Hello.
I am Charles Kinter, but you know that already if you’re reading this. I have been living in technology my whole life in one field or another and the 3D world is the next stone on my path. It has not been the most direct route to get here, but here I am.
I grew up with a Commodore 64 where I learned that to play any games I needed to spend some time typing out the code. This carried true as I went though the various OS’s of my youth. I had a knack for getting computers to do what I need them to do. If I didn’t know it, I researched it and learned it.
In high school I spent my time in the computer lab supporting the programming classes and the rest of my campus. I interned at my school district’s IT office supporting all the campuses systems. I also helped to teach the “Intel: Teach to the Future program” where I taught teachers of my school district how to integrate the office suite into their curriculum.
After high school I continued on my meandering path. At Imtrek digitally imaged documents and made CD GUIs. At Novatia Inc, I helped with the California Solar Screen Rebate Program by making newspaper ads, data entry, and analysis. For Teleplan I did monitor triage, shipping and receiving, and inventory management.
Finally I landed at Apple. I started at Apple in 2003 and worked there up until my jaunt into the army. While at Apple I did Tier 1 and Tier 2 support of most of their products learning and adapting to whatever skills were needed. I helped out in site support engineering as the OS X product specialist for my site. I worked in scheduling adjusting employee staffing for call traffic. I delivered training, made executive relations callbacks, and help with product fault reporting and analysis.
After working there for a number of years I decided to make a life change and enlisted into the military. I served from 2011-2015 in the U.S. Army as an Intelligence Analyst. There I was trained in doing multi-source analysis and reporting. During my enlistment I spent most of my time as a Brigade Security Manager over seven battalions (Approx. 3000 individuals). I processed and maintained solider security clearances, was the primary contact for brigade security violations, delivered individual security training, inspected and trained battalion security personnel, and held foreign travel security briefings. I also did a number of web and excel scripting projects for other headquarters departments such as finance and personnel.
Following the army, I both started my own business and went back to school. I have always been a table top gamer, and had the idea to start a business where i could 3D scan an individual and turn them into their own character. To do this I needed to acquire skills in 3D modeling. Luckily for me the local community college had a great program. I attended American River College and am set to complete my Associates of the Arts in Art New Media this spring. My trek through this degree program led me back to typing out code to more efficiently get things done and helping other artists better use their tools. I kept getting brought more and more into the technical side of this art form. I like to joke that I am only “technically” an artist.
While I went to school I set out to learn as many 3D technologies as I could. I learned Maya and ZBrush at American River College and Cogswell Polytechnical. I adopted writing MEL and PyMel scripts to solve problems. I researched and executed several methods of 3D scanning including IR and photogrammatry. I mastered most 3D printing processes and own many printers. One thing that stays true, I am never afraid to learn a new technology.