Mik3D.com
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...to my studio. This studio is not Disney, Pixar nor is it Warner Brothers, but it might be. Mik3D may not be a lot of things, but what it will be is different. Well at least, slightly different.
Mike graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) with a B.F.A. degree in Animation/Interactive Media (with Honors). He is currently employed full-time for UMBC's Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs as their IT, Web and Graphic Design Specialist.
He has always been fascinated with Science Fiction and Fantasy genre. And always has his satellite radio on in the background. It is either tuned to alternative rock, NPR, DC United or the New York Yankees's/Washington National's game. He has considered both, (the stop-motion animator) Ray Harryhausen and "Star Wars" (before it was labeled "A New Hope") as the greatest influences in his career.
All images and animations on this site was created by the artist.
Her name is Berenice. She comes from the imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. I am attempting to bring her alive, or at least the story of Berenice. We are all familiar with many stories from Poe. I chose one that is not too familiar and was written here in Baltimore. Currently, I am working on the animatics for the animation and should have it posted soon.
| Adobe Photoshop | Adobe Illustrator |
| Adobe Acrobat | Adobe InDesign |
| Adobe Edge | Flash |
| Final Cut Pro | After Effects |
| Dreamweaver | Contribute |
| 3D StudioMax | Maya |
| Html | css |
| jQuery Mobile | JavaScript |
This is a small app that I created for the Academic Standards and Policy Administration at UMBC. We have a web page that assists students to resolve academic and non-academic issues quickly. With a quick suggestion, a little planning and a couple of strokes of the keyboard, we created a interactive bridge for our students.
O.K. It was a little more complicated than that, but that is besides the point. The point is, what I bring to the job, is more than my job. I come with a credo; How can I make myself valuable to my position?
June 2012 - Present ~ Updates, designs, and creates new graphics, content and web pages for the Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs (UAA) utilizing applications and languages such as HTML, CSS, PHP, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Flash and MS Office. My secondary position is the role of a multimedia technician where I shoot, edit and compress videos for web streaming for educational presentations. Created a mobile app for the school's annual undergraduate research event; it was a quick list of events. See the link in the interactive section.
May 2014 - Present ~ If you haven't guessed it, this is a part-time position. My duties are basically the same as my duties for the Division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs - I am their web master. The only thing that is different are the goals of our students. Instead of focusing on the freshman class, the Erickson School focuses on the Management of Aging Services, which is really on the other end of the spectrum. I love working with the diversity.
June 2011 - June 2012 ~ Held a student position as web site technician for the the office of Academic Engagement and Transition Programs (AETP) at UMBC. Updated, designed and created new graphics and content for the Office of Academic Engagement and Transition Programs's web site. Created graphics for publicity, such as posters, flyers and local advertisements.
August 1993 - June 2010 ~ Managed a team of draftsmen responsible for reproducing rough draft drawings into professional line drawings. As a Lead Graphic Artist, I prepare layouts for the press/print room, draft line artwork, photograph design ready object and if needed create the said object in 3D.
2011 ~ Assisted Baltimore animator Eric Dyer on his animation "Cover Song". Won the Director's Choice award at the Black Maria Film and Video Festival. Shot images and created faux 3D graphics of spinning manhole covers for the animation.
Created several 3D models used in the independent film "Almost Invisible". My only scene focused on a classroom setting. I worked under the supervision of Bart Robinson Visual Effects Supervisor at DYNAVISION FX.
2008 ~ Berghahn Books, Edited by Douglas A. Vakoch and Albert A. Harrison. Created graphics that illustrates intergalactic communication with potential Extraterrestrial Intelligent life forms.
2004 - 2006 ~ Assisted in creating over 7,500 individual psd files for an interactive DVD of the New King James Version Bible and over 6,000 individual psd files for a second interactive DVD of the New American Bible.
1991 - 1993 ~ Assisted with procurement within the Federal Government and Associates. I held a Top Secret Clearance while working at E-systems; this clearance has lapsed.
1988 - 1990 ~ Maintained E-6 (Slides) processor. Duplicated and color corrected slides to customer request.
1983 - 1988 ~ Supervised all production in the Photo Lab onboard the USS Mt. Whitney. Honorably discharged as a Second Class Petty Officer.
The Fujichoma, the biosymbiotic police vehicle used by the Tokyo police force from the anime movie "Ghost in the Shell". Inspirations for me comes from many sources, mostly from science; both fiction and factual. These images were created using the 3D application such as Maya and Lightwave and graphic packages such as PhotoShop and Illustrator.
UMBC Magazine:
Gray New World
By Dinah Winnick.
While attending UMBC, one of the classes that I enjoyed the most was an AGING class called, Project 2061. The multidisciplinary collaboration of the class appealed to me immensely. Students of many disciplines were gathered to try to re-imagine "Assisted Living" in the year 2061. It had real-world working conditions few students had yet to experience. We had only one criteria; we only could expand on current technology - we could not make up technology to serve a given purpose. Our final presentation was given at a National symposium on Aging held at the Washington D.C. Convention Center. The class was featured in the UMBC Magazine's summer 2012 issue.
New York Yankee's outfielder Brett Gardner needs to check himself. During Saturday's (6/7) game with Cleveland, Gardner, expressing himself with dis-satisfaction with his performance, threw his batting helmet against the dugout wall, ricochetting back and hitting himself square dead-on in his face splitting his bottom lip. Now he needs stiches. That was stupid. He has anger issues that he has to control. Does he realize young ballplayers will see this action and assumes that kind of response is acceptable. C'mon Brett! Be the model that you are suppose to be!
I am digging Wayne Rooney, more and more. There is a reason why he was such the powerhouse when he played with Manchester United. Teamwork. Bottom line, teamwork. Like basketball and hockey, to succeed at soccer you have to be selfless. He is like a chessmaster, he sees the combinations of play several moves before his opponent does. And he utilizes everyone of his teammates to get the ball forward. DC United has moved from the bottom of the leaderboard to the ever since Rooney signed on to play. We were in need for a key veteran like him.
Man City reigns as this years champs. This was a tight one. Liverpool was one point away from first, third place was fifteen away - no threat there. My beloved Man United finished in sixth place, after starting off terribly with a selfish manager taking the lead. He-who-shall-not-be-named, was fired and Ole Gunnar Solskjær was hired and somehow the team came to life! Was it because of the management or was it the players? Or both? The team seemed to have fun when they play the game. Old Trafford should look different this Fall when the team takes the field.
The Caps tried, but failed to take the Stanley Cup two years in a row. They came close. I am still proud of this team. The monkey is off their back and they look like they were having fun while playing. Usually they don't. In fact, at times they look miserable while playing. Well, that is behind them and they are playing like a team should - like a team! Nonetheless, I am still pumped that they still won last year. The Caps have been to the line too many times and fail to win. Not any more. I still love to see the people of D.C. wear red to support their team. Go Caps!
The Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) is an annual event that is held by UMBC to promote the best in undergraduate research that our university has to offer. This year we have over 200 students presenting through out the day; this is a record high for us! The challenge that our office had was how to publish the list of the events of the day. Usually, we would create pdf's to hand out during the event or post them online for download. This seems a little impractical to me. I suggested an interactive app for either a phone, tablet or computer. This seems a little more practical to me. It is a basic app, but with the time given, I thought it worked well. Select the phone to view the app.
Find the hotspots on the image.
As I have said previously, I have always been fascinated with animation. Technology has opened up a new an avenue for me to pursue my career. People presume that technology makes animation easier; it does not. Animation is animation. You still need to know the foundations of traditional animation to become successful animator. There is a tremendous amount of work to this process; stories has to be written, artwork has to be designed and models has to be created. After that, it is time to animate, right? Wrong! The process is still in pre-production. Storyboards has to be drafted, animatics (rough animations with stills) has to be produced for timing and audio tracks has to be recorded. Only then, the animation process can finally begin. There are other nuances that I have not mentioned, but that is the foundation. It is a tedious process, but the results can be fruitful. My reel contains several models that I have created and textured as well as clips from some of my animations. I used several applications such as LightWave 3D, Maya, PhotoShop and Adobe Illustrator to complete these items.
The 19th Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) was held on the campus of UMBC on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, features research, scholarship, and creative work carried out by UMBC undergraduates. Student work is shared through oral presentations, posters, artistic exhibits and performances, and film. This is a time lapse video from the University Center Ballroom compressing 6 hours of footage into one minute - I took one picture every 30 seconds.
The concept of this project stemmed from a discussion with a fellow cohort how to visualize the number of people who will possibly attend this event as a whole. Time lapse photography is the only way to document this event. The only criticism I have received so far was the lack of audio. There are two reasons the audio was purposely left off, because, 1.) the din in the room was incredible, even at a low levels was unbearable and 2.) this will be looped on the web. This means the audio would be looped. Personally those types of videos are annoying and will drive traffic away from your site - not very productive. I stand by the video (or I would not have posted it.)
Here are a few web sites that I am responsible for. With the exception for the "Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE)" and the "Erickson School" web pages, I created the rest of these pages from scratch. Now, I did update both the OUE site and Erickson School site. Both were in need for a make over; they looked dated. One of the satisfying part of my job is that I get to create icons that decorate all of these sites. Check 'em out.
