UT Dallas’ Arts and Technology Distinguished Lecture Series that was conducted late January 2015 saw the presence of DreamWorks Animation (DWA) chief technology officer Lincoln Wallen speak on ‘Science and Engineering: The Art of Experience’ wherein he explained how complex systems containing huge data and equations are made simple during the animation process.
In order to create the amazing sequences in the award winning animated movie from DWA How to Train Your Dragon 2, the animators required a lot of science, engineering and maths. “Designing an animated experience requires solving problems – thousands of physics simulations each day,” Wallen is quoted as stating by UT Dallas. “How to Train Your Dragon 2 (HTTYD2) required 80 million compute hours to produce. That’s done on a supercomputer consisting of over 20,000 individual computers involving 200 terabytes of data, half a billion digital files and 250 billion pixels that are crafted for the film.”
DWA had launched its proprietary platform Apollo which helped them ease out work on HTTYD2. “In creating Apollo, my vision was to set a new course for innovation at the studio utilising a novel approach – making our end users, namely our artists, intimately involved in the development process of software to enable creativity,” he said.
Answering a question on how students might become more competitive for jobs at companies like DWA, he said ‘engineers mind your math and animators hone your graphic skills’.
Wallen joined DWA in 2008 as head of research and development to direct the creation and deployment of the studio’s CG production platform and software tools. He was also professor at Oxford University.