Careers in computer graphics

Abstract

Information is unquestionably today's most important commodity. Computer graphics, as a means of expressing that information, now appears in virtually every application area. When we began gathering information for this article, we intended to describe each job title and cross-reference each title by applications which utilize computer graphics. However, there no longer appears to be any application, no matter how seemingly obscure, where computer graphics is not used to some extent. For example, techniques similar to those used a few years ago in charting the surface of the moon are now being used in a Skin-Imaging Computer to select cosmetic supplies.The most important distinction in computer graphics careers is between working in the computer graphics industry and using computer graphics as a tool in an occupation whose main focus is not computer graphics. By "working in the computer graphics industry," we mean the jobs of researching, designing and marketing graphics equipment, researching and writing graphics languages, libraries and application software, preparing documentation, consulting on graphics hardware and software and teaching graphics courses. Careers in these areas require more extensive knowledge of computers in general and computer graphics in particular than do careers involving applications which use graphics work stations. In both cases, however, some specialty is required in addition to computer graphics experience.