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Question for any graphics programmers or CG people: As a graphics programmer, how appealing is the CG industry? Based on this, the picture I got was that a lot

Question for any graphics programmers or CG people: As a graphics programmer, how appealing is the CG industry? Based on this, the picture I got was that a lot of the programming he did was driven by shortcomings in the preexisting CG software that artists in the field use. I'm a Computer Engineering student interested in the field and I haven't entirely decided if I'm interested in the applications of graphics programming yet, although I don't have much to go on because I have limited graphics programming experience.

greggman 14y ago
My personal opinion is, it depends (how's that for a cop-out) My take is as follows. You can have a restaurant with just a chef. You can have a trading company with just a trader. You can have a tech company with just a program. And you have have a CG animation company with just an animation. That means that at each of those types of companies, the rest of the people are support staff for the company's main line of work. At a trading company everyone not a trader is support staff for the traders. At an animation company everyone is support staff for the animators. etc... That's reflected in your position at the company. Now for the "it depends" part. If it doesn't bother you to be support staff because the stuff you do you enjoy or because being part of the team of someone making that kind of entertainment is enough reward then fine. There's also always exceptions. For example there are programmers who have advanced the state of the art of CG while at those companies (the hair in Monsters Ink, The water in The Perfect Storm, the crowds in Lord of the Rings) etc.. so if you fancy yourself someone who can advance that state of the art you might find that appealing. On the other hand I suspect it's getting harder and harder to have a big contribution there.
mixmastamyk 14y ago
The work is tedious, the industry a sweatshop, but the final output awesome.
confluence 14y ago
If you start a shop or work there early on and you take off - it's about the same as any startup - big highs, big lows, big work, impressive product, big impact, big money. If you work there after it becomes big - it's like working at any game dev shop for EA.

greggman 14y ago

My personal opinion is, it depends (how's that for a cop-out) My take is as follows. You can have a restaurant with just a chef. You can have a trading company with just a trader. You can have a tech company with just a program. And you have have a CG animation company with just an animation. That means that at each of those types of companies, the rest of the people are support staff for the company's main line of work. At a trading company everyone not a trader is support staff for the traders. At an animation company everyone is support staff for the animators. etc... That's reflected in your position at the company. Now for the "it depends" part. If it doesn't bother you to be support staff because the stuff you do you enjoy or because being part of the team of someone making that kind of entertainment is enough reward then fine. There's also always exceptions. For example there are programmers who have advanced the state of the art of CG while at those companies (the hair in Monsters Ink, The water in The Perfect Storm, the crowds in Lord of the Rings) etc.. so if you fancy yourself someone who can advance that state of the art you might find that appealing. On the other hand I suspect it's getting harder and harder to have a big contribution there.

mixmastamyk 14y ago

The work is tedious, the industry a sweatshop, but the final output awesome.

confluence 14y ago

If you start a shop or work there early on and you take off - it's about the same as any startup - big highs, big lows, big work, impressive product, big impact, big money. If you work there after it becomes big - it's like working at any game dev shop for EA.