Featured Student: Brandon Harden

Brandon

Where are you from originally? What’s your Origin Story?

A one-horse town in Texas called Brownsville. Not much there growing up aside from the border, which was pretty fun. I moved to Jacksonville when I graduated high school in 2002. I had family here and Jacksonville had a lot going on compared to my town.

 

Why are you pursuing a degree in Digital Media?

I have a strong passion for creating.

 

Who inspires you the most and why?

People say friends come and go but family is forever, which don’t get me wrong I have a great family) but the answer would be my friends. Not just your general group of friends but that core group of like to or so. Surrounding my self with an array of similar or even different people/opinions/thoughts and each of us pushing each other has made me the person I am today.

 

What do you do off campus?

Graphic Design for a small print business that also produces CD’s local and nationally, beers with the pals, as much as I can with my DSLR, go to shows (mainly in Atlanta/Orlando) and as of recently hanging with my daughter. She’s pretty dang cute and only 3 weeks old.

 

What work are you most proud of?

My Graphic Design. I’ve been really into manipulating photos using my own textures as of lately. Which is kind of weird because I originally could of cared less about graphic design. I originally enrolled with strict interest in video.

 

Interesting facts about you:

I paid to get my family ancestry info recently and found out I am related to Marc Bolan (of T-Rex). I thought that was pretty sweet but to be honest I paid some dude $5 at a Brothel in London and he only “researched” it for like 5 minutes before he came back with the info.

 

Favorite Book / Movie / Series / Video Game / Comic?

None of these will be my favorites. Lets just say I’ll assume someone might read this so I’ll try and put a bug in your ear and give you something underrated and interesting. It’s been a few years since I’ve read anything. Last good book I read was probably Filth. I can watch Barton Fink a million times and never get bored. Transparent was a great show. Eh… Mario Kart? For the SNES? I don’t know, Rock Band can be fun with a ton of people though. Eh, yet another one… Let’s go with Spy vs Spy.

 

What are your future goals and aspirations?

Everything is completely different when you have a wee one. Money is obviously helpful but all I care about now is ensuring she grows up happy and healthy. A few hundred or thousand pieces hanging in on walls wouldn’t be too bad either. 

 

 

Our featured students are student-selected. Once a student has been featured, they nominate the next student to be profiled. Come back next month to see who’s been picked!
Have any questions? Please contact Professor Liz Murphy Thomas at Liz.Thomas@fscj.edu

 

Featured student: Daniel Partenie

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Where are you from originally? What’s your Origin Story?

I was born and raised in Israel however, my family is originally European-American. My mom has been a traveler all her life and fortunately I have had many opportunities to visit a few countries. I’ve had the chance to learn about and experience diverse cultures and lifestyles. When I was young, I would watch my father (a professional artist) draw Disney characters for me every day. Since then on, I’ve known my passion was art. I’m a geek by nature and I love technology, so it was no question when I decided to pursue both art and technology as a career.

 

Why are you pursuing a degree in Digital Media? 

I’m pursuing a degree in this field because it provides my two most favorite hobbies, art and technology. I love the ability to attain multiple skills under my belt and gain as much knowledge about all the incredible 2D and 3D programs we use today.

 

Who inspires you the most and why?

I look up the most to the great minds of the past; Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo just to name a few. I couldn’t imagine a world without these founding fathers, they created amazing and marvelous relics we still use today. Lastly, my amazing family and friends who support me every day and believe in me.

 

What do you do off campus? 

When I’m not working my other jobs, I dedicate all my energy to side projects and improving my craft by watching professional videos, reading books, and taking notes. The way I see it is this; if I don’t learn something new every day then I’m losing time and time is very precious to me.

 

What work are you most proud of? 

This is hard question to answer because as I’m still experimenting and growing as a digital artist. I still feel like I’m not quite there to accept a medal of honor. However, I am proud of myself for growing each day and learning new things in this program.

 

Interesting facts about you:

I believe in the power of positivity. I always strive to look at events in life with a positive outlook. I credit this way of thinking to my success in life thus far. Sometimes we can get in our own way in life and I think once we change our mindset we can achieve greatness.

 

Favorite Book / Movie / Series / Video Game / Comic?

Book – The Future of the Mind

Movie – Star Wars

Series – Xena: Princess Warrior

Video Game: Age of Empire

Comic: Assassin’s Creed

 

What are your future goals and aspirations? 

I have many goals and aspirations for what lies ahead. My most important goals are that I would love to work in the video game industry, Pixar, or Disney – whichever comes first. I also want to be able to share my skills and knowledge with other teammates and lead my own team one day! 

 

One thing you wish you could share with others is… 

Practice, practice, practice, those words never get old. Practice truly does indeed make perfect. Don’t ever try to be better than others, instead; compete with yourself. You should define your own standards to hold yourself to. You’ll be much happier when you’ve reached your own unique definition of success.

 

You can learn more about Daniel and see some of his work at his professional website danielpartenie.daportfolio.com

 

 

Our featured students are student-selected. Once a student has been featured, they nominate the next student to be profiled. Come back next month to see who’s been picked!
Have any questions? Please contact Professor Liz Murphy Thomas at Liz.Thomas@fscj.edu

 

Our Digital Media students worked hard this semester!

Well it’s the end of another busy, fun and idea-packed semester! That means another term of great work created by our talented Digital Media students. Here are just a few of the awesome things they made this semester, some for classes, some for clients and some on their own:

As you can see it’s been a great term and I can’t wait to see what you all make in the spring term!

Oh and for even more great work please visit Prof. Govoni’s class gallery from his DIG2142 Digital Capturing and Streaming class.

St. Augustine in 3D

Students in both 3-D Animation courses taught by Professor Ali Mitchell and Julia Montgomery have been working on modeling buildings in the historic district of St. Augustine.  See sample Maya files of buildings soon to be processed through the 3-D Printer.