I’ve a friend who works at Pixar, and a neighbor who hired in there from another, smaller firm. Went to an afternoon presentation featuring some guys from Industrial Light and Magic talking about computer-generated effects.
The big secret?
Eigenvectors.
Yup. Eigenvectors.
Oh, yes — and quaternions, too.
And a whole slew of other heady mathematics.
You want to become a demigod of 3D animation?
Aside from popping out of the womb with mad artistic imagination, you’d better be a double major with computer science and mathematics on your C.V.
I can’t draw. I still draw stick figures.
I also can’t do math. My SAT’s were 770 verbal, 310 math. So double majored in English with a minor in Creative Writing, Psychology, and History.
I was able to use it all for a very good career. However, if I could do math, I would have been an astronomer,