This was the experience that I worked on with my team in Round 2 of Building Virtual Worlds. Our goal was to make an experience with an experience in the Meta Quest 3 that a naive guest could easily pick up and use. After some deliberation, our team settled on an experience where you ride a broomstick through the sky and collect scattered items to reclaim the world's lost music that was scattered by a storm. I composed the music in MuseScore4 by creating an eight measure song that I iterated on by adding instruments in later sections, as well as swapping around which instruments are playing at different times. I then imported the music into LogicPro to switch out the instruments to Irish and Celtic instruments, as well as synths to create a more ethereal sound. I also tried to make the sound effects I included sound similarly ethereal, with my favorite being the whale sound effect I made by combining human yawning, cow mooing, and cat meowing sound effects and drastically lowering the pitch.

I also constructed the peripheral for this expereince as well. I grabbed sticks by the railroad tracks under the Hot Metal Bridge, washed them off, and then applied decoration to them to make it look more like a broomstick. The octagon at the front of the broomstick was added to reflect the in-game model, and was then attatched to the front of the broomstick using screws and twine.

This was the experience that I worked on with my team in Round 1 of Building Virtual Worlds. Our goal was to make an experience with an intuitive interface using the XBox Adaptive Controller based on a given prompt in 2 weeks. Our chosen prompt was "pack a moving truck" and we settled on the idea of a crane game where you raise and lower a claw to grab packages and drop them into the back of a moving truck. This was my first time using a dedicated sound library to create sound effects, and I had a lot of fun finding what sound effects I could combine and add effects to make what I wanted. A particular highlight for me was the sound of the crane's lateral movement, where I combined dentist drill, power drill, and drawbridge opening sound effects to create a very industrial sounding crane movement noise. I composed the music in MuseScore4, first making the first and second level's background music, then basing the intro music and final level off of it. I also recorded the voice over under the sheets of my bed to dampen the sound. 

In addition, I created the peripheral used in the game based off the idea by Ethan, one of our team's programmers. I used balsa wood to create the main stick and spokes and a wooden plank to attatch the buttons to. I cut everything in my apartment with a box cutter and used wood glue and masking tape to secure everything. I also wrapped popcorn kernels in masking tape and attached them to the bottom of the main stick to provide a smooth point that the peripheral could pivot on. The final design had a small button attached at the top to start the experience, a grip on the front to mimic opening and closing the claw, four large buttons attached underneath to control the direction of the crane. This would all be plugged in to the Adaptive Controller and the two large buttons on it would be used to raise and lower the crane.

Ouroboros was the show I directed for the Lost Flamingo Theatre Company during our Spring 2021 season. I worked closely with my assistant director and the writer of the show to shape the tone and beats of the story. Our cast met twice a week over Zoom, and when it came time for our final performance. I recorded the performance over Zoom and edited using Adobe Premiere Pro to try and mimic the layout of a Zoom call to enhance the viewer's immersion. The show premiered on AnywhereSeat and was later uploaded to the Lost Flamingo Theatre Company's official YouTube page.

This is my depiction of the 13th Major Arcana tarot card, Death, as a project with my fellow students in my master's program at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. Our goal was to make a full tarot deck with art done by everyone who was interested in it, and I chose to do the art for the Death card. I referenced the Rider-Waite-Smith art for inspiration and decided to incorporate some of the symbols in it, mainly the red feather and the white roses. I decided to exchange the skeleton's armor for a plague doctor's uniform with no gloves and the mask hanging around it's neck, and exchanging the flag pole for a scythe that is more commonly associated with depictions of the Grim Reaper. I also decided to have the tombstone in front be cracked with vines growing over it to represent change and the passage of time. I similarly decided to have the background be a sunset and birds flying to further represent the idea of transition and change. I also wanted to incorporate the number 13 into the card apart from the logo at the top, so I decided to have the skeleton holding thirteen white roses in the bouquet and have thirteen birds in view. 

My process for making it was sketching it out at twice the size for a regular tarot card (2.75" x 4.75" with a 1/4" around for bleed) so I didn't have to worry about trying to fit in a ton of small details. I used a wooden mannequin to help get the proportions of the skeleton correct and then referenced images to help get a better idea of how to draw the shape of the plague doctor's uniform, skull, hands, and scythe. Once I was done drawing, I inked the outline with Sharpie and then did inked any inner lines with a fine-tip Sharpie to create contrast in the lines. I then scanned it and added color, shading, and further details in MS Paint, and then exported it to Photoshop to change it to CYMK format. 

This is a short animation I made as the final project for my Japan: Animation and Culture in Tokyo study abroad experience. I gained inspiration from my experiences while I was abroad and created the character design and storyboards in my sketchbook. Then I animated the video in Flipnote Studio 3D and edited it in Adobe Premiere Pro. I gathered sound effects from Pixabay.com and added music from the video game Ōkami. I ran into some issues when adding the backgrounds in, so I added transparency to them using GIMP, an image editing software. I also decided to include photos I took on the trip during the transitions to add a personal touch. 

This is gameplay from the prototype of a game I made during spring semester of 2023. It is a 2D Puzzle Platformer that I made using the Unity game engine. I coded the basic gameplay elements using the C# scripting language; which included movement, changing and throwing potions, and individual potion effects. I then focused on creating the sprites and background art, which I made using Microsoft Paint, as well as adding transparency using GIMP, a photo editing software. I composed background music using MuseScore 3 and edited it using Adobe Audition in order to have it change dynamically throughout the level. I gathered sound effects from Pixabay to enhance user immersion and also edited them using Adobe Audition. I then created a basic UI to show which potion was currently selected and added menus, a title screen, and credits to wrap it up. I presented it at the Ohio University Research and Creative Activity Expo and I received positive feedback from those that played it.

This was a 360 video presentation I created for my VR Production: Immersive Audio course. This video was inspired by a similar video I had made a few years ago about the story of Wizard101 for my Virtual Reality Production course, and I wanted to make an improved and more focused version of that style of video. I settled on making the video about the storytelling of Cool Ranch, one of the worlds in Pirate101, Wizard101's sister game and focused on highlighting the major story beats and worldbuilding of the location. I recorded the footage of me talking in my dorm using an Insta 360 One 2X camera and a H3-VR microphone. I edited the audio in the provisional version of the Reaper audio editing software to track the viewer's head movements. I gathered music from the game and images online and from my own gameplay to provide easy visuals that were related to the topics discussed.

This was a paper I wrote as the final assignment for my Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism course. I compared the original myths of the Japanese god, Susano-o no Mikoto to his adaptation of Susano in the video game Ōkami. I discussed their respective portrayals and how they differed in their characterization, how they interacted with other figures that paralleled each other in the game and original myths, and the reasons why certain details were changed in the adaptation from myth to video game. I referenced the Kojiki and Nihongi for the original myth, a definition of Susano-o no Mikoto found in the Encyclopedia of Religion, an article by Jonathan Stockdale in The History of Religion discussing the original myth and its historical inspirations, and the fandom wiki entries for the video game portrayal of Susano.

This was a paper I wrote during my Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism course I took. I compared four depictions of the fox spirit, Tamamo-no-Mae, with each other. Two of them were historical depictions of the character, those being The Tale of Tamamizu and Tamamo, the Fox Maiden, and two modern depictions, those being Rao and Ninetails in the video game Ōkami, and Tamamo-no-Mae from the Fate/ franchise. I compared the similarities within the respective depictions, as well as their differences as the myth evolved and changed over the years.

This was a video presentation I made for my Virtual Reality Production course. I discussed the evolution of immersive horror, starting with the phantasmagoria of the 18th century, to haunted houses, to modern VR horror games. I included relevant music and visuals where appropriate and it is what I consider to be my first real video that I edited using Adobe Premiere Pro.

This was the first song that I ever composed using Musescore 3. I created it as a concept for a steam-locomotive themed boss. I tried to capture a feeling of regality along with the rhythmic movement of a train accelerating along its track. I was inspired by Grant Kirkhope's music, in particular how he structures his boss music.