Austin Jephson -Producer/Artist
Born in Austin, Texas, Austin received a B.F.A. in Set design and continued to work as a freelance set designer and scenic artist for several years. After continuing his graduate education at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama, he transferred to the E.T.C. to pursue a career in digital art, design and production. He will be graduating in May and hopes to begin working on video games, or in another related industry.
Hee Jun Kim -Sound design
Jun was a sensitive writer from an early age,and initially dreamed of being a literary man. As a high school student, with friends, he established an animation club for watching Japanese anime. This became a turning point in his life. He was totally entranced by animation's infinitely free and unique expression, realized by cell painting and computer graphics. Thus he changed his course from becoming a traditional writer to becoming a professional writer working for cultural media, including animation.
Jun chose Japanese as his college major in preparation of becoming a specialist in the entertainment Industry. By learning Japanese, he wanted not only to learn the language, but also to have a wide range of general knowledge through various classes focused on culture. He believes that efforts to understand the diverse cultures of the world is a strong foundation for storytelling which can be built up in the future. In addition, he thinks that all media need a basic context to make stories, regardless of their form.
Jun came to the ETC to transfer his story telling from paper to virtual worlds. Fluent in Korean, Japanese and English, Jun is not just about language, but has a love of communication, and tries to understand the real meaning of people's thinking by grasping their cultural background.
Amith Tudur -Designer/Programmer
Amith received his Computer Science degree from RV College of Engineering, Bangalore. He then worked as a software developer on the CELL-BE at IBM for a couple of years. Being a jack of all and a master of programming, with 'all' including athletics, music, academics and films as a broad category, he intended to use it in a field that required every 'bit' of what he had to offer. Soon he realized that 'entertainment industry' is what this field was called.
Having groomed into learning about turing machines, semaphores, TCP/IP, &&, assembly coding and everything that made sense to Mr.Binary, he decided to combine his skills with his interests in life. ETC was what this churning machine was called. Therefore currently, this movie buff can be found programming at the Pittsburgh ETC.
Srinavin Nair -Programmer
I am a programmer currently in my second Semester at the ETC. Following my passion for game development and gaming in general I ended up here after Bachelors’ in Computer Science.
From my childhood days I have always been fascinated by games. My exploration of this interactive universe began with Pacman. From then on I have played games of all genres and found that I loved them all. Towards the end of high school, I had developed a flair for programming. I had no doubts taking up Bachelors in Computer Science at one of the top National Institutes in India.
During under graduation most of my projects were graphics and game related. It was these projects which made me realize that doing something you truly love is the best feeling ever. Towards the end of my under graduation, I researched for universities which would hone my skills to finally join a game development firm. Joining the ETC was the easiest choice I have ever made :)
John Conomikes -Programmer
John Conomikes has been interested in all kinds of games (video, board, card, etc.) since a very early age and into designing and creating them soon after that. He learned the basics of programming in elementary school as his first step towards being able to make his own video games. After a while he realized that being able to program on his own was not enough to make the games he envisioned and then set off learning and teaching himself about game design. In high school he learned about the ETC program and set his sights on getting into it in order to help him fulfill his lifelong ambition of crafting his own games and distributing them for all to play. Six years and a BS in computer science later he is there and after graduation he hopes to get right into the heart of the video game industry is a primarily design role.
Ethan Rupp -Artist
Ethan Rupp was born either 500 years too early or too late, and would have been most at home as either an interstellar explorer, or a Viking.
An undergraduate in computer science and mathematics at Clarkson University, Ethan Rupp took a year away from Clarkson to pursue art, and has been looking for the best way to combine art and technology ever since. He sees computer games as one of the most significant ways to combine these two disciplines, which eventually led to his pursuing graduate studies at the Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center.
Akash Joshi -Designer/Programmer
I am a graduate from Pune University INDIA. I graduated in November 2007 in ‘First Class’ and hold the degree, 'Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology'. Since a very young age I was fascinated by computer games and enjoyed playing them and dream about making them one day. So I have always been very much inclined to design and make my own games.
My Goal as a future game designer is to develop games that will deliver a complete entertainment package to the people. It will have diverse and intriguing story lines, a versatile, non linear and creative game design, a different and captivating game play style making the whole experience lifelike.
Devdatta Nerurkar -Rigger/Animator
Being involved in programming as a Computer Science Undergraduate student Devdatta thought he would probably end up in a software development company until he discovered about the ETC. His passion for sketching and animation was the driving force behind his decision to change his course of life and becoming a part of ETC was his first step towards realizing his goals in the entertainment technology. An artistic inclination allowed him to begin as a texture artist at the ETC.Making the best of the facilities provided at the ETC he aims to eventually enter the industry as a skilled technical director.