About Me: A Journey Through Words and Worlds
Hello! I'm Paul Siegel, your friendly neighborhood polymath. From writing songs in South America to developing video games at Microsoft in the North, I've dabbled in a little bit of everything. I even convinced the city of Redmond, WA, that they needed a Digital Art Festival!
I've conferred with Saudi royalty about the future of gaming and taught future wizards at educational institutions how to create 3D worlds. I've also founded companies like Armature Nine & Digital Double, pioneering 3D-printed mass manufacturing and bringing the first markerless motion capture studio to the Pacific Northwest.
My Philosophy
Life is a constantly unfolding tapestry, woven with intricate patterns of twists, turns, heroes, and villains. My own life's narrative, admittedly, does't make much sense to me. This might explain why I find such profound solace in writing, where I can craft well-structured stories even when reality seems incoherent. The bonus? My storytelling comes with an unlimited special effects budget, courtesy of your imagination. When I founded Clear Pill Philosophy, it was an effort that emerged in parallel in my existential quest to unravel and make sense of everyday life.
Want to know more? Read the full bio.
About Me: A Journey Through Words and Worlds
Despite my love for narrative, my own professional life has been one big incoherent story—or at least it seems that way to me. Imagine a guy who started off scribbling poems and love songs in South America during the '90s, then somehow transitioned to making video games at Microsoft Games Studio in the '00s. From there, I moved on to curating art shows, choreographing augmented reality dance performances, winning first place in Washington's ballroom competitions, and even conversing daily with a Saudi prince about the future of gaming in 2020. Yep, that's me, Paul Siegel, your friendly neighborhood polymath. And let's not forget, I'm also the guy who decided Redmond needed a Digital Art Festival. Why? Because everyone needs more art in their life, obviously!
The Journey
Ah, 2000, the year I leapt into the gaming universe. Picture this: a storyteller trying to convince seasoned game developers that he could forgo the advent of ray tracing and pioneer image-based HDR lighting instead... on DX9 technology. It's like trying to shoot a cannonball with a pistol. But guess what? It worked. In 2003, I helped launch NHL Rivals, which used dynamic image-based lighting and a heavy amount of clever trickery for ice with Fresnel effects and reflections. I even came up with a way to create dynamic occlusion shadows. As you can imagine, I was neck-deep in textures, shaders, and even traveled across the country helping Microsoft manage another one of its outsourcing resources at the time.
Fast-forward twenty years or so, and you'll find me conferring with Saudi Prince Salman of the Advanced Initiative. Now, how does one go from jamming with pixels and shaders to chatting with royalty? Good question. Let's just say it involved a lot of hand-waving and passionate storytelling.
Oh, and then there's my teaching. Even my courses are epic journeys in the making. Each class takes students on a path of exploration and learning where I guide them through the labyrinthine worlds of 3D art production. Educational rigor meets practical wizardry—that's my teaching style.
And you know what's cooler than teaching? Founding companies, of course. Enter Digital Double & Armature Nine. At Armature Nine, we pulled off the world's first mass-produced 3D-printed product—A9RIGS (in 2012). That's right; our narrative now had action figures!
But why stop there? Remember the Redmond Digital Art Festival? I didn't just submit a dry proposal to the City of Redmond. I drew images, created storyboards, and conveyed a story when sitting face-to-face with then-Mayor Rosemary Ives. The result? They loved it, and for five years, Redmond became a hub for digital creativity.
The Epilogue
There's more I could tell you. About my appearance on a local Fox channel. The Seattle Times featuring me as a person of "interest." My feature on NPR where they got my take on the effects technology is having on creativity. And all the curveballs life has thrown at me. From dancing through multiple roles as a business leader, educator, and dad to even experiencing homelessness, each phase has been a new chapter with its own set of conflicts, heroes, villains, and lessons. I've been fired, laid off, brushed aside, undermined, betrayed, and so on - but I've also been raised up, promoted, connected and given immense opportunities. So here's hoping my life’s narrative is still in draft mode (God willing). Perhaps my last chapter resides here, at Paul's Treehouse Publishing.
So here I am, now with a library of tales to share. From innovation to compelling narratives to just plain quirkiness. Perhaps what brings me the most joy about writing is that, for once, I can shape a narrative that is cohesive (unlike my life). The lack of control one has in life makes story-writing somewhat of a respite from the madness, and I love it dearly. The other thing is I have an infinite special effects budget because it all happens in the mind of the reader. I must say, after spending decades working in animation and entertainment, that's quite a thrill. I hope you'll join me and enjoy these works along with me. I have dozens more stories and books in the making.