Friday, February 5, 2021

"Kids' artistic flair about to get an upgrade"/ "I want to be a computer animator"/ Beamdog

 

Jul. 27, 2017 "Kids' artistic flair about to get an upgrade": Today I found this article by Russell Smith in the Globe and Mail.  This article is about the Paint program on Windows.  My siblings and I used to play on that.  It was fun.



Every computer I have ever had has come preloaded with a program called Paint. It has been a part of Windows. It allows you to draw (usually shaky) lines of various thicknesses and colours with your mouse, so you can do stick figures and messages and apologetic hearts that you can send to your girlfriend when you have annoyed her. 

Children could draw with it and practise controlling a mouse. And indeed any children who grew up in the nineties probably did use it. It was a very practical program.


Paint was also useful for creating cool advertising posters or CD covers: You just imported a photo and you could lay text over it in any font. It was a primitive graphic-design program.

I say was because it now risks being laid off as a stalwart Windows workhorse. In a recent statement, Microsoft has listed applications slated for “removal” or “deprecation” from the next iteration of Windows. 

Paint is “deprecated,” meaning it is no longer “in active development” and may well be cut from the bundle. (A couple of other programs you may enjoy have also been fired: Outlook Express, for example, has been removed for being “non-functional legacy code,” which is how I feel some days.)

You can download a free program that is almost exactly the same, called Paint.NET – indeed some people say it’s better than Microsoft’s Paint – but you won’t because you will never think about Paint again. 

Windows 10 has a more sophisticated drawing program called Paint 3D, which enables you to draw three-dimensional objects and have them automatically shaded, and then placed and rotated as you wish.

 If you are good at it, you can make cartoon-like figures that look like the products of Hollywood animation studios. It also provides you with a number of stock people and animals to use; they can also be rotated as if three-dimensional. Your drawing skills have been upgraded for you.

This means all children’s drawing skills have been automatically upgraded, too – and changed to better imitate a dominant entertainment paradigm.

Windows apps have an effect on how we perceive drawing itself, on what we imagine drawing to be. When millions of computers around the world have the same free drawing app – and that app makes childlike, finger-painty drawings – then the global visual landscape is perceptibly altered. 

The next generation will perceive drawing to be a reproduction of a different kind of children’s illustration – that of the big-budget computer-animated movie (think Despicable Me).

 Unlike the images generated by Paint – which could pretty easily be duplicated with coloured markers – the kind of smooth shading provided by Paint 3D is hard for a child to accomplish with everyday tools. 

So the app has moved us away from a concept of drawing as achievable with material tools. It moves us close to a conception of drawing as something that is done only in the digital realm.

Perhaps purely by coincidence, a new video game for computers and phones turns Paint-style drawing into a competition. Passpartout: The Starving Artist allows you to draw clumsy pictures with your mouse and then sell them to virtual passersby. The more you sell, the more you can build your career and the more fine tools for prettier pictures you can acquire.

 It combines creativity with the financial pressures of an actual career. This sounds insanely stressful to me (I mean, surely most people turn to video games as an escape from having to have a career?) but reviewers say the pleasure is in creating the pictures using this simple, old-fashioned interface. It doesn’t have the instant 3-D option. 

I’m guessing most of these reviewers were children in the 1990s – they are experiencing the nostalgic pleasure of Paint.

The tech media have been reporting on the demise of Paint with a vague alarm. They can’t say why they feel its loss is a big deal – is it just nostalgia? – but they know it is somehow significant, symbolic of something. 

Perhaps what they are feeling is the realization that a hegemonic software company has the power to change, with one top-down marketing decision, the look of amateur graphics around the world, and to define the aesthetics of a generation.







Mar. 28, 2018 "I want to be a computer animator": Today I found this article by Jared Lindzon in the Globe and Mail:



Job: Computer animator

The role: Computer animators are the artists and designers behind the digital effects in film productions, both within fully computer-animated entertainment as well as productions that blend reality with digital animation.


"'Computer animator' is a broad term to describe anyone that's working in the animation industry doing 3-D animation, and that includes several different roles," said Noel Hooper, a professor and program co-ordinator for Sheridan College's faculty of animation, arts and design. 

Prof. Hooper explains that those employed by smaller animation studios - which focus on fully animated projects - and smaller visual effects studios - which combine computer-generated (CG) images with live action - are often employed as generalists. 


Computer animators at larger firms, however, may be employed as a specialist with a focus on one part of the animation process. 

A modeller, for example, uses two-dimensional renderings to build computer-generated models, while a rigger builds the structures that allow the model to be animated. 

From there, an animator is responsible for getting the model to move realistically. 

A texturing artist matches the model's textures to its original design and a lighting artist ensures the textured model is lit appropriately. 

"And then a compositor puts it all together at the end and does final tweaks," Prof. Hooper adds. 


Salary: While generalist computer animators can expect a starting salary of between $35,000 and $50,000 annually, Prof. Hooper says specialists tend to make slightly more, typically earning starting salaries between $40,000 and $60,000. 


"And where it goes from there is difficult to say; it really depends on the ability of the artist," he adds. "Someone can accelerate to a six-figure salary fairly quickly - say, within five years - and certainly beyond when they get to a senior position, but it really depends on the artist. It can vary quite a bit." 


Online job-listing search engine Indeed pegs the average salary of 3-D animators in Canada at $63,769, while competitor Neuvoo says the national average for visual-effects artists is $71,284. 


Education: As a rapidly evolving field, up-to-date education on the latest tools and trends can be vital to a successful career in computer animation, although it is not mandatory for securing employment. 

"The artists' demo reel is the one thing that gets them in the door and gets them the job," said Prof. Hooper, adding that while rare, completely self-taught computer animators can still have successful careers in the industry. 


For the rest, however, Prof. Hooper says there are educational programs countrywide, ranging from short-term crash courses to multiyear postgraduate programs. "You need to find the one that suits the direction you want to go, the time you have and the money that you have, but they're available across Canada," he said.

 Although the industry is wholly dependent on technology, Prof. Hooper adds that educational programs often seek to teach programming skills to talented artists, rather than the other way around. 


Job prospects: Demand for computer animators tends to ebb and flow, Prof. Hooper says. He explains that two or three years ago, demand began to skyrocket and there was a shortage of talent, but supply has since caught up with demand. 


"There's a good, consistent need for entry-level artists now, and judging by the number of products happening, I think it will be consistent for a while," he said. 


Challenges: Like many professions in the film industry, Prof. Hooper says computer animators often have to deal with strict deadlines, which can require staff to work longer hours as the deadlines approach. 


Why they do it: For Prof. Hooper and many of his students and colleagues, there really is no business quite like show business. "We love movies, we love animation and there's nothing quite like sitting in a theatre and seeing your name come up on the screen after a movie," he said. 


Misconceptions: With various specialties and different studio types, Prof. Hooper says the terminology and titles surrounding computer animation often get confused. 


"Even on just the visual-effects side, they're called 'visual effects' or 'special effects' or 'digital effects' or even just 'effects' - everyone's saying the same thing but they're getting confused, and that's true within any area of computer-generated animation," he said. "The labels often get mixed up."

http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/print/GAM/20180328/RBCASALARYSERIES


Jun. 22, 2020 Beamdog: I was looking for a job and I found this Edmonton company:

WHAT WE DO

For nearly ten years, our main focus has been engineering excellence to delight our fans. We craft compelling game experiences, wherever you choose to play--whether that’s on desktop, mobile, or beyond.
At Beamdog, we don’t just value quality in our products, but quality in our workplace. To this end, we make sure to cultivate the following values:

OUR HISTORY

Beamdog is a Canadian video game studio located in Edmonton, Alberta. Founded by veteran game developers Trent Oster and Cameron Tofer, Beamdog has grown into one of the largest game studios in Alberta.
Beamdog creates compelling game experiences for our fans, wherever they choose to play: PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, & Android. Since 2009, our team of artists, designers and developers have crafted original content and engineered enhanced editions of classic games. We’re best known for bringing beloved Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying games like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment back to life on desktop and tablets.

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