animation and comics

Wilmer Rivers rivers at seismo.CSS.GOV
Thu Feb 9 12:40:09 CET 1995


Don Rosa writes:
> Learning computer programming might be what one should study to be
> in the future animation bizniz.
One annual event I attend with some degree of anxiety is SIGGRAPH, the
computer industry's biggest convention devoted to graphics.  (I say
anxiety, because just imagine what it's like to be in a meeting attended
by 20,000 computer graphics geeks.  That's a critical mass of nerds.)
Anyway, the 2 most recent SIGGRAPHs are in Orlando and Anaheim, so
you can see the driving influence behind the industry.  Disney was of
course very much in presence, but so were the other studios, trying to
come up with the latest technology to surpass the wildebeest stampede
in "The Lion King" or the dinosaur stampede in "Jurassic Park".  From
time to time, I get ads from Hanna-Barbera looking for computer anima-
tors, too.  It's not clear whether anyone at these studios can still
draw, except for the set designers, I suppose.  Which brings me (at long
last!) to the reason for this posting, namely Don's next comment:

> But then, I do comic books and really don't know much about it all... 
Would you give that same advice to someone looking to break into the
comic book industry in the next 10 years or so?  Since computer coloring
is commonplace, will computer art follow?  (Of course, 90% of the comic
books in USA stores appear to have been WRITTEN by a computer, since
they all have pretty much the same mindless plot...)

Wilmer Rivers



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