CGI training for the entertainment film industry

Abstract

As the digital film industry matures, the education needed to become part of it also evolves and shifts. We must therefore rethink how we educate future digital entertainment workers. Barely three decades old, the computer graphics field has been through enormous changes. Possibilities and experimentation have evolved into commonly used and widely accepted tools to create effects, images, and characters for films. The education needed to succeed in the digital entertainment industry has also changed. The early emphasis on technical skills, especially computer science, has broadened to include a strong focus on art and animation skills. The reasons for this necessitate looking at the industry and education over the last twenty or so years (1975-98). While the article primarily addresses the entertainment film industry, that industry offered few digital production jobs before 1992. We must therefore consider the role that television commercials (and those ubiquitous flying logos) played in the development and adoption of digital technology in the film industry. In addition to theatrical motion pictures, the fast growing digital film industry now produces a wide variety of film based entertainment, from ride simulators to large format special venue theaters such as OmniMax and Imax.