decision to make.
My video game news site has been scaled back into a bit of a minimalist mode (e.g., my discussion forums are no longer posted there), but I do still post news and images from time to time and the site serves as a live testing area for some of my server-side software, such as my article reader software (for example, a recent Game Buzz article provided a sample of a bug or two in Internet Explorer's CSS layout engine, so I can now get to work on a work-around before anyone else uses that version of the software).
<http://www.gravitasgames.com/>
Playing games can be a lot of fun, but so too can be making them. I have been doing a lot of Flash development lately and since I particularly enjoy projects that allow me to combine creative and technical artistry, I have naturally been working on Flash-based games and related projects, so I started Gravitas Games to publish them, starting with my Flash projects then expanding to include other games and game-related projects as well. The site is still new, but it is one of my top project priorities and I am already working on a few new games, so I expect it to grow quickly.
<No Public URL Available>
Nokia Mobile Online is both a Windows application (Flash-based, extended with Zinc, and accompanied by some task-specific helper applications written in C) and an accompanying administration Web site and I was the primary developer of both as well as their intermediate software (written in PHP) and database (MySQL) while employed by WebEnertia. The administration system allows Nokia staff to do such things as post news for the remote application's built-in RSS feed-reader and upload documents for downloading and access via the remote application.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company.
The first release of Nokia Mobile Online was called "Nokia Channel Toolkit"; it was renamed for its second version.
<No Public URL Available>
Pacific Union Kiosk Manager is just what it sounds like—a Web-based administration system for kiosks running in Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate offices—and I was the primary developer of the administration system, the Flash-based kiosk software, and their intermediate software (written in PHP) and database (MySQL) while employed by WebEnertia. The administration system allows Pacific Union staff to do such things as add listings, upload images, and manage user accounts according to role and group permissions. Each kiosk automatically loads the latest information and images for its location on startup.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company.
<http://www.praxisprime.org/>
The Praxis Prime site served as a simple portal for art and entertainment projects. The site was updated only occasionally and it had no content of its own, so I have taken it down, but I may adapt its design for something else.
Years ago, Pixel Press was my Web development company. Now the site serves as a portal to some of my projects, much like the Praxis Prime site. I post there infrequently, but I leave the site up so people can find my projects. Plus, I just like how it looks.
<http://www.videogamelinks.com/>
Aside from my personal Web site, this was my oldest Web site—a hand-edited directory of video game links. The design of the site was simple, but it provided a good example of updating an old site by separating content and presentation (the site originally used a separate HTML page for every page on the site). Recently, a single reader program was used to display all categories and I was planning to refine the data storage format then update the visual style a bit (implementing alternating row colors on the category pages, updating the search results page, etc.), but I just sold the videogamelinks.com domain name and its sibling domain name, comiclinks.com, at the beginning of July, so my portal software is now a low priority. I do still find portal technology interesting, though, so I will probably update my portal software and incorporate it into another project later (hint, hint).
Like PHP and MySQL projects, Flash projects—both as Web components and as desktop applications—make up a large part of my work. Below are both enterprise and entertainment examples.
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I implemented visual designs of Web advertisements for AdMob as animated, partially vectorized Flash media while working as an independent contractor to Multilytics Marketing.
The project manager and visual designer was Eric Hikade of Multilytics Marketing.
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I developed a Flash-based feature viewer for featuring content on an Affymetrix Web site while working as an independent contractor to WebEnertia. The feature viewer loads information about currently featured content from a custom XML file (complete with Document Type Definition), loads the specified images, then displays the loaded information and images as appropriate.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company.
I developed an original Flash-based basketball game for Atom Entertainment's AddictingGames Web site. I created the artwork in Adobe Illustrator CS3 and Adobe Flash CS3 Professional and I programmed the game using ActionScript 2.0.
The producer was Joel Breton, Atom Entertainment's Director of Content for AddictingGames.
I developed a Flash-based product viewer for the Net Optics Web site while employed by WebEnertia. The product viewer loads information about the current product in a custom XML format (complete with Document Type Definition) served via a client-developed ASP program, loads any specified images, then displays the loaded information and images as appropriate. The system is easy to reuse for any number of products.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company.
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Nokia Mobile Online is both a Windows application (Flash-based, extended with Zinc, and accompanied by some task-specific helper applications written in C) and an accompanying administration Web site and I was the primary developer of both as well as their intermediate software (written in PHP) and database (MySQL) while employed by WebEnertia. The Windows application runs from a USB flash-memory drive and allows Nokia sales representatives to do such things as download and access documents and read news via the application's built-in RSS feed-reader wherever they have access to computers with Internet connections.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company.
The first release of Nokia Mobile Online was called "Nokia Channel Toolkit"; it was renamed for its second version.
I developed a Flash-based "news game" for Atom Entertainment's AddictingGames Web site. The game was a conversion of Sorority Panty Raid and also included some assets from Fratboy Unicycle Relay and Fratboy Blind Date Horror, all three of which were developed by Mad Science Industries. I programmed my additions to the game using ActionScript 2.0.
The producer was Joel Breton, Atom Entertainment's Director of Content for AddictingGames.
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I was the primary developer of the Flash-based kiosk software for Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate offices as well as the corresponding Web-based administration system and the intermediate software (written in PHP) and database (MySQL) while employed by WebEnertia. Each kiosk automatically loads the latest information and images for its location on startup then displays them in an animated, attractive manner for Pacific Union customers.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company.
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I was the primary developer of the Flash-based kiosk software for University Village Towers as well as the server-side software that feeds it data (written in PHP) while employed by WebEnertia. The kiosk allows potential residents to view availability information and floorplans, which can be visually manipulated using standard tools.
The project manager and visual designer was Steve Ohanians, WebEnertia's Creative Director and a partner in the company.
