Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/944397
WINTER 2018 11 O N T H E J O B LANDON GINN | NICKELODEON Ginn didn't follow a traditional path into his role as a technical director. In the past, he has worked as a graphic designer, audio engineer and DJ. However, moving to Japan and working for a video game cinematics company primed him for his current role. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOUR JOB? My job as Technical Director is essentially to be a dictionary/thesaurus, a consultant, a right-hand man, and programmer. I help structure pipeline process and test methods to see what will work in production for the project I am on. I help answer questions or solve any problems. But most importantly, I analyze how people are working and find ways to automate and expedite their repetitive tasks. By scripting tools in Python to help shorten minutes and hours of work down to seconds, the artists can focus on just being artists. WHAT'S YOUR TYPICAL DAY? Some days I might be doing render tests, while others I am writing Python scripts to get specific tasks done or even programming entire GUI toolkits. I answer emails then do a quick walk around to see if anyone has any pressing issues or need adjustments to any tools. Then I spend 30 minutes reading technology and industry related articles, get up-to-date with software changes. WHAT ARE THE BEST PARTS? I am a person obsessed with learning and studying. This job requires being aware of cutting edge technology, researching and learning new software every day. Sometimes being a technology forecaster is required. Also, that moment when everything works in a script and you can hit a single button to automatically create files, render those files, and pass them into other software, just brings a huge grin to my face. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES? The challenges and the best parts are one-and- the-same. This job requires skin of steel and you have to crave getting over the big hurdles. Every day can be a major challenge solving problems. And while staring at code for too long does get frustrating sometimes over the simplest of overlooked syntax errors; the feeling of when things work is just plain awesome. WHAT TECHNOLOGY/SOFTWARE DO YOU WORK WITH? On a typical day, it's Maya, the render engine, the Adobe suite, Sublime Text, and Nuke. But I also use ZBrush, different rigging plugins, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, video editing software, website building software, various render engines and compositing suites. Basically, if you want to know how to use a tool, I'll go learn it and help figure it out. DO YOU HAVE ANY SOFTWARE SECRETS? The secret is to stay organized, and any time you find a pattern in your workflow, make it automated. Use templates so you never have to start over. Keep a library of assets that's well organized. Always practice the basics. You can always recognize the person who knows their craft when the basics come as easily to them as breathing. These go hand-in-hand since scripting is nothing but lining up the basics to make a complex tool. Embrace learning new software. I find that when you learn other ways a task can be done, it enforces your understanding of the task at its core. SHWETA VISWANATHAN | WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS Viswanathan has a bachelor's degree in computer science and completed her masters at USC, specializing in computer graphics and multi-media. She says she always knew she wanted to work in animation and got her first opportunity on Wreck-It Ralph. DESCRIBE YOUR JOB. We spend half the year building tools for production. We talk with the artists and find out what their needs are on the show and we build tools for them to do their work. When we go into production, we do troubleshooting. We are the first line of defense when there are issues. One of our leaders calls us the "stewards of the pipeline" so we are there to guide [artists] in their workflow. We're also a connection between technology and production so if we run into issues, we're the bridge. TELL US ABOUT YOUR TYPICAL DAY. On some days, I sit at my desk doing development work, which is basically building tools for the artist. But we are at the frontline of support; if someone reaches out to us with a broken shot or an issue they are having that becomes our main priority. We drop anything we're working on and go help the artist get back up on their feet. It might be anything from a scene not rendering or Maya not opening. But during pre-production, it's quieter and we are sitting more at our desks programming in C++ and Python. WHAT TECHNOLOGY/SOFTWARE DO YOU WORK WITH? We work with a collection of third-party applications and in-house tools. Most of the third party applications are Maya, Nuke, and Houdini. We basically build our whole technology that interfaces with them in- house so right now our renderer is in-house and our scene management system is in- house. For programming languages, ninety percent of the time we program in Python. WHAT ARE THE BEST PARTS OF THE JOB? I like coming in and not knowing what my day will be like—it's exciting. Working with the artists is nice. You're not directly producing content for the movie but just being there is really fulfilling and knowing that you are helping them get ahead. It's also fun because most of the issues that come in we don't foresee; it's like solving a puzzle. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES? Depending on the movie, you don't know what you need on the show so at the beginning you're starting from scratch. Starting from zero, trying to figure out this whole pipeline that you've never built before. It happens on every show. Time management is challenging because at times you really need to get [a tool] out for production to use but somebody needs help because their shots are broken. It's challenging to manage your time in that regard because you have to basically drop what you're doing and switch to something else.