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Flix Productions software is the work of Tom Guthery IV. I produce the animation, graphics, sound and programming. The following is a biographical sketch written by Rosemary West and published on the Educational Software Cooperative web site. |
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TOM GUTHERY IV
was born in Middlesex England, where his father was stationed In the meantime, he developed his skills as an animator, doing classical, hand-drawn, animation. (His first film was completed while he was still in high school.) He did some work for television advertising, but decided this was not the field he wanted to pursue. With the aid of three film grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (administered by the Southwest Alternate Media Project), Tom was able to further his development in the field of animation, producing several animated films which won international awards. By 1990 the personal computer had matured to the point where Tom could combine his interests in both computers and animation. As an animator, he had not been impressed with the quality of the graphics and animation in most of the children's software available at that time. Producing full-screen, high-resolution animation on the PC's of 1990 proved to be quite a challenge. But after nearly six months of effort, and with the aid of the GRASP (GRaphical Animation System for Professionals) language, he completed his first animated educational program, "Animated Alphabet", on his birthday, May 21, 1990. Using thousands of drawings, Tom's programs give smooth movement and detailed animation to a degree that many programmers had thought impossible at the time. Tom's company, Flix Productions, is really a family affair. Tom focuses on the design, animation and programming, while his wife Deborah handles most of the administrative chores. Their three children, Tommy, John and Kelly, are the main "beta testers" and also get paid for stuffing envelopes and formatting disks. Tom's mother, who has taught first and second grade for over 20 years, has been his primary educational consultant. The Guthery children have also served as inspiration. According to Tom, "Before I had children, I would have probably exploited this ability to do silly or strange cartoons (most of my grant films could be described this way). But after reading 'Mother Goose' to my children several hundred times, and playing innumerable games of 'Uncle Wiggly' and 'Candyland', I suppose something must have rubbed off. I decided that since I couldn't find any children's software I was happy with for my own kids to use, I would write my own. The humor that I used in my animated films became a big part of the animated children's software I eventually developed. Years later, I read about a study Children's Television Workshop had done when they were preparing to develop 'Sesame Street', and among its findings were that children were engaged by humor, especially humor derived from incongruous situations (an elephant jumping out of a compact car, for instance). I had stumbled across the same universal truth by watching the reactions of my own children as I developed my first program, 'Animated Alphabet', and the element of silly comedy has remained a mainstay of all my programs." In addition to online and shareware marketing, several of Tom's programs have also been made available to the public in LCR (low-cost retail) packages, published by SofSource. Additional programs have been produced exclusively for retail (available at Sears, K-Mart, CompUSA, Osco, Waldensoftware, Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, Computer City, Software Etc., Office Max, Babbages, Eckerd Drug, Meijers, and many more outlets). Titles include:
Tom's work has also appeared in several computer books:
Tom's work uses a variety of animation techniques: drawn (cell), clay, stop-motion, time-lapse, pixillation, morphing, tweening, 3D, and full-motion video. As the available technology improves, Tom continues to take advantage of it. His ongoing commitment to innovation and quality has earned him many awards.
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Film animation To see a history
of Tom's early film animation work click here. |
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Medical Animation Tom also produces
medical animation. You can see samples of this work at www.medflix.com. |
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Flix History A history
of the early days of Flix Productions educational software.. |
in the United States Navy. After graduating high school, Tom joined the
United States Air Force and was stationed at Bergstrom AFB, Austin TX,
where he worked as a computer operator for four years. Upon his honrable
discharge he received the Air Force Commendation Medal for meritorious
service. He soon went to work for the State of Texas as a computer operator.