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Discussion on: How did you find your niche?

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michael profile image
Michael Lee πŸ•

No problem Justin, happy to help :) Anything in particular within computer graphics that you're specifically interested in?

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jaquino94 profile image
Justin

I’m actually interested in animation! Especially since I grew up watching and loving PIXAR films. Specifically, I’m interested in tool development, where I want to collaborate with the animators, and designers in developing tools for their needs :)

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michael profile image
Michael Lee πŸ•

That's awesome! I once pursued an education in character animation and actually got to visit Pixar and Siggraph. It was magical :) I never finished the education for character animation but enjoyed it very much and befriended folks who went on to animate for animation studios.

Do you do any animation yourself? Does your current school have any animation courses or opportunities for design students to cross-collaborate with CS students? Perhaps as a senior project?

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jaquino94 profile image
Justin

That’s awesome! What made you not finish? For me, sadly I haven’t done any animation at all, maybe once I get a hang of OpenGL and how it works, I’ll move into actual animation. And I’m currently at a community college right now, hopefully transferring soon! The school I’ve applied to does have computer graphics classes, so I’m aiming to take those classes. I’m just keeping my mind open to other possibilities of careers or paths to take, especially since I live in the Bay Area! Being such close proximity to Silicon Valley, there are a lot of opportunities, and possible careers I can go into

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michael profile image
Michael Lee πŸ•

It was insanely expensive, as I was living in SF at the time. Also one of my professors, whom I respected, once told us, "One of these days you're going to have to ask yourself, can you see yourself doing this for the next 30 to 40 years?". I went home and asked myself that question and the answer was no. But definitely had a great time since I learned a lot and met some awesome friends while there.

That sounds like an awesome path. I didn't use being in the Bay Area to my advantage. It's an exciting place to be in cause of the resources as you pointed out. Take advantage of it :)

Have you ever read Creativity Inc? It's more about the business of Pixar and it's backstory, but I really enjoyed reading about Ed Catmull's journey as a person who created graphics tools to becoming President of Pixar and Disney Animation. He goes into detail about his early career and how it eventually lead to where he is now. Also was cool to read that he came up with Z-buffering.