Wow, my own website! I’ve developed a lot of sites over the years, mostly for my businesses and for clients, but never for me… ?.
I’ve always found it difficult to write about myself and I’m sure you can relate.
Now that I think about it… I’ve never written a blog before today either! What a day of firsts! ?.
If you know anything about me, then you know that I hate comfort zones, and well… here we are on my own site writing a blog!
Like most creators writing about themselves, I can think back to countless examples from my childhood that would paint this picture for you. A picture where I’ve always had a passion for photography and video, and how it’s my life’s most fulfilling purpose.
It’s not, I have way too many things I am passionate about! I’ll spare you the story… Ok, fine! Let’s bring it way back to around 1995-ish when I was just a young lad and was first introduced to Microsoft 3D Movie Maker.
If you don’t remember, this wasn’t really a game, it was a creation tool, and it definitely influenced me. The software only allowed for a handful of 3D rendered characters with basic movements, and basic props, all to be animated and arranged in a sequence. I know, I know, it looks REALLY corny, but…
YOU were the director, anything goes! And that’s what I loved about all of this!
3DMM was so ahead of its time, and my brother Kevin and I spent weeks creating these elaborate movie plots. The most noteworthy was a short film called “Crooks”. It was a story about 2 brothers who plan and execute a bank robbery, steal a fortune, have an action-packed run-in with law enforcement, and ends with a very climactic shootout/car chase reminiscent of Quinten Tarantino films! ? I didn’t realize it then but I was falling in love with creating something from nothing!
OK, wait!
Now when I say a made a short film with a “shoot out”, I mean that I used a 3D cartoon character holding a giant letter “L” I animated to look like a gun firing, and then imported .wav files of shotgun blasts into the audio layers!
My brother and I wrote a script, figured out how to record our voices into this primitive sound card, and then figured out how to record our own background music into it.
After an insane amount of editing, I had a 15-minute movie I was really proud of. Everyone who saw it seemed to love it too!
I’m sure it sounds pretty lame now because anyone with a phone can make a video, but at the time, this was unheard of!
It was a huge hit in the 3DMM community online, and I had even built my own 3DMM website it was hosted on with all my other movies! I really wish I saved it…
Fast forward to the present day. I’ve invested in a fair amount of audio, video, and photography gear over the years and feel very similar to how I did when I was using 3DMM as a kid. I really enjoy the process of creating with these tools. I’ve been primarily developing video training systems for my sales teams and other clients for the last few years. I LOVE my clients and creating for their businesses with my company Momentum Marketing, and at the same time, I felt like I wanted a “less formal” place to showcase some of my other work, my hobbies, and my various interests… And here we are! Take a look around and don’t be afraid to reach out!
Until the next one!
-Danny
