HIGH-TECH TRAINING LEADING TO HIGH-TECH JOBS
Jan. 19, 1999
Contact Ross West (541) 346-2060
Source: Ying Tan, UO associate professor of fine and applied arts (541) 346-1416
Robert Melnick, dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts (541) 346-3631
EDITORS NOTE: Ying Tan is teaching "3-D Studio Max" this quarter and is available for interviews or to arrange a demonstration of the software. Robert Melnick is available for interview before noon today (Jan. 19).
EUGENE–More than half of the 65 artists employed by computer game maker Dynamix Corp. in Eugene received training at the University of Oregon.
These artists work on "everything from high-end filmmaking, a la Hollywood special effects, down to methodically changing pixels from green to red 1,500 times in a row. They develop 2- and 3-D animations, work with texture maps and texture tiles, build models and do animation work," according to Jay Dee Alley, senior art producer at Dynamix, a tenant at the university’s Riverfront Research Park adjacent to campus..
Many members of Alley’s staff have honed their skills under the direction of Ying Tan, UO associate professor of fine and applied arts. Tan helps her students master a powerful software program called "3-D Studio Max." The program, integral to many Dynamix products, is used to produce very complex 3-D computer models with super realistic textures and life-like character animations, Tan says.
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It takes one term to learn some of the basics of this program, and a year to become fairly skilled with animation," she explains.Tan teaches about 20 students per term, nearly all of them advanced students in the UO fine and applied arts program in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. The students usually continue the study for three terms, becoming proficient at an increasingly complex set of skills.
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Students must use fairly powerful PCs in this work because of the intensive computing demands that are in the nature of 3-D computer animation," she says.Currently, a "fairly powerful" machine is a 400 megahertz PC with 8 megabytes of video memory and at least 64 megabytes of RAM (random access memory). Working on 3-D animation also requires a large amount of storage space–four gigabytes of hard disk space can only hold 2 minutes of rendered animation frames (uncompressed).
A recent gift from Intel Corp. of approximately $300,000 worth of powerful computer equipment to the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts will be of great use to students acquiring advanced technical skills, according to Dean Robert Melnick.
"Increasingly, we are offering more courses which employ educational technology in an advanced state, recognizing the potentials for creative expression inherent in this technology," Melnick says. "The School of Architecture and Allied Arts is committed to providing a broad-based education for our students, with special applications in areas which prepare them for professional employment once they graduate from the University of Oregon."
And it seems to be working–at least according to Dynamix’s Alley.
"I look for artists but I also want smart artists–a full combination plate of talents and skills," Alley says. "These individuals from the UO are talented, visual people who are in the process of bettering themselves through the university. The fact that they were at the university spoke volumes about their abilities."
Melnick, too, is pleased by the relationship with Dynamix.
"It is good for our students and our faculty, and good for Dynamix. Staff at Dynamix understand that we are an educational institution with our own mission, but that we can work closely with them as a partner in this process," the UO dean says.
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