I'm surprised that TRW were able to make
that thing work.
When I worked at Warner Brothers (Warner Digital Studios) we were working with University of Southern California and TRW on the "hollynet" project. And we had GTE 3DES encryptors and
Nortel OEMed Fore ATM switches. It was kind of a cool project, we transmitted Blade Runner as the first movie. We had a VCR hooked up and entertained the staff over at TRW with Blade Runner.:-) (Blade Runner is a Warner Bros. Film)
All the engineers at TRW were all top notch, but some of their managers were clueless and we had alot of glitches because of it.
It's nice to see that they managed to make into a
usable service... I had some SERIOUS doubts.
You have got to be kidding! Yamagiwa is overpriced
and they don't give out as many *free gifts*
when you buy stuff.
Now Ishimaru denki is where I used to shop
for electronics (non-computer/PC) Got a great
deal on a Yamaha AV AMP. Funny thing was, it
was discontinued and still more advanced
than the models in the US, at the time I bought it
Well I cannot agree with these statements at all.
I currently live in Los Angeles, but used to live
in Tokyo for nearly three years. I moved back
to the US to be close to my father before he
passed away.
I was the Director of Technology and Sr. Systems
Engineer for a well known computer animation studio which was a 100% owned Japanese company. I
was paid well, and recevied alot of respect and
was given alot of say so in how things were done.
While I was there I was interviewed by technical and design magazines, including Nikkei business.
I was approached by numerous
Japanese companies who were trying to recruit me to key positions as a senior level systems engineer or administrator.
I do agree that Tokyo is very expensive, but compared to LA or SF-Bay area, not too big of
a difference in housing costs.
Though to be honest, my personality seemed to fit
with Japanese and I was very immersed in Japanese
society. It helps to have a very conservative
traditional Japanese wife as well. And I still
don't speak Japanese fluently or well for that
matter.
It all depends on what you expect and what you
hope to gain. I would recommend going over there
and experiencing it for yourself. SOme of my
fellow gaijin co-workers did have a less than
desirable experience.
One thing that I did notice that in Japan, engineers and technically skilled people are
treated with more respect and paid better compared
to managers than in the US or the UK. At least
that was my impression. YOur mileage may vary..
Chris
Well as someone who has been testing the Maya renderer on Linux, I can just say NO a dual celeron will not work well or be reliable. The optimal machine for our kind work turned out to be dual 700Mhz PIIIs with 768 MB RAM in a 2U rack mount box. We tested a dual Celeron, dual PIII and a dual PII Xeon (512k cache) and the Maya renderer benchmarks showed the dual 700 to be the best bang for the buck. Besides as someone who builds these kinds of systems for a living. I don't want to use cheap ass parts to build a render farm for any of the companies I work for. If i'm building a cheap render farm for a friends little project in his bedroom or basement. Then yea maybe... Acutally though, MOST of the renders can be done with a rack of Linux boxes. But some renders require things like Origin2000s. We had some renders in one of my previous companies that at up around 3GB of memory! So we ran them on the Origin. But it's nice to see the Maya renderer ported finally. Now you can get all the major renders (Renderman, Mental Ray, Maya) running on Linux. Now all we need is to get Nothing Real to get 'Shake' (Ultimate compositing package) ported. At least the batch version.. Cheers
Do you havve any idea how long those idiots at Disney have been working on that damn thing? Since 1994 at least! and how over budget??? GOD what a mess that is.... As for FFTM I'm actually surprised that the thing is going to make it out the door. I never heard anything good about the progress of that thing.. I think Pixar made TWO, count them TWO full length CGI films in about the time it took those idiots over at Square to make ONE. Of course the never made one before... Well for all the time, money and effort they put into it, it better be good!
The only thing that matters, is what you can do and what you have done. I have been working in the CGI and special effects industry for about 7 years now and I have no college degree, I'm actually a physics drop out. Most of my friends who are working don't have degrees.
I do know some PhDs who are doing very well in the industry and I know some people who barely made it through high school doing amazing visuals and programming.
What matters is your demo reel, what you know and what potential the people looking at your code and your reel think you are capable of. Also helps to know someone who is already working in the industry, but not necessarily. Also not being an arrogant butt-head helps.. though the industry is filled with those guys.
Also some of the best work is not necessarily done by ILM, or the other big boys. Alot of cool development and visuals is done by alot of small companies.
but right now the industry is somewhat slow, and there are alot of artists, looking for work now. Programmers and system engineers are still in demand though...
Ah this is so true. Most of my geek friends who are married have girlfriends/wives who have nothing to do with computer, technology or engineering. And they are very happy and are GLAD that their girlfriends/wives don't have anything to do with computers. Only one or two have geek girlfriends. My present girlfriend is very homey and is very kind, sweet and very cute! She likes to cook for me home made Japanese food and go to Japanese Hot Springs. And is extremely affectionate.:-) (Yes she's Japanese) But the best part, she let's me play with computers/geek toys and be myself and doesn't complain, I just have to spend time with her and pay attention to her needs and desires and we have no problems. Good luck!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm surprised that TRW were able to make
:-) (Blade Runner is a Warner Bros. Film)
that thing work.
When I worked at Warner Brothers (Warner Digital Studios) we were working with University of Southern California and TRW on the "hollynet" project. And we had GTE 3DES encryptors and
Nortel OEMed Fore ATM switches. It was kind of a cool project, we transmitted Blade Runner as the first movie. We had a VCR hooked up and entertained the staff over at TRW with Blade Runner.
All the engineers at TRW were all top notch, but some of their managers were clueless and we had alot of glitches because of it.
It's nice to see that they managed to make into a
usable service... I had some SERIOUS doubts.
I'm surprized that they are not using WHAM! Net.
You have got to be kidding! Yamagiwa is overpriced
and they don't give out as many *free gifts*
when you buy stuff.
Now Ishimaru denki is where I used to shop
for electronics (non-computer/PC) Got a great
deal on a Yamaha AV AMP. Funny thing was, it
was discontinued and still more advanced
than the models in the US, at the time I bought it
Ah Sigh, I MISS Japan.. Kaeritai!
Well I cannot agree with these statements at all. I currently live in Los Angeles, but used to live in Tokyo for nearly three years. I moved back to the US to be close to my father before he passed away. I was the Director of Technology and Sr. Systems Engineer for a well known computer animation studio which was a 100% owned Japanese company. I was paid well, and recevied alot of respect and was given alot of say so in how things were done. While I was there I was interviewed by technical and design magazines, including Nikkei business. I was approached by numerous Japanese companies who were trying to recruit me to key positions as a senior level systems engineer or administrator. I do agree that Tokyo is very expensive, but compared to LA or SF-Bay area, not too big of a difference in housing costs. Though to be honest, my personality seemed to fit with Japanese and I was very immersed in Japanese society. It helps to have a very conservative traditional Japanese wife as well. And I still don't speak Japanese fluently or well for that matter. It all depends on what you expect and what you hope to gain. I would recommend going over there and experiencing it for yourself. SOme of my fellow gaijin co-workers did have a less than desirable experience. One thing that I did notice that in Japan, engineers and technically skilled people are treated with more respect and paid better compared to managers than in the US or the UK. At least that was my impression. YOur mileage may vary.. Chris
Well as someone who has been testing the Maya renderer on Linux, I can just say NO a dual celeron will not work well or be reliable. The optimal machine for our kind work turned out to be dual 700Mhz PIIIs with 768 MB RAM in a 2U rack mount box. We tested a dual Celeron, dual PIII and a dual PII Xeon (512k cache) and the Maya renderer benchmarks showed the dual 700 to be the best bang for the buck. Besides as someone who builds these kinds of systems for a living. I don't want to use cheap ass parts to build a render farm for any of the companies I work for. If i'm building a cheap render farm for a friends little project in his bedroom or basement. Then yea maybe... Acutally though, MOST of the renders can be done with a rack of Linux boxes. But some renders require things like Origin2000s. We had some renders in one of my previous companies that at up around 3GB of memory! So we ran them on the Origin. But it's nice to see the Maya renderer ported finally. Now you can get all the major renders (Renderman, Mental Ray, Maya) running on Linux. Now all we need is to get Nothing Real to get 'Shake' (Ultimate compositing package) ported. At least the batch version.. Cheers
Do you havve any idea how long those idiots at Disney have been working on that damn thing? Since 1994 at least! and how over budget??? GOD what a mess that is.... As for FFTM I'm actually surprised that the thing is going to make it out the door. I never heard anything good about the progress of that thing.. I think Pixar made TWO, count them TWO full length CGI films in about the time it took those idiots over at Square to make ONE. Of course the never made one before... Well for all the time, money and effort they put into it, it better be good!
Uhm, I don't think so.
The only thing that matters, is what you can do
and what you have done. I have been working
in the CGI and special effects industry for
about 7 years now and I have no college degree,
I'm actually a physics drop out. Most of my friends who are working don't have degrees.
I do know some PhDs who are doing very well in the
industry and I know some people who barely made it through high school doing amazing visuals and programming.
What matters is your demo reel, what you know and
what potential the people looking at your code and your reel think you are capable of. Also helps to know someone who is already working in the industry, but not necessarily. Also not being an arrogant butt-head helps.. though the industry is filled with those guys.
Also some of the best work is not necessarily done by ILM, or the other big boys. Alot of cool development and visuals is done by alot of small companies.
but right now the industry is somewhat slow, and
there are alot of artists, looking for work now. Programmers and system engineers are still in demand though...
Ah this is so true. Most of my geek friends who are married have girlfriends/wives who have nothing to do with computer, technology or engineering. And they are very happy and are GLAD that their girlfriends/wives don't have anything to do with computers. Only one or two have geek girlfriends. My present girlfriend is very homey and is very kind, sweet and very cute! She likes to cook for me home made Japanese food and go to Japanese Hot Springs. And is extremely affectionate. :-) (Yes she's Japanese) But the best part, she let's me play with computers/geek toys and be myself and doesn't complain, I just have to spend time with her and pay attention to her needs and desires and we have no problems. Good luck!