Hello, my name is Xay Ly (aka XayberOptix). I am a Freelance Digital Art and Media Producer working with Photos/Images, Sounds, Videos, Web Media, Music, etc. I obtained my degree at the Art Institute of Dallas in 1995 and have since worked in the field of Digital Art and Media.

My interest in computers and technology since my childhood have steered me in the path of creating computer art.  I've always been fascinated by computers and, as such, use them to create innovative things besides just playing cool video games on them.

I grew up during the time personal computers had just been born. I've owned several different computers in my life time including: Commodore Amiga, Apple II, Apple Macintosh, IBM PC Compatibles, and various pocket PC's.

I started to become very interested in creating electronic music at the age of 10 using my Apple II computer to generate sounds from the Applied Electronics' Phasor soundcard.  Later on, I discovered MIDI and used it to "bridge" my computer with my synthesizer keyboard.  From there on, music had become my favorite hobby because there were no ends to what I could create with sounds.

As a teen, I took up an interest in mechanical drawings.  I love drafting and creating plans and concepts using rulers, t-squares, triangles, compasses, French curves, etc.  When CAD (computer-aided design) became popular, I was even more into manufacturing graphics!  This was when I also discovered 3D animation along with video and sound editing processes.  It was truly an exciting time in my life.

At the age of 19, when I had access to color flatbed scanners at my school (The Art Institute of Dallas), I would scan photographs and make interesting images and montages out of them using Adobe Photoshop v3.0.  This was when I realized that I really wanted to accel in Digital Art and Media Production.  Combining videos, 3D animations, sounds, music, and images all into one final production was truly gratifying!

After graduating from the Art Institute of Dallas in 1995, I was in search of jobs dealing with computers and digital art.  Even though I took up learning HTML, the world-wide web back in 1994 was very primative. It wasn't until after taking on a couple of computer-related jobs that I stumbled upon the web design and development industry. At that time, I didn't even know that I could actually get paid for designing HTML!  Being that I had a strong background in digital art and media, I adapted to the web design and development industry quite smoothly.

To begin breaking into the industry, I started working for a Digital Photography Software company.  I had the pleasure of working with the latest and greatest digital photography equipment.  A co-worker of mine was a web designer with strong graphics skills.  I oftenly hung out with him picking his brain about web design and development.  This was when I started practicing on creating full blown websites on my own.  It was great to weave together everything that I knew about digital art and media with the Web!

After working a contract job for a web design/development company in Dallas, I got a call from Macromedia and was offered a job as Senior Server Support Engineer for their Ultradev Dreamweaver product.  This position really fueled me in my career as a true digital art and media producer!  It was during this time when I came up with my alias XayberOptix which, as you can imagine, means "virtual visions."  After about a year with Macromedia (acquired by Adobe Systems), I decided to start taking on various web related contracts.

For the next 7 years, I was creating web applications, graphics and images for Intranets/Extranets and the Web for various companies such as Best Buy, Sprint, Bluestreak Media, The Mike Ferry Organization, etc. just to name a few. This brings me up to the present day in 2009. 

I am, of course, still open to contracting for companies or individuals that can use my skills but would like to maintain the flexibility of working from my home studio.  Also, I am always looking to network with those in my line of work.  In fact, to promote this effort, I have just recently decided to broaden my horizons by networking with people in the modeling and photography industry.  The site that I signed up with for this very purpose is called Model Mayhem (click the link to see my portfolio).  Every member that I've dealt with from this site has been extremely professional and quite easy to work with. So far, it has been a great experience! 

This concludes the About Me page, but feel free to search "xayberoptix" in any search engine to learn more and/or find some of my work floating around on the Internet.  Thank you for taking time to read about me.  I hope you find my site inspiring.