Who I am...
My name is Dustin Sparks. I am a web designer turned developer.
A passionate creative
technologist involved in pushing the limits of any and
all current technologies with community driven open
source projects.
How to get ahold of me...
I can be found in Muncie, Indiana, Noblesville, and the Greater Indianapolis area. Virtually you can find me on various forums and online communities concerning Flash and Web Design and Development. Online I go by the pseudonym Pixelmixer. You can also find frequent personal updates on Twitter under my Pixelmixer account.
Contact Information
Email: djsparks@bsu.edu Phone: (765) 760 3900What I can do...
I have a very wide skillset that can be applied and adapted to most any situation that arises. As any developer should be, I am great at solving difficult problems.
Skills |
Software |
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| Design | 6 years | Flash (MX - CS3) | 5 years |
| HTML | 6 years | Photoshop (6 - CS3) | 5 years |
| PHP | 4 years | Dreamweaver (MX - CS3) | 4 years |
| PHP | 4 years | After Effects (7 - CS3) | 2 years |
| CSS | 3 years | Illustrator (CS2 - CS3) | 2 years |
| Javascript | 3 years | Quicktime Pro | 1 year |
| Actionscript 2 | 3 years | Dashcode | <1 year |
| Actionscript 3 | 1 year | Quartz Composer | <1 year |
| Web Architecture | 1 year | Maya 8 | <1 year |
| 3D Studio Max 9 | <1 year | ||
| Softimage XSI 6 | <1 year | ||
Where I learned to do what I can do...
Ball State University 2005 - 2009
Pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in
Multimedia Telecommunications with minors
in Digital Media and Computer Science.
Self Taught 2002 - ∞
Around 6 years of self-motivated research in
new media and open source software. Self-motivation
allows one to specialize and
pursue knowledge in whatever medium is
most useful.
Where I do it...
Ball State Digital Corps 2007 - Now
Digital Media Master
Responsibilities included developing web sites and mac widgets from the ground up. It also consisted of
developing interactive installations with Quartz composer and teaching workshops for students interested
in learning to create and present new media using Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Maya, and After Effects.
Ball State Center for Media Design 2005 - 2007
Graphic Designer
Responsibilities included creating report cover graphics, updating website graphics, and creating interactive applications in Flash.
What else I do that matters...
International Digital Media and Arts Association (IDMAA) 2005 - 2007
President IDMAA Ball State Chapter
Responsibilities included teaching beginner, intermediate, and advanced workshops for Flash, Dreamweaver,
After Effects, and Maya. Organized competitions and immersive digital media projects for undergraduates
and graduates who were interested in learning how the digital media production industry works.
My Professional Certifications...
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Digital Corps Messenger Widget |
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This widget was given to me as a quick project that is meant to help out the computer lab workers in taking messages for the Corps administrators. The problem in the lab had to do with student lab attendents taking sub-par or incomplete messages from people who call in, or in some other way attempt to get in contact with a manager or administrator of the Corps.
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Ball State University Libraries Mac OSX Cardcat Widget |
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I took on the project after the original team left and needed to re-write most of the existing code. I finished it and added some extra, unplanned, features in about 7 weeks. It was built entirely on OSX 10.5 Leopard while Leopard was still in its beta stages. The project uses PHP, Javascript, and XML to interface with Ball State's library servers. The widget is installed on all the university library's OSX capable computers.
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Ball State University Google Map |
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This project was done for a summer job working with a Ball State undergraduate fellowship grant. My job was to take a given customized google map and make it interactive and searchable with the Google Maps API. I created a search engine entirely in javascript whose job is to search an XML file for any number of search terms. The XML file contains descriptions, links, phone numbers, and GPS data.
Directions
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