The Sparkleworks Team

David Chang, Principal

David Chang is an experienced designer and writer with a strong background in corporate communications and electronic entertainment. He has won recognition for both his creative writing (Gioia Award, Sequoia) and his game design efforts (two Star Performer awards, 3DO). He is also proud to have served as a member and vice president on the board of the Children's Council of San Francisco, a $40M non-profit organization. He is a graduate of Stanford University. He directed and edited this music video for the Bammie-winning Mermen.

He performed design and production work on these videogame SKUs:

  • Freelancer (PC) - top-ten selling product. David implemented both missions in the downloadable demo.
  • Army Men: Air Tactics (PC) - David designed and wrote the dialog for the mission designated as the downloadable demo.
  • Army Men: Green Rogue (PS2) - David designed a level and scripted the boss AI that appeared in the demo.
  • Godai (PS2)
  • Rocket Jockey (PC) - cult classic that influenced other games like Jet Moto
  • Army Men: Air Attack 2 (PSX)
  • Requiem (PC)
  • Ganymede (PSX), and
  • Army Men: World War (PC).

He performed significant proofediting work on the manuals for Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (Wii), Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi (DS), and American Pool Deluxe (Wii).

In addition, the following organizations have utilized his skills. Some animated examples are provided.

Jessica Nelson

Jessica Nelson is an accomplished and versatile artist who has performed design work for clients such as Boxtop, God Games, Launch, R/Greenberg & Associates, Frog Design, Human Code, and Substance TV. She has art degrees from both the Art Center College of Design and the University of Texas Austin.

At internationally acclaimed design house Frog Design, Jessica's animations were used by SAP, Tivoli, and Ford tradeshows. Her motion graphics work was also seen in the credits for the motion picture Spawn, and she contributed digital storyboards to Hollywood productions such as Goldeneye, Waterworld, Dead Presidents, and While You Were Sleeping. For Human Code, she created UI elements and credits for electronic entertainment products such as Trivial Pursuit 2000, Girl Talk, and Red Beard's Pirate Quest.

Not just a designer/animator, Jessica is also a talented oil painter and graphic designer.

Marco Valenzuela

A seven-year veteran of computer graphics work, Marco Valenzuela is an Austin 3D artist with a versatile toolset that includes Lightwave 3D, ZBrush, 3DS Max, Photoshop, Mudbox, and Maya. Marco is an active member and presenter with the Austin 3D Users group and he specializes in low-poly modeling, texturing, and character animation.

Marco's employment history includes work with Callipygian Games, Public Games, Critical Mass Interactive, and n2Digital.

Josh Nelson

With over 17 years of experience with 3D Studio Max and other 3D tools, Josh Nelson adds a great deal of modeling, texturing, and animation depth to the Sparkleworks team. He is responsible for high-end special effects and interactive sequences for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine CD-ROM game, various video blue-screening and compositing jobs in 3D environments, and several magazine articles on technical topics such as particle systems and stereoscopic animations.

Josh has spoken at the 3D Design Conference (3D Studio Particle Systems), taught several well-reviewed classes on technical effects, and consulted on network topologies for optimal 3D creation and rendering.

Josh also contributed animation and/or artwork to:

  • Ganymede,
  • John Madden Football,
  • Rebel Assault,
  • Top Gun,
  • Creative Labs animation demos,
  • Intel's Lantropolis animation, which won a Gold Invision Award from New Media Magazine,
  • an HP investor briefing for 1,500 analysts,
  • the Animatek marketing video,
  • clients Intel, Shea Homes, VRex, 3DTV, Flying Rhino Productions, and Kodak.
Len Lippman

A veteran of film, television, website, and multimedia production, writer/producer Len Lippman has a director's touch with managing projects and people, an artist's eye for detail, and a far-ranging portfolio. Among his remarkable achievements:

  • founded Tomorrow Farm, a development firm, and grew it to a 16-person company. Managed all Tomorrow Farm projects from inception through completion, supervised staff, and acted as primary point of contact for almost all clients, including Visa, Young & Rubicam, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Warner Brothers. Launched a couple of clients' large e-businesses, built E-commerce sites, created Flash animations, developed websites, intranets, extranets, ad banners and print ads, and produced instructional materials,
  • coordinated production and post-production at BAP Studios and Total Video/TotalNet for clients such as Concorde Pictures, TBS, New Line, Visa, Oracle, Cisco, Genentech, and Warner Brothers,
  • managed web production at Total Video/TotalNet and at In-Vision Communications, where he launched an extreme-sports dot-com for a client and simultaneously coordinated website, multimedia, and product demo projects for other clients,
  • managed production and performed quality assurance on projects for Visa, Flycast, ClickRewards/Netcentives and others,
  • wrote scripts for corporate communications projects for Unocal 76 and Taco Bell Corp.,
  • coordinated the vaulting, duplication and distribution of national radio and television spots for some of California's largest ad agencies at Tylie Jones & Associates and at Fast Forward,
  • performed contract work on innumerable films, videos, theatrical productions, and special events, including the Super Bowl, the Grammys, the Oscars, and numerous film premieres, and
  • stage-managed multiple productions at the critically-acclaimed Odyssey Theater Ensemble in West Los Angeles.

Len graduated from USC Film School with a degree in Cinema and Television Production.

Brian Kumanchik

A truly multitalented artist and team leader, Brian Kumanchik is equally comfortable as a creative director, lead artist, graphic artist, and 2D and 3D animator. He has contributed to twenty-two videogame titles over his distinguished career, including:

  • Jurassic Park
  • Clay Fighter
  • Desert Strike
  • Alien Legacy
  • High Heat Baseball
  • and Might & Magic VI.
For four straight years (a remarkable seven SKUs), Brian was the lead artist for the perennial videogame award-winner High Heat Baseball, which GameSpot tagged as "clearly the best action baseball game on the market" despite a dated graphics engine. The High Heat Baseball franchise was acquired by Microsoft to kickstart that sector of their gaming portfolio.

Unlike some digital artists, he is also skilled in traditional art methods and in teaching techniques and methodology to students and young team members. His artwork has been published in instruction manuals and Autodesk’s 3D demo reels.

Keith Meyer

With over twenty videogame credits on the PC, PSX, PS2, and GameCube, Keith Meyer has been there and done that - as a game designer, lead tester, and tester. Keith has a reputation for always meeting his milestones and his ability to see through the fluff to the real issues. As a designer, he scripted AI behaviors, tuned gameplay, constructed innumerable levels and missions, helped to refine development tools, and contributed storyline and dialog writing. As a lead tester, he wrote test plans, oversaw contract and full-time testers, and managed test teams through many a long, long crunch toward gold master. He won two Star Performer awards at 3DO and contributed to the games Sarge's War, Army Men Air Attack 2, SimCity 3000, Moto Racer 2, and SimCity 2000, among others. He has a bachelor's in political science from California State University Fullerton.

Daniel Chang

Daniel Chang is a recognized human factors engineering and industrial design professional who specializes in intuitive and elegant problem solving. He has been profiled in ID Magazine, Design, Interbuild, and Houston City Magazine, and holds a honors Product Design/Engineering degree from The Central School of Design, London. He also taught design for several years at the College of Architecture at the University of Houston. His clientele includes:

  • NASA/Lockheed
  • Halliburton
  • Schlumberger
  • University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
  • Geosource
  • Mitchell Energy & Development
  • Hyundai
  • Healthdyne
  • First General Realty
  • U.S. Homes
  • Highway Products International (Canada)
  • The Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston
  • Siderius (Italy)
  • Crane Offshore