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Michael T. Mayers
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
email: michael@tweakoz.com
www: http://www.tweakoz.com/portfolio/
OBJECTIVE
Seeking a position at a software engineering, entertainment or multimedia
production company. Looking for a firm which will offer a challenging
environment and which thrives upon creativity and cutting edge technology.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Apr 2010 - Present APPLE : Gpu Software Engineer
Jul 2009 - Apr 2010 TWEAKOZ (Self Employed)
NICKELODEON/MTV/VIACOM : Full Time Contractor
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Many Programming Roles
Projects: Jul2009-Present : XBLA/PC Spongebob GravJet Racing : Lead Engineer
Continuing work done at SCG, but directly for the client.....
Oct 2005 - Jul 2009 TWEAKOZ (Self Employed)
SANTA CRUZ GAMES : Full Time Contractor
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Many Programming Roles
Part-Time System Administrator
Projects: Oct2005-Jun2006 : Superman Returns (Nintento DS/Sony PSP) : Lead PSP Engineer
Jul2006-Jun2007 : Godzilla Unleashed (Nintendo DS) : Tools/Engine Programmer
Jun2007 : Unannounced "CodeName Noke" (Nintendo DS) : Tools/Engine Programmer
Jul2007-Oct2007 : Tomb Raider Underworld (Nintendo DS) : Part-Time Tools/Engine Programmer
Jul2007-Jan2008 : Wii Miniork R&D : R&D Engineer
Jan2008-Jul2008 : Igor PC/Wii : Lead PC/Wii and Tools Engineer
Oct2008-Jul2009 : XB360/PC/Wii Spongebob GravJet Racing : Lead Platform and Tools Engineer
Ported SCG's legacy engine to the PSP, Implemented autobuild system for Superman/PSP.
Architected large portions of "MiniOrk" - an integrated next-gen tool/engine which scales
from Nintendo DS to high-end hardware and allows for game execution/tuning in tool. Designed
Miniork graphics, audio and IO devices for PC,XB360(Dx9) and Wii. Designed scene and entity
layer of the Miniork game engine. Created heterogenous(CPU/GPU) multithreaded dataflow engines
for particles, procedural textures, and audio. Integrated Maya/CgFX->Collada->Miniork asset pipeline.
Protoyped miniork physics system using Bullet.
Performed security and Subversion system administration duties.
Apr 2004 - Oct 2005 SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
SAN DIEGO, CA
Senior Graphics Programmer
Projects: 2004: Unannounced PC/PS3 MMORPG title (canceled, though engine still in use in ULDK)
2005: Sony PS3 E3 2005 Launch Event Demo
2005: Untold Legends Dark Kingdom
Implemented WYSIWYG Maya6.0/OpenGL/CgFX based Pipeline, including hardware shader nodes,
terrain blending modeling tools, a texture compression settings panel,
and a shape node to override maya's poor binormal/tangent calculations.
Integrated the DX9 HLSL/FX framework into the PC game engine and implemented new
shaders (to match the WYSIWYG pipeline). Ported above shader pipeline to the
PS3 (for E3 PS3 Launch Event). Designed/Implemented a data driven finite state
machine editor for use in input->animation/action mapping, and for use in AI.
Implemented audio device driver for PS3. Setup PS3 Build System.
Feb 2002 - Feb 2004 JALECO ENTERTAINMENT
BOULDER, CO
Senior Programmer/XBox Lead
Projects: 2002: NightcasterII (XBox)
2003: Werewolf, Goblin Commander (PS2/XBox/GameCube)
NightcasterII:
Updated NC 1 Maya exporters, Implemented special effects with vertex and pixel
shaders, including 3D Perlin noise pixel shaders for effects like burn,
freeze, poison, and electrocute on a skinned model, wrote a tcp/ip networked
parameter editor for editing effects live on the XBox, added macros and
templates to the nightcaster spell effects scripting system. Implemented
Pak File Loader.
Werewolf:
Selected as lead engineer, acted on those duties for 3 weeks until project held
in order to condense resources on Goblin Commander.
Goblin Commander:
Re-Architected legacy OpenGL renderer to better support cross platforms with
shader support on OpenGL and XBox. Re-Architected Granny model renderer on
PC, XBox and Gamecube to support hardware deformation with vertex shaders
and matrix palette skinning, wrote Granny to custom format converter to
support new renderer and improve memory footprints and loading times for
all platforms. Optimized heightfield renderer significantly. Programmed
majority of the port of Goblin Commander to the XBox.
Feb 2001 - Feb 2002 SANTA CRUZ GAMES
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Senior Tools, Audio Programmer, Audio Director, System Administrator
Projects: ET - Interplanetary Adventure for Playstation and PC
Created the WorldBuilder design tool which has the following functions:
Manage cel (geometry unit) instantiation, cel animations, actor placement and
world attribute database editing. Wrote all Maya Exporters including
Actor (Weighted, Boned-Mesh), Skeleton, Boned-Animation and Cel (Simple-Mesh)
Exporters. Implemented entire ET sound system, provided direction for the
audio content, and created some of the audio content. Also performed most system
administration duties.
Jul 1999 - Jan 2001 OSIRIS STUDIOS
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Senior Tools, Game Programmer
Projects: HBO Boxing for Playstation
Architected and implemented ADB (Animation Database) which allows a user to graphically edit
an animation state machine for character animation with hundreds of animation nodes and
thousands of transitions between nodes (edges), supporting multiple animations streams
concurrently on a single skeleton, animation blending control, user control mapping,
collision sphere targeting, etc.. Created the Streaming Database for navigation, classification and
conversion of several thousand commentator audio streams. Also created the entire
sound system for HBO Boxing, including a MIDI playback engine and conversion
tools for the PSX based on EMU Soundfonts/DLS, crowd simulation, and other sound
effects. Most tools provided with OpenGL based GUI on Win32 for fast / precise
navigation and workflow.
Dec 1997 - Jul 1999 IDOL MINDS, LLC.
BOULDER, CO
Tools, Game Programmer
Projects: CoolBoarders3, RallyCross2 for Playstation (MIDI Engine also used in CB4)
Duties included design and implementation of a Sony Playstation based MIDI
playback engine. Frontend development including tools and runtime code.
GUI based File converters for Audio and 3D, Apps including Alias PowerAnimator
and AliasWavefront Maya on IRIX/Win32.
Jun 1997 - Sep 1997 SOUTHEASTERN COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE, INC.
SARASOTA, FL
Sub-Contracted Software Developer.
SECS is a service oriented business for construction of complete cellular sites.
Responsible for the development of Win32 automation software for Hewlett
Packard RF test equipment communicating to the host via HPIB/GPIB. The software
is used in the testing of RF signal transmission components at microwave and
cellular telephone radio sites.
Jan 1995 - Jun 1997 MINDESIGN limited
SARASOTA, FL
Programmer, System Administrator.
Responsible for system administration of a network of Silicon Graphics (UNIX)
and Macintosh computers. Developed plugins for 3D animation and film/video
editing software including Discreet Logic Flint, Newtek Lightwave,
Alias/Wavefront PowerAnimator and Composer. Development of custom applications
for use in audio and film/video production. Setup 32 track digital audio / MIDI
production studio based on Digidesign ProTools.
Sep 1993 - Mar 1994 SILTRON ILLUMINATION
ONTARIO, CA (California)
Quality Assurance Technician.
Siltron is a manufacturer of emergency lighting systems. Responsible for
developing test procedures and test fixtures, training and assisting the
manufacturing department in the mechanical and electrical requirements needed
to construct various company products.
Aug 1992 - Aug 1993 SOUTHEASTERN COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE, INC.
SARASOTA, FL
Cellular Electronics Specialist.
SECS is a service oriented business for construction of complete cellular sites.
Responsibilities included the testing of the antenna and lighting systems after
completion of construction. I was also responsible for repairing existing
cellular sites for AT&T wireless.
Aug 1990 - Jun 1992 UNITED STATES NAVY
NTC Orlando, FL
U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
AQUIRED SKILLS
Currently Learning Verilog / VHDL
Fluent in usage of IRIX/UNIX/LINUX, MSDOS/Windows, OS/2 and MacOS.
Device driver programming for LINUX. Created MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV driver
for the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA).
Applications used include Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Media 100,
Alias/Wavefront Composer, PowerAnimator and Maya, Discreet Logic Flint, Digidesign
ProTools, Steinberg CubaseVST, and MIT Csound among others.
Twenty years of programming experience; languages include C/C++, Python, Java, Pascal,
ModulaII, REXX, TCL/TK, HTML, PHP, assembly languages for Motorola 680x0,
Intel 80x86, and MIPS Rx000 among others. Have also written custom scripting
languages.
Fluent in programming at the systems and applications level for a variety of
pre-emptive multitasking operating systems, object oriented design, automated
GUI builders (Qt, X11, MFC, Java, TCL/TK, FLTK), Digital Signal Processing,
Simulation, Digital Video/3D Animation and Digital Audio/MIDI.
Main development/testing environments used include Visual Studio .NET, Eclipse,
Silicon Graphics Casevision Workshop/IDO, GNU GCC/GDB, CVS, Microsoft Visual
Sourcesafe, Subversion, Perforce, SN Systems ProDG and Visual Slickedit.
API's used include Qt, FLTK, X11/Glx, MFC, OpenGL/Direct3D, RenderMan, SGI DMedia
(audio/MIDI, video), POSIX, Win32, TCP/IP sockets and my own library
of Unix/Win32 C++ classes which handle things like graphical dataflow modeling,
timers, Audio/Video signal processing, particle systems, physical dynamics,
multithreading, event handlers, file parsing, 3D graphics, and sound/artwork file
conversion among others.
System administration skills include OS/Software upgrades, TCP/IP network setup
and maintenance on UNIX and Win32 systems, NFS, data storage setup for realtime
digital video editing (SCSI Raid striped over multiple SCSI Busses),
FlexLM/Elan Network licensing, and Web Server administration among others.
Hardware/Software design of simple microprocessor, microcontroller and FPGA based systems.
Extensive personal experience with Digital Audio / Music Systems; Consumer, Professional
and otherwise.
CrossPlatform Coding - Most of the software I write easily ports onto other platforms.
EDUCATION
2005 Sony Playstation 3 Developers Conference
2000, 2001, 2003 Game Developers Conference
1996, 1999, 2000, 2003 Sony Playstation Developers Forums
1995, 1996, 1997 Silicon Graphics Developers Forums
Attended classes covering IRIX system administration, OpenGL, DSO Security,
Symmetrical Multiprocessing, IRIS Performer, UNIX/Win32 portability,
Image / Audio Synthesis among other topics.
1993 Commodore Amiga Developers Conference
Naval Nuclear Power School - NTC Orlando, FL
Electrical Operator Curriculum; particle physics, thermodynamics, mathematics and
electrical power generation.
Nuclear Field 'A' School - NTC Orlando, FL
Electricians Mate Curriculum; mathematics, basic electricity, basic/advanced
analog and digital electronics.
Lemon Bay High School - Englewood, FL
Chatfield Sr. High School - Littleton, CO
Littleton Sr. High School - Littleton, CO
Marina Sr. High School - Huntington Beach, CA
Peterson High School - Santa Clara, CA
OTHER
References and portfolio (audio, video, code, etc..) available upon request.
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
email: michael@tweakoz.com
www: http://www.tweakoz.com/portfolio/
OBJECTIVE
Seeking a position at a software engineering, entertainment or multimedia
production company. Looking for a firm which will offer a challenging
environment and which thrives upon creativity and cutting edge technology.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Apr 2010 - Present APPLE : Gpu Software Engineer
Jul 2009 - Apr 2010 TWEAKOZ (Self Employed)
NICKELODEON/MTV/VIACOM : Full Time Contractor
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Many Programming Roles
Projects: Jul2009-Present : XBLA/PC Spongebob GravJet Racing : Lead Engineer
Continuing work done at SCG, but directly for the client.....
Oct 2005 - Jul 2009 TWEAKOZ (Self Employed)
SANTA CRUZ GAMES : Full Time Contractor
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Many Programming Roles
Part-Time System Administrator
Projects: Oct2005-Jun2006 : Superman Returns (Nintento DS/Sony PSP) : Lead PSP Engineer
Jul2006-Jun2007 : Godzilla Unleashed (Nintendo DS) : Tools/Engine Programmer
Jun2007 : Unannounced "CodeName Noke" (Nintendo DS) : Tools/Engine Programmer
Jul2007-Oct2007 : Tomb Raider Underworld (Nintendo DS) : Part-Time Tools/Engine Programmer
Jul2007-Jan2008 : Wii Miniork R&D : R&D Engineer
Jan2008-Jul2008 : Igor PC/Wii : Lead PC/Wii and Tools Engineer
Oct2008-Jul2009 : XB360/PC/Wii Spongebob GravJet Racing : Lead Platform and Tools Engineer
Ported SCG's legacy engine to the PSP, Implemented autobuild system for Superman/PSP.
Architected large portions of "MiniOrk" - an integrated next-gen tool/engine which scales
from Nintendo DS to high-end hardware and allows for game execution/tuning in tool. Designed
Miniork graphics, audio and IO devices for PC,XB360(Dx9) and Wii. Designed scene and entity
layer of the Miniork game engine. Created heterogenous(CPU/GPU) multithreaded dataflow engines
for particles, procedural textures, and audio. Integrated Maya/CgFX->Collada->Miniork asset pipeline.
Protoyped miniork physics system using Bullet.
Performed security and Subversion system administration duties.
Apr 2004 - Oct 2005 SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
SAN DIEGO, CA
Senior Graphics Programmer
Projects: 2004: Unannounced PC/PS3 MMORPG title (canceled, though engine still in use in ULDK)
2005: Sony PS3 E3 2005 Launch Event Demo
2005: Untold Legends Dark Kingdom
Implemented WYSIWYG Maya6.0/OpenGL/CgFX based Pipeline, including hardware shader nodes,
terrain blending modeling tools, a texture compression settings panel,
and a shape node to override maya's poor binormal/tangent calculations.
Integrated the DX9 HLSL/FX framework into the PC game engine and implemented new
shaders (to match the WYSIWYG pipeline). Ported above shader pipeline to the
PS3 (for E3 PS3 Launch Event). Designed/Implemented a data driven finite state
machine editor for use in input->animation/action mapping, and for use in AI.
Implemented audio device driver for PS3. Setup PS3 Build System.
Feb 2002 - Feb 2004 JALECO ENTERTAINMENT
BOULDER, CO
Senior Programmer/XBox Lead
Projects: 2002: NightcasterII (XBox)
2003: Werewolf, Goblin Commander (PS2/XBox/GameCube)
NightcasterII:
Updated NC 1 Maya exporters, Implemented special effects with vertex and pixel
shaders, including 3D Perlin noise pixel shaders for effects like burn,
freeze, poison, and electrocute on a skinned model, wrote a tcp/ip networked
parameter editor for editing effects live on the XBox, added macros and
templates to the nightcaster spell effects scripting system. Implemented
Pak File Loader.
Werewolf:
Selected as lead engineer, acted on those duties for 3 weeks until project held
in order to condense resources on Goblin Commander.
Goblin Commander:
Re-Architected legacy OpenGL renderer to better support cross platforms with
shader support on OpenGL and XBox. Re-Architected Granny model renderer on
PC, XBox and Gamecube to support hardware deformation with vertex shaders
and matrix palette skinning, wrote Granny to custom format converter to
support new renderer and improve memory footprints and loading times for
all platforms. Optimized heightfield renderer significantly. Programmed
majority of the port of Goblin Commander to the XBox.
Feb 2001 - Feb 2002 SANTA CRUZ GAMES
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Senior Tools, Audio Programmer, Audio Director, System Administrator
Projects: ET - Interplanetary Adventure for Playstation and PC
Created the WorldBuilder design tool which has the following functions:
Manage cel (geometry unit) instantiation, cel animations, actor placement and
world attribute database editing. Wrote all Maya Exporters including
Actor (Weighted, Boned-Mesh), Skeleton, Boned-Animation and Cel (Simple-Mesh)
Exporters. Implemented entire ET sound system, provided direction for the
audio content, and created some of the audio content. Also performed most system
administration duties.
Jul 1999 - Jan 2001 OSIRIS STUDIOS
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Senior Tools, Game Programmer
Projects: HBO Boxing for Playstation
Architected and implemented ADB (Animation Database) which allows a user to graphically edit
an animation state machine for character animation with hundreds of animation nodes and
thousands of transitions between nodes (edges), supporting multiple animations streams
concurrently on a single skeleton, animation blending control, user control mapping,
collision sphere targeting, etc.. Created the Streaming Database for navigation, classification and
conversion of several thousand commentator audio streams. Also created the entire
sound system for HBO Boxing, including a MIDI playback engine and conversion
tools for the PSX based on EMU Soundfonts/DLS, crowd simulation, and other sound
effects. Most tools provided with OpenGL based GUI on Win32 for fast / precise
navigation and workflow.
Dec 1997 - Jul 1999 IDOL MINDS, LLC.
BOULDER, CO
Tools, Game Programmer
Projects: CoolBoarders3, RallyCross2 for Playstation (MIDI Engine also used in CB4)
Duties included design and implementation of a Sony Playstation based MIDI
playback engine. Frontend development including tools and runtime code.
GUI based File converters for Audio and 3D, Apps including Alias PowerAnimator
and AliasWavefront Maya on IRIX/Win32.
Jun 1997 - Sep 1997 SOUTHEASTERN COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE, INC.
SARASOTA, FL
Sub-Contracted Software Developer.
SECS is a service oriented business for construction of complete cellular sites.
Responsible for the development of Win32 automation software for Hewlett
Packard RF test equipment communicating to the host via HPIB/GPIB. The software
is used in the testing of RF signal transmission components at microwave and
cellular telephone radio sites.
Jan 1995 - Jun 1997 MINDESIGN limited
SARASOTA, FL
Programmer, System Administrator.
Responsible for system administration of a network of Silicon Graphics (UNIX)
and Macintosh computers. Developed plugins for 3D animation and film/video
editing software including Discreet Logic Flint, Newtek Lightwave,
Alias/Wavefront PowerAnimator and Composer. Development of custom applications
for use in audio and film/video production. Setup 32 track digital audio / MIDI
production studio based on Digidesign ProTools.
Sep 1993 - Mar 1994 SILTRON ILLUMINATION
ONTARIO, CA (California)
Quality Assurance Technician.
Siltron is a manufacturer of emergency lighting systems. Responsible for
developing test procedures and test fixtures, training and assisting the
manufacturing department in the mechanical and electrical requirements needed
to construct various company products.
Aug 1992 - Aug 1993 SOUTHEASTERN COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE, INC.
SARASOTA, FL
Cellular Electronics Specialist.
SECS is a service oriented business for construction of complete cellular sites.
Responsibilities included the testing of the antenna and lighting systems after
completion of construction. I was also responsible for repairing existing
cellular sites for AT&T wireless.
Aug 1990 - Jun 1992 UNITED STATES NAVY
NTC Orlando, FL
U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
AQUIRED SKILLS
Currently Learning Verilog / VHDL
Fluent in usage of IRIX/UNIX/LINUX, MSDOS/Windows, OS/2 and MacOS.
Device driver programming for LINUX. Created MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV driver
for the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA).
Applications used include Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Media 100,
Alias/Wavefront Composer, PowerAnimator and Maya, Discreet Logic Flint, Digidesign
ProTools, Steinberg CubaseVST, and MIT Csound among others.
Twenty years of programming experience; languages include C/C++, Python, Java, Pascal,
ModulaII, REXX, TCL/TK, HTML, PHP, assembly languages for Motorola 680x0,
Intel 80x86, and MIPS Rx000 among others. Have also written custom scripting
languages.
Fluent in programming at the systems and applications level for a variety of
pre-emptive multitasking operating systems, object oriented design, automated
GUI builders (Qt, X11, MFC, Java, TCL/TK, FLTK), Digital Signal Processing,
Simulation, Digital Video/3D Animation and Digital Audio/MIDI.
Main development/testing environments used include Visual Studio .NET, Eclipse,
Silicon Graphics Casevision Workshop/IDO, GNU GCC/GDB, CVS, Microsoft Visual
Sourcesafe, Subversion, Perforce, SN Systems ProDG and Visual Slickedit.
API's used include Qt, FLTK, X11/Glx, MFC, OpenGL/Direct3D, RenderMan, SGI DMedia
(audio/MIDI, video), POSIX, Win32, TCP/IP sockets and my own library
of Unix/Win32 C++ classes which handle things like graphical dataflow modeling,
timers, Audio/Video signal processing, particle systems, physical dynamics,
multithreading, event handlers, file parsing, 3D graphics, and sound/artwork file
conversion among others.
System administration skills include OS/Software upgrades, TCP/IP network setup
and maintenance on UNIX and Win32 systems, NFS, data storage setup for realtime
digital video editing (SCSI Raid striped over multiple SCSI Busses),
FlexLM/Elan Network licensing, and Web Server administration among others.
Hardware/Software design of simple microprocessor, microcontroller and FPGA based systems.
Extensive personal experience with Digital Audio / Music Systems; Consumer, Professional
and otherwise.
CrossPlatform Coding - Most of the software I write easily ports onto other platforms.
EDUCATION
2005 Sony Playstation 3 Developers Conference
2000, 2001, 2003 Game Developers Conference
1996, 1999, 2000, 2003 Sony Playstation Developers Forums
1995, 1996, 1997 Silicon Graphics Developers Forums
Attended classes covering IRIX system administration, OpenGL, DSO Security,
Symmetrical Multiprocessing, IRIS Performer, UNIX/Win32 portability,
Image / Audio Synthesis among other topics.
1993 Commodore Amiga Developers Conference
Naval Nuclear Power School - NTC Orlando, FL
Electrical Operator Curriculum; particle physics, thermodynamics, mathematics and
electrical power generation.
Nuclear Field 'A' School - NTC Orlando, FL
Electricians Mate Curriculum; mathematics, basic electricity, basic/advanced
analog and digital electronics.
Lemon Bay High School - Englewood, FL
Chatfield Sr. High School - Littleton, CO
Littleton Sr. High School - Littleton, CO
Marina Sr. High School - Huntington Beach, CA
Peterson High School - Santa Clara, CA
OTHER
References and portfolio (audio, video, code, etc..) available upon request.