Corban Gossett

Corban Gossett graduated from Washington State University as a Fine Art major in 1992. After graduation, he stepped into the working world as an intern for Wavefront Technologies, which proved to be an auspicious beginning. At the time when Alias merged with Wavefront Technologies and TDI, to later form Alias|Wavefront, Corban became a Senior Product Specialist. There, he worked on the Maya software project from its inception. As a product specialist, Corban worked on many in-house productions, honing his animation skills and helping to shape what, today, the world knows as Maya.

After almost 9 years Corban joined PDI|DreamWorks as a Production Engineer, specializing in Maya integration. As one of the members of the PDI pipeline group, Corban was tasked to better integrate Maya into PDI's propriety pipeline. He also worked on several projects at DreamWorks Animation and did a stint in Hong Kong, working on "Father of the Pride."

Currently, Corban is the Supervising Technical Director on Shrek3 and will work on this project for the next couple of years, until its release in 2007.

Q. How did you get involved in the 3D computer graphics industry?
A. I was a snot-nosed little kid from Washington State University. I wanted to be an animator. I didn't really know what that meant, but I saw the movie Tron as a kid, and I knew that was what I wanted to do. A guy by the name of Mark Sylvester took a chance on me and hired me as an intern for this small little software company called Wavefront Technologies. (Remember them?) Mark was one of the original founders of Wavefront, and later the Ambassador of Alias|Wavefront. He had his hands in everything, so I started to absorb as much as I possibly could.

One of the cool aspects of the job was working with many different companies, and learning the sometimes drastically different approaches to using 3D software. (Not to mention I got to travel all around the world.) Once Wavefront merged with TDI, and then again with Alias, things became really fun. Maya was born from the combination of both Alias and Wavefront's next-generation projects. The innovations happening at Alias|wavefront and the industry were huge. Terminator2, Jurassic Park, Toy Story, Antz, etc.-these were movies that changed the way we looked at computer graphics. It was an exciting time in the industry, and I was just glad to be a part of it.

Q. How do you use Maya software?
A. Working in a proprietary pipeline, our approach to using Maya is a little different. We tend to treat Maya more as a plug-in to our system. We have our own rigging, animation, and rendering tools, so Maya is used for very specific things that it does very well-modeling, FX, clothing, and "finaling". We rely on Maya's extensive capabilities in these areas. The trick is getting Maya integrated into our pipeline. Its ability to allow us to push data in and out with ease is one of the things that makes Maya a very strong addition to our pipeline. We bring data in and massage it in Maya, and then take that data out and bring it back into our tools.

Q. What projects have you worked on?
A. While working at Alias|Wavefront, I was able to work with key customer accounts during Maya's development phase which gave me a lot of insight into production, and the different ways to integrate Maya into a production pipeline. Productions aside, Maya was actually one of the biggest projects that I have worked on.

When I arrived at PDI during the last few months of Shrek. PDI was doing a lot of commercial and feature film work in the Cafe division, (Commercial and feature effects) and on the feature animation side, we were starting to work on Shrek4D, and gearing up for Shrek2. After the completion of Shrek2, I started working on the movie we just released, Madagascar.

I also had the opportunity to help out on some DreamWorks productions. On one such occasion, we had a team of animators from PDI working in a remote room up at PDI on Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas. During that time, PDI moved into a new building and kept us back in the old building for 3 months, all by ourselves. They didn't want to disrupt us during the last few months of production. Here we were, a bunch of animators left behind in an empty building all by our lonesome. Boy did we have fun!

I also got the opportunity to spend some time in Hong Kong working on DreamWorks Father of the Pride. I flew over to help build a Maya pipeline for a half-hour CG television sitcom. That was a very interesting project and a whole lot of fun.

Currently, I am working on Shrek3. We are in the pre-production stages of the project, so a lot of my time is spent worrying about the pipeline and wondering if we can pull off some of the very cool ideas that are floating around.

Q. What makes this industry so exciting to you?
A. I love the blend between the technical and artistic sides of things. It's one of the few industries that allow you to play and work at the same time. Yes, it's a lot of work but the rewards are very satisfying.

I also enjoy going to the movies and watching something that I have worked really hard on, and hearing the kids laugh. It's one reason I enjoy feature animation. What's fun is that the kids laugh in places of the movie that you have sometimes forgotten about. We look at these images over and over, and sometimes we tend to lose perspective on what we are creating. Hearing those kids laugh and seeing their smiles bring it all back around.

Another thing that I still find a lot of fun is Siggraph. It's the one time of the year that you can see the new and exciting things going on in the industry. It's a place and an experience that you can always learn from. I have been every year since 1992 and this year is no exception. Because this is such a small industry, it's also a place to see old friends.

Q. Where do you see the industry going in the next five years?
A. Technology is only getting better. It is lowering the point of entry for anyone who has an idea. In the past this was prohibitive because of the cost of entry. You had to be able to afford high-end workstations and a seat of software that ran upwards of fifty thousand dollars. Now that same power in hardware is below a thousand dollars, and the software is in the same ballpark. Its fun and amazing to see the demo reels of people just coming out of school. It makes me sick to look back at what I did in college and compare them. The fact that high school kids have access to the hardware and software to create animation is so cool. I wish I had that opportunity.

I think we will continue to see the evolution of technology in this industry. Back when I started, video games didn't have 3D graphics. Now, they rival the look at feel of some movies just in hardware. E3 just happened and the quality of hardware rendering is only getting better. I think there will always be room for the very high-end software rendering, but the fact that you can do things now in hardware that we could only render just a few years ago is a huge deal. The next generation Playstation and Xbox will be taking up some of my time over the next few years. While I think hardware rendering is getting better, we are still a console generation away from hardware matching the level of rendering that we have in today's software. But it's only a matter of time.

Q. What words of wisdom do you have for anyone interested in entering the world of 3D computer graphics?
A. Find a good mentor. I had the good fortune and pleasure of working with Mark Sylvester. You can learn something new from almost anyone. Some of the best people in this industry are not only my good friends, but they are also people I continue to learn from. What is cool about the jobs that I have had is the chance I've had to work with some of the most creative and talented people in the industry. If you can absorb any knowledge from people like that, you are on your way.

Don't underestimate the pipeline. People fail to understand that any production- large, medium, or small- needs a strong pipeline to back it. Just because you have a 3D application like Maya does not mean at the end of the day you can deliver your product. In order to make that final delivery, you must think about the pipeline. Whether it's for a game, a movie, or even the web, knowing and understanding pipelines will help you go further in this industry.

And last, do it because you like it, and remember, this is just a job. But if it's a job that you love and have the passion for, going to work each day is a breeze.