CompuServe Messages

Michael, There is a good publication put out by the ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) special interest group for Graphics (SIGGRAPH) called the _Computer Graphics Career Handbook_. It's about $20, and can be ordered from: ACM Order Department P.O. Box 64145 Baltimore, MD 21264 (301) 528-4261 The order number is 429-910. (Ask them if there's a version printed after that.) Your library may be able to request it, the ISBN# is 0-89791-379-5. It has profiles of some people in the field, discussions of various types of work, and answers to questions like "Why are there no 'computer graphics' ads in the newspaper?" If you want to start playing with photorealistic imaging and animation (like T2) take a trip over to the Grpahics Developers Forum (GO GRAPHDEV) and look at some of the work there. (Much of it is printed in the back of CompuServe Magazine.) Search the libraries for 'POV', or Persistance of Vision, a freely available "raytracing" package. Playing with this package, and others like it, will give you a taste of what you can do. If you like them, you might want to try a commercial package. I'm not an expert (I don't work in the field) but from the people I've met and know about, their work involves many of the things you talked about, instead of just one. They may fly corporate logos, digitally superimpose them over a photographic background, chroma-key actors over the top, and synchronize motion-control cameras to film it all. Finally, some formal universities are starting to develop Computer Graphics programs (U. of Maryland – College Park is one) and I know there is a special Computer Graphics design school in the NC Triangle (Durahm? Ralleigh?) that looked pretty good, though it wasn't yet accredited. And hang around these kinds of forums; they're full of professionals doing interesting things with Computer Graphics. -Ralph- <broom@acm.org>