3 ms·

>Pixar’s teams are ultimately a collaboration of creative people and software engineers. Grrr.

nopinsight 15y ago
Can you explain to clarify? I and perhaps a few other people do not have enough background information to deduce the reason of your 'Grrr'.
- Dobbs 15y ago
  The implication that software engineers aren't "creative" people. Many believe that software engineering is closer to art then it is to engineering.
  - herval 15y ago
    I guess prejudice is in the eyes of the beholder... "creative" (at least for me) = "people that draw or play stuff". Therefore, designers, music composers and painters/whoever-draws-cartoons. I don't see how this implies that software people don't "create" stuff (and at the same time, I don't understand the need of some to be seen as "software artists" when writing raytracing software or "engineers" when writing a bloody webapp...)
  - ryanbrunner 15y ago
    I could be wrong, but I think what you're seeing is industry jargon more than a slight on software engineers. In movies and theatre, the "creative team" refers to designers, directors, writers, etc. "Technicians" like camera operators, CGI engineers, props people, etc, aren't on this team. It's not meant to be a comment on their level of creativity, it's just a way of delineating roles.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- orjan 15y ago
  Probably because it implies that software engineers are not creative.
shashashasha 15y ago
Similarly, I've always found the description of the designers in agencies as "the creatives" as a weird and troubling siloing.
crewtide 15y ago
The term "creative" has multiple meanings, and I think in the sense they intend, the software engineers at Pixar are in fact not creative. The following story may make the difference easier to see. I've been interviewing a lot of independent filmmakers, asking if they'd be interested in pitching ideas for webisodes to brands that want entertaining content. The prize if their pitch is chosen is that the brand would pay for them to produce the series. So far the filmmakers I've talked to fall into two camps (actually one camp and one individual, but I'm sure there are other filmmakers like this person): the first absolutely love the idea, and the second basically said the money would never be worth it. The essential difference is whether they are creatives. All of these filmmakers are paid very well for taking someone else's creative idea and converting it into a video. All of them love their jobs. But the first group of filmmakers then spends all their extra time and money making their own creative work. The second group has no narrative films of their own, and talked about what a relief it is that they don't have to be involved in the script, the storyboard, or any other part of "creative" (their word). Software engineering is similar. I became a software developer after being a jazz trumpet player for 10 years, and the single biggest surprise for me was how creative programming is. You can come up with an idea and create almost anything with nothing but your brain and an internet-connected computer! The creativity in that is awesome. But many developers don't actually have an interest in coming up with the concept or UI. And certainly most developers, whether they'd like to or not, have very little involvement in the core concept behind the software they're developing. At Pixar, the software engineers have little to do with the plot, characters, dialog, or storyboarding. While I'm sure they solve problems creatively, and they do actually create the story by bringing the already drawn characters to life with realistic animation, this isn't what Pixar means by creative.

Can you explain to clarify? I and perhaps a few other people do not have enough background information to deduce the reason of your 'Grrr'.

Dobbs 15y ago
The implication that software engineers aren't "creative" people. Many believe that software engineering is closer to art then it is to engineering.
- herval 15y ago
  I guess prejudice is in the eyes of the beholder... "creative" (at least for me) = "people that draw or play stuff". Therefore, designers, music composers and painters/whoever-draws-cartoons. I don't see how this implies that software people don't "create" stuff (and at the same time, I don't understand the need of some to be seen as "software artists" when writing raytracing software or "engineers" when writing a bloody webapp...)
- ryanbrunner 15y ago
  I could be wrong, but I think what you're seeing is industry jargon more than a slight on software engineers. In movies and theatre, the "creative team" refers to designers, directors, writers, etc. "Technicians" like camera operators, CGI engineers, props people, etc, aren't on this team. It's not meant to be a comment on their level of creativity, it's just a way of delineating roles.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
orjan 15y ago
Probably because it implies that software engineers are not creative.

shashashasha 15y ago

Similarly, I've always found the description of the designers in agencies as "the creatives" as a weird and troubling siloing.

crewtide 15y ago

The term "creative" has multiple meanings, and I think in the sense they intend, the software engineers at Pixar are in fact not creative. The following story may make the difference easier to see. I've been interviewing a lot of independent filmmakers, asking if they'd be interested in pitching ideas for webisodes to brands that want entertaining content. The prize if their pitch is chosen is that the brand would pay for them to produce the series. So far the filmmakers I've talked to fall into two camps (actually one camp and one individual, but I'm sure there are other filmmakers like this person): the first absolutely love the idea, and the second basically said the money would never be worth it. The essential difference is whether they are creatives. All of these filmmakers are paid very well for taking someone else's creative idea and converting it into a video. All of them love their jobs. But the first group of filmmakers then spends all their extra time and money making their own creative work. The second group has no narrative films of their own, and talked about what a relief it is that they don't have to be involved in the script, the storyboard, or any other part of "creative" (their word). Software engineering is similar. I became a software developer after being a jazz trumpet player for 10 years, and the single biggest surprise for me was how creative programming is. You can come up with an idea and create almost anything with nothing but your brain and an internet-connected computer! The creativity in that is awesome. But many developers don't actually have an interest in coming up with the concept or UI. And certainly most developers, whether they'd like to or not, have very little involvement in the core concept behind the software they're developing. At Pixar, the software engineers have little to do with the plot, characters, dialog, or storyboarding. While I'm sure they solve problems creatively, and they do actually create the story by bringing the already drawn characters to life with realistic animation, this isn't what Pixar means by creative.