introductions

My name is Aaron Webb. I am a multimedia artist based out of Utah. I have done video production and graphic art off and on for quite a few years now, interrupted by occasional adventures like the Marine Corps and other stuff.

I have been studying animation and illustration for just under four years now at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. I started school in January of 2008, right after getting out of the United States Marine Corps infantry and moving back to Utah.

As of today, I have two semesters left to finish, and this current one is more than half way done. As a double major, working on a Bachelor of Science in Digital Media––Animation, and a Bachelor of Fine Art in Visual Art and Communications––Illustration, I have been quite busy.

Both programs at UVU are beginning to explode with potential; the illustration program is being led by the likes of Don Seegmiller, Perry Stewart and Richard Hull, and is transforming itself from a junior college program to a rigorous and prestigious program to attend. Similarly, under the guidance of Rodayne Esmay and Anthony Romrell, the animation program is gearing up to compete with the best programs in the nation as we build high-quality animated shorts and video games.

I am straddling the middle of them both, trying to hone the traditional skills of my right-brained creative side, while mastering the technical left-brained hardware and software of the computer science arena. This means that I have little time for a friends or even sleep, and routinely pull over-nighters at home or even at school trying to keep on top of the workload.

In fact, a few months ago our animation department was visited by a prestigious animation graduate program in Texas, and when they warned us that often their students were in the labs until midnight, we all looked at each other and laughed. We work in the animation labs pretty often until 3 AM or even until classes start the next day at 8 AM or later, and have had some students literally live in the labs (one of them for about a month). This has been interesting to say the least, especially while trying to get university officials and campus police authorities to allow us to park overnight and set up living facilities in the senior projects lab.

Amid the chaos of school, I try to help my wife wrangle three active children, and scramble to put together a professional portfolio that will include traditional art, digital art, photography, and 3D modeling, surfacing and FX. Hopefully, between these disciplines, I will find myself useful to some art studios out there.

As far as what art studios I am looking at, I would love to work for a design, game or animation studio in the Wasatch Front area of Utah. But, I am also willing to go out of state for a job opportunity.