Nick Cassidy

2D6 Video Reviews

ncassidy — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:00:58 +0000

One of the two major content components that I had the pleasure of producing with 2D6.org, were video reviews. By adhering to a defined set of review criteria, our reviews attempted to very quickly cover board games from multiple perspectives. Unlike many of the other board game reviewing organizations out there, our goal was to not only provide opinions using a high quality visual medium, but also entertain when the opportunity arose.

Tools Required : Premiere, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Word

All of the currently released 2D6 reviews can be found at: http://www.2d6.org/category/reviews/

Located below is an example of one of the reviews in question:

INSIDE Web Site

ncassidy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:33:06 +0000

As one of many team projects built during the summer of 2009, my developing cohorts and I were asked to put together a new site in order to replace the former INSIDE Magazine website. As a separate print publication distributed by the IDS News, INSIDE Magazine incorporates a very hip stylized look and feel that we wanted to reproduce in the digital medium. By in large, I believe the design and integrated JavaScript content controls did the magazine justice.

Tools Required : C#, ASP.NET, MS SQL Server, JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop

The live INSIDE Magazine site can be found at: http://www.idsnews.com/news/inside/

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2D6 Web Site

ncassidy — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:22:48 +0000

During the fall of 2010, I co-founded a video-based board gaming media organization called 2D6. As the executive producer, it was my job to design / develop the site, produce / market the content, write site copy, acquire / promote organizational sponsors, maintain a community presence, and manage a production team. That being said, I believe that the 2D6 site exemplifies my unique skill set fairly well as multiple areas of expertise were required in order to make the the site the success that it has become.

Tools Required : PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator

The live 2D6 site can be found at: http://www.2d6.org

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Weekend Web Site

ncassidy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:06:24 +0000

During Fall of 2009, I was given the task to help spearhead the design and development of what was to become the new website for the IDS News Weekend publication. As a special publication, it was our job to produce a site that was distinctly different from the organization’s standard newspaper publication, by infusing a dynamic web 2.0 look and feel.

Tools Required : C#, ASP.NET, MS SQL Server, JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop

With the collaborative work contributed on this project, we created the site that currently resides at: http://idsnews.com/news/weekend/

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2D6 Video Tutorials

ncassidy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:57:25 +0000

On top of creating board game video reviews for 2D6.org, I’ve also had the opportunity to produce a few board game audio / video tutorials that focus on providing the bare essentials necessary for bringing new players up to speed. It was our hope that 2D6 tutorials would not only prove to be a source for teaching new players how to play games in under 5 minutes, but also help to supplement a basic understanding of the play incorporated in the games that we review.

Tools Required : Premiere, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Word

All of the currently released 2D6 tutorials can be found at: http://www.2d6.org/category/tutorials/

Located below is an example of one of the tutorials in question:

IDS Asset Budget System

ncassidy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:56:34 +0000

During spring 2010, the editor in chief of the IDS News was interesting creating an internal story asset management and allocation tool. More over, he wanted the system to be date driven and built upon a blogging platform that most of the staff was already accustomed to using. Having been given a very simplistic design mock up to work from, I generated the XHTML and CSS based on image spec, and negotiated a wordpress system integration such that our code, regardless of future WordPress updates, would still function for years to come.

At present, the system uses the WordPress platform for content publishing purposes, it’s capable of aggregating section specific data, it uses a date driven navigation method for day and week aggregation (accounting for leap year), it provides future story specific deadline information, and it supports full commenting functionality for staff asset management purposes.

Tools Required : PHP, MySQL, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop

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Rough Edges Site

ncassidy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:47:01 +0000

Over the course of summer 2009, I had the opportunity to perform some freelance work for a women by the name of Mona Hoffman. She requested the design and development of a site that could provide e-commerce functionality, as well as serve as social networking and blogging hub for her organization.

Tools Required : PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator

From project start to finish, I designed, developed, and administered the production of the website that currently resides at: http://www.roughedgesdesign.com.

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IDS News Photo Gallery

ncassidy — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:01:07 +0000

While working at the IDS News during the summer of 2009, I was asked to mock up a new photo gallery page. With my initial mock up unselected, I went on to develop this version of the gallery page that incorporated many of the same JavaScript bells and whistles as the previous design. This version was better received by the staff and ultimately was selected for deployment.

Tools Required : C#, ASP.NET, MS SQL Server, JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop

Demo the Gallery

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Out of Mana Interviews

ncassidy — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:50:42 +0000

While at Gencon 2009, a colleague and I were able to do a few interviews on behalf of outofmana.org. Specifically targeting gaming industry developers, writers, and public relations managers, we were given an opportunity to sit down with Robert Mull (Warhammer Online), David Bass (Champions Online), and Dave gainer (Dragon Age).

Tools Required : Premiere, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Photoshop

Located below are the three interviews that were both shot and edited by yours truly:
Dave Gainer (Lead Writer @ BioWare): Dragon Age: Origins – 8/20/2009
David Bass (Community Lead @ Cryptic): Champions Online – 8/19/2009
Robert Mull (Community Relations Director @ Mythic): Warhammer Online – 8/18/2009

A Few Javascript Controls

ncassidy — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:33:01 +0000

While employed with the IDS News during the summer of 2009, I spent a good deal of time working with a few different JavaScript libraries as a means to liven up our multimedia content delivery methods. Using jquery in conjunction with our in house ASP.NET database components, I came up with a few designs that have been incorporated into our current websites.

Tools Required : JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop

IDS News feature bar: Demo

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INSIDE magazine feature bar: Demo

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Original feature bar mock up (with easing animation): Demo

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IDS News Photo Gallery Mock Up

ncassidy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:58:23 +0000

While working at the IDS News during the summer of 2009, I was asked to mock up a new photo gallery page that resembled the layout of the New York Times gallery. Incorporating jquery menu animation and a custom share control, this was my initial mock up that ultimately didn’t make the the final cut. Even though a later design was chosen in it’s place, designing and ultimately developing this mock up, forced me to learn how to work with ASP.NET and JavaScript in tandem.

Tools Required : JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Photoshop

Demo the Gallery

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Flash Course Activities

ncassidy — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:47:34 +0000

While working at the Eppley Institute during 2007, I created several flash-based teaching activities for various e-learning courses offered by the institute. Although the activities varied greatly depending on the subject matter being taught, many of them adhered to a drag and drop question mechanic or incorporated video clips as a means to demonstrate course material.

Tools Required : ActionScript, Flash, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator

Located below, are three of such activities that were produced during my employment.

Aquatics Activity: Demo

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Extinguisher Activity: Demo

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Extinguisher Video Lesson: Demo

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A Few Logo Designs

ncassidy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:04:35 +0000

Over the last couple of years, I’ve had a few opportunities to practice my graphic design skills when producing logos and application icons for employers or personal projects. Located below are a few of the pieces that I’ve put together.

Tools Required : Photoshop

Rough Edges Design Site Logo:

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Massive Studios Site Logo:

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OOMCast Podcast Logo:

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Out of Mana Site Logo:

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Out of Mana Productions Logo:

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Parallax Logo:

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Out of Mana Lower Thirds:

Rough Edges Design Twitter Logo:

Out of Mana Twitter Logo:

Out of Mana Video Podcasts

ncassidy — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:54:14 +0000

During the fall of 2008, a few colleagues and I started a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) themed video podcast series. Dubbed “OOMCast”, the series was outofmana.org’s first bi-weekly video podcast series that discussed news announcements, game alterations, forum threads, and game design / mechanics affiliated with massively multiplayer online games. By providing personal perspectives from versed players, as well as calling attention to well written threads and blog posts created by members of the MMO genre community, OOMcast was an attempt improved upon the noise-to-signal disparity that plagues MMO community forums.

Tools Required : Premiere, After Effects, Cinema 4D, Photoshop

Located below are the first 6 episodes that were released on the site outofmana.org.

Episode 6: 5/25/2009
Episode 5: 4/24/2009
Episode 4: 4/17/2009
Episode 3: 4/14/2009
Episode 2: 4/1/2009
Pilot Episode: 3/25/2009

Flash Multimedia Controls

ncassidy — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:16:00 +0000

While working at the IDS News during the summer of 2008, I was asked to create a dynamic control for aggregating multimedia content. Being that, at the time, JavaScript libraries such as jquery and mootools hadn’t been around, I chose to integrate ASP.NET with Flash by way of interpreting XML output. Located below are a couple of the controls I created for displaying multimedia content. For each piece of media aggregated, both of the controls includes a method for navigation, image support, a description field, and a headline field.

Tools Required : ActionScript, Flash, Photoshop, XML

Please note: Due to deployment modifications, the current demos do not display actual data.

Multimedia Page Control: Demo

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Front Page Multimedia Bar: Demo

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