My name is Michael Anthony Roa with the digital alias, TeamRoa, and I am a Graphic Designer living in the Orlando Metro West area. I was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived there between Sunset Park and Bay Ridge for 13 years. After my mother passed away I came down to St. Petersburg, Florida and lived with my father for the remainder of my teenage years. During this time I attended and graduated from Pinellas Park High School.
Pinellas Park High offered a Digital Media program. I was instantly interested and applied. Once in the program I chose the Digital Design track. Shortly afterward I began working in Adobe Photoshop CS. Within a few months I became one of the best students in the class. While taking Digital Design 1, 2 & 3, I ultimately mastered Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe Photoshop CS2 (when the school upgraded).
After school I took it upon myself to practice tutorials on my own. Almost everyday I would stay until the teacher switched off the lights and locked the door since I did not have my own computer or Adobe Photoshop at home. The excitement of practicing with digital art helped me decide my career path; become a graphic designer.
Seeking higher education, I applied to DeVry University in the Game and Simulation Program (GSP). During the first two years I learned many new things about the design perspective of game development and I can now apply that to my work. I will be graduating from DeVry University with a B.A. in GSP in the Summer of 2011. Although many courses were in programming C++ and C#, my passion will always be graphic design.
Freelancing for game design company while being a student has allowed me to practice graphic design in a “real-world” setting and helped me learn new techniques on a daily basis. I love to self-teach myself new things or programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects. I strive to be the best at what I do and I am not afraid to tackle something I don’t understand so I can learn from the experience. I am Michael Anthony Roa, and Graphic Design is my passion!
I have been working on a lot of things within the past month and have gotten into mobile game development. What I do the most is User Interface (UI) design, in the art perspective. The problem I have is working with a small screen size and or resolution. So, the question at hand is: How can I make an effective design and have the maximum screen potential for game play? ...Yup, that is a good question... But I have a better one: How can I make an effective design, and make the client happy at the same time?
Think about that for a second... Nope, its alright I'll wait.
Now that you have had some time to think of that question what do you beli