Then came senior year of high school... I had always been good at art and I had always liked it; however, I took a studio art class that I did not want to take at all; I only took it to fill in my schedule.  Even worse, it was first period (7:30am) and I wanted more sleep, so I intended on dropping the class. However, my art teacher wanted me to stick with the class even though I was no longer interested in photography or painting and I had never been too fond of computer graphics. I had always thought of computer graphics in the terms of video games and sci-fi effects, nothing that I cared to do in my spare time. My teacher insisted that I try 3D modeling using 3D Studio Max, and so I decided to give it a spin... So there I was, stuck on the slowest machine in the class (a 166 Mhz Pentium 2), and I spent about a month and a half completing tutorial after tutorial... Only problem was, I never remembered anything from the tutorials and was still clueless about so many things in the program... However, after 4 months, I had completed my first ever 3D model and animation, Y2K: The Ride. I impressed even myself by the work that I had done! After so much hard work, I couldn't have asked for a better final project. 

After modeling Y2K, I knew that computer graphics was what I wanted to do... I would combine my liking of physics and math with my artistic talent and hopefully make it a career... And so I originally was going to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana for engineering, but I changed it to computer graphics technology at the last possible second... I don't know if Purdue was the best choice for this major, but it is a well known and good school so what the heck, I decided to stay there! 

As a sophomore in college, I decided to start my own company producing professional animations for amusement parks.  I had always stayed away from the idea, just because I never thought that animations could be valuable to amusement parks.  However, once Dorney Park offered to purchase an animation of Talon from me, I decided maybe it was work looking into.  In December 2000, I incorporated my own company with the help of my father, and named it Virtual Image Productions, Inc. (That's VIP for short!).  Since then, and throughout college, I have produced animations for many amusement parks.  Somehow I managed to balance school work on top of producing these animations for parks at a moments notice.  I enjoy my job and love every minute of it, and I hope that my company continues to gain recognition.

Right now, I am stuck in a hard place.  I have just graduated college and I need a job; however, I have VIP to deal with as well.  I would really like for it to become a full time job, but working for VIP is like working on commission with no benefits.  I never know how much money I will make year to year, and I don't really like that.  The great thing about the job is that it is seasonal, usually providing me with work between August and January, giving me the spring and summer months off.  I'll have to eventually find a job that isn't too overwhelming so that I can do both... Although I doubt I will enjoy coming home from an 8 hour workday on the computer, only to work several hours more on the computer for VIP.  Oh well, time will tell and I have a while to decide what I want to do.

Throughout college, I updated this website as much as I could, while it underwent several design changes.  As of now, this website is hopefully not going to change interfaces any time soon.  I really like this interface and will try my best not to get bored with it.  Now that I have graduated college with a B.S. in computer graphics with a specialization in animation from Purdue University, I will have more free time to update.

-Keith McVeen
Badnitrus

I have always been into computer graphics; however, that is not what I majored in while in school. I was majoring in computer engineering, which took its toll on me. I worked on a few graphics in my spare time. What I would have really liked to do was do computer graphics for movies. I was always amazed by what they could do. Well, that was a kind of a far off dream, so I stuck with the basics… Anyway, about a year ago, I obtained a copy of 3D Studio Max. I started playing around with it and seeing what I could do with it. Then I decided I wanted to model something, so I figured I would try and do Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure. It was a slow start, I had to learn how everything worked et al. Then once I got going, I got the hang of it. I worked on it for a while and then I took a hiatus for a few months. Eventually, I returned working on it. Then one day I came across Keith's page. I showed him what I was doing it et al, and I shocked him. He couldn't believe what I had done. 

So with some help from him, I was able to finish Medusa… Once I had Medusa finished, I figured that I would make a web page and display my work like Keith was doing. I was blown away by the number of responses. Like Keith said, having a website keeps you working, trying to update as much as possible. And that is what I will try to do… Right now, I enjoy making these renderings. I would rather model real coasters than come up with my own because you get to compare your work with the real thing and see how you did… I have finished college, so its time to join the working force. I'm still going to work on the renderings, just going to take a little bit more time to get them done since I won't have as much free time. But you will see new renderings and new coasters appearing on this site as soon as I finish them. Just give me some time. In the meantime, enjoy what we have so far!

-Mike Semtak
Viper