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Ben Harrison, creative director at Kamazar Multimedia Production in Albuquerque, practices his putting skills in the company's offices at 4931 Prospect Ave. N.E. Harrison said putting is a great way to generate ideas for the company, which provides multimedia services such as Web site design and interactive marketing kiosks. Harrison said the company used to offer clients a 10 percent discount for making a long-distance putt on the first try, but too many clients were good shots.

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Surrounded by comic book action figures, Basil Steele works on a 3-D animation for a client at Kamazar Multimedia Production in Albuquerque. "My dad is a big comic book guy," Steele said. "He got me hooked on that."

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Ben Harrison could have taken an Old World route after high school and joined his friends trapping lobster off the coast of Maine.

He, instead, took a different path into an emerging industry using a skill set he had acquired as a youth.

"I was breaking into video games, modifying them and learning to make my own," he said. "But that was a really long time ago. I was a kid. I had to be about 10."

Embracing his knack for computer hacking, Harrison today creates Web pages, digital 3-D floating objects, video animations, and informational kiosks in museums in his role as creative director for Kamazar Multimedia Production in Albuquerque.

The world of multimedia production and Web site development is bursting with opportunity as businesses seek ways to take advantage of information technology. This has generated a need for highly trained workers proficient in the design, development and maintenance of Web sites and their servers.

By 2014, the Web industry - which includes everything from computer scientists to Web developers - is expected to grow by 27 percent or more, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

Testament to such growth is Kamazar, a firm that started with only three employees in 1997.

They now employ 13.

Harrison, 37, is the firm's creative director. The company creates complex multimedia projects for clients using things such as 3-D animations, video production and interactive informational kiosks - like those the company designed for the Unser Racing Museum in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.

Kamazar also offers traditional Web site development - though it was something the company got into reluctantly.

"We actually tried not to do it," Harrison said.

As evidence to the importance of Web sites in the business world, clients that were already using Kamazar for other multimedia projects were also asking the company to build them their own presence on the Internet, Harrison said.

This was especially popular with architectural and building firms who commissioned Kamazar to design ways for consumers to watch the progress of construction projects online, said Rob Weinstein, 38, a project manager at Kamazar.

Now the company produces about five or six Web sites at a time, Weinstein said.

Once a client contacts Kamazar, the company sets up a meeting to determine the purpose for the Web site, whether it will be used as a "business legitimizer, to collect information, to distribute information or create an e-commerce site," Weinstein said.

Then the team will create several concepts, Weinstein said. The company will then combine what the client likes from the concepts into an initial Web site design, Weinstein said.

"It is all about meeting the client needs. Just because we can put 3-D flying objects flying in your screen, doesn't mean we are going to do it," said Harrison.

That initial Web site is then tweaked with feedback and copy provided by the client and solidified into a finished product that the client can easily modify themselves, Weinstein said.

Weinstein said Kamazar can create a complete site in about two weeks, though the back-and-forth with clients often stretches the process out to between four and six weeks.

Weinstein said 80 percent of Web site development projects lay in the $3,000 to $15,000 range, the price varying with complexity of the site.

With more than a dozen employees, Kamazar is able to do lots of multimedia, but other operations may focus on just Web design, programming, or hosting Web sites on servers.

David Gens, who runs the Great E-Scape at 8513 Ironside Ave. N.E. with his wife, said most of his work involves creating Web sites for small businesses, usually for less than $500. In addition to development, Gens said a lot of his business comes from hosting Web sites on his server.

If someone is interested in Web site design, it would be helpful to learn computer languages such as C++, C , JavaScript, ActionScript, PHP and MySQL, Weinstein said.

The majority of people in the industry have a formal education in programming or in design, but some are self-taught, Weinstein said.

Finding workers adept both as a programmer and a graphic designer - two skill sets that are necessary in the industry - is rare, Weinstein said.

Initially, a person can make a salary between $20,000-$40,000 a year at Kamazar, depending on their skill set, he said.

On the other hand, Kingsley Anderson, owner of Webport Design, 1423 Central Ave. S.E., has been self-employed for the last year, spending half that time strictly on Web development. Even self-employed, it is possible to earn between $40,000-$60,000 a year, he said.

Anderson said he likes being able to set his own hours and work with a more diverse group of clients than he was able to while employed at a larger firm.

Web site developers can join groups such as the New Mexico Adobe Users Group, New Mexico Internet Professionals Association and the Albuquerque Web Women, said Susan Chapman of Azure Communication Inc., 5801 Lowell N.E. She said joining these groups helps to build contacts and provides a support system. She also said formal certification in some programs is possible.

Self-employed, Chapman opened Azure in 1996 and works out of her house, she said.

With Internet jobs becoming more specialized, developers are increasing the use of subcontractors. Kamazar, for example, will hire writers to develop text while Chapman said she hires freelance programmers.

"Every project is kind of a puzzle to hopefully make it more interesting than the client expects," Harrison said.

Jobs that involve Web and multimedia are always available, Harrison said, even if the companies offering them frequently change.

"It's always expanding," Harrison said. "The tricky thing is to find a company that lasts."