• Question: How old were you when you wanted to become a computer graphic designer?

    Asked by to Ian on 13 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 13 Jun 2014:

      I never really planned on working in computer graphics – it just sort of happened.

      I was about 13 when I got a computer (BBC Micro – they were great machines), and instantly, I just really loved making things in software. I got really interested in how computers worked, and did electronics at university.

      From there I started working as a computer programmer, then one day I saw a job for a company called “Cambridge Animation Systems”. They’re not around anymore, but they wrote software that that was used on Space Jam, Iron Giant, Prince of Egypt, and a bunch of other animated movies, and TV shows. I thought it would be fun to write computer programs that made cartoons!

      It turned out a lot of the things I learned happened to be a really good fit with the way computers are used to make films. It was a complete accident that some of the really obscure things I’d worked on during my PhD turned out to be exactly what I needed to know.

      While some people decide they want to work in film special effects, and work towards that, a lot of them come from very diverse backgrounds. Some are sculptors or painters, some have engineering degrees, some are photographers. Most are a mix of all of those things to some extent. What the good ones all have in common is that they love doing whatever it is that is “their thing”. That’s one of the main reasons its such a fun field to work in.

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