modern skills and tools

A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.

The landscape of digital skills and the tools that go with them is extensive, diverse, and always evolving. Now my focus is on content: writing, photography, videography, and graphic design, illustration, and data-visualization. My tools include: adobe illustrator, photoshop, xd, lightroom, premiere pro and after effects, abelton live, html, css and javascript, and d3 and gsap. I've used react and angular, and vue, but feel vanilla javascript is usurping their unique functionalities. Site-building and no-code tools and services are replacing the hand-coding of sites. But the role of code remains in the making of content: data-visualization and the wild highly-energetic creative potential of current css and javascript.

The following charts lay out my status regarding several skills and tools. Ability refers to my current ability at this time with a minimal learning curve to bring me up to date. Freshness indicates how recently I've used the skill or tool. Enjoyment is a measure of how much I enjoy the type of work involved. Creativity is the level of comfort I have pushing the boundaries of the skill or tool. And polish pertains to the extent to which I can use the skill or tool to perfect the work.

Used routinely since the late 90's. Up to date with program developments with a large amount of creative experimentation.

Used since its inception with photoshop to create highly detailed vector work. XD workflow begins with illustrator.

Used on both mobile and desktop, integrated with portfolio and with photoshop, over the last several years.

Used regularly for around ten years but have used it only infrequently recently.

Gradually replaced sketch, figma and framer. I tend to use html/css/js for prototyping, with xd as a first step.

Used extensively and studied over the last three years, but have used it over the last twelve years.

Used with premiere and photoshop. Very familiar, and have been working with it recently.

Used with premiere, I prefer abelton for most audio work. Although greater interactivity with Premier is useful.

Used for around twelve years. Although only scratched the surface of its capabilities.

My current new fascination. Very much fun to play with. So much to learn.

Used regularly with illustration. Although I find it difficult at times because of unusual UI.

A fundamental skill, I am a quality writer. I tend to bend the rules. I have read extensively. Spelling is not my strong suit.

Another fundamental skill, I've been at it since the early 90's and have practiced all styles and aspects of it.

Yet another fundament skill, I've spent much of the past three years studying and practicing various aspects of "filmmaking".

The internet lacks the creative artistic energy of print design. My goal is to bring that energy to the web.

I've done scientific illustration since the early 80's and most often use illustrator and photoshop for illustration.

Photo editing includes correction, separation, manipulation, montage and several other sub-skills. Well practiced with all of them.

While boosting my videography skills, I've done a lot of editing over the past three years. Used premiere for the last decade or so.

Enjoy mixing dialogue, narration, ambient sound, sound effects and music for video, prefer abelton.

Capable with after effects for both title motion design and animation for video.

Use javascript-based d3 and gsap for data visualization. Formerly used flash.

Simple and essential. A basic fundamental skill which can be extremely creative.

An essential skill used since zen garden days. Now with alpha, in images, and with js, flexbox and css grid.

An essential skill. Evolving, with css, and now equaling the creative potential of flash. Secondary frameworks becoming less important.

A favorite js library. Difficult but provides flexibility and possibilities relative to the other libraries.

Used gsap with flash. Like d3 it is one of my favorite libraries and combines ease of use with creative potential.

Studying react after the demise of angular 1. Not used a lot recently. Becoming less important as js evolves.

Experience with angular 1 before it was eliminated in Paris. I was at the conference. Not used recently.

Webgl and three.js are two libraries followed for their potential. Not used extensively.

A licenced professional geologist with many years of experience. Written technical reports for decades.

Familiar with all aspects of usabilty testing for effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, discoverability, learnability and error proneness.

Experience began with hand-drawing, then autocad in the early 80's, to illustrator, d3 and other programs.

Familiar with google analytics, survey programs and strategies, and split-testing methods for improving business metrics.

Possess a practiced sense of typographic aesthetic and the interplay between image and type.