Bits, Bytes, and Bo Peep — A Software Engineering Intern’s Perspective on Pixar
It was a short drive from the house where I was staying to the gated front entrance on Park Avenue. I drove up to the guard booth and gave the security guard my name. As he turned back to verify my identity and purpose, there was a tinkling thought in the back of my mind that, for some reason or another, it was all a mistake and he wouldn’t let me through the gates. But he turned back with a smile, and with a few directions on parking, lifted the boom barrier, and I entered the famed Pixar campus for the first time.
As a kid growing up in the 90’s, Pixar was a solid establishment of my childhood. We had a VHS(!) copy of the original Toy Story at home, and my first movie theater memory is cracking up at Dory’s whale talk in Finding Nemo (which we parroted unceasingly from the backseat during one eight-hour road trip, bless my parents). I loved those movies. But besides the finished products themselves, it was also the behind-the-scenes I found just so incredibly cool. I loved watching the evolution from sketch, to clay model, to living, lovable on-screen characters and seeing how layers of special effects and simulations progressed from a flat, plastic-looking scene to a beautiful, realistic rendering of an imagined world. To a person who both enjoyed physics and computer science classes as well as littering the study table with inky illustrations of spun-up stories, Pixar seemed like the ultimate blend of technology and creative artistry. So that first day, walking down the tree-lined pathway to the Steve Jobs building for orientation, I was filled with quiet awe of the place and excitement for what the next three months had in store.
A Recipe for a Movie: Script, Animation, and … Code?
I was at Pixar for a three month software engineering internship. What on earth does programming have to do with movie making? Well, while Pixar is well-known for its art and storytelling prowess, it is also one of the leaders of the computer graphics industry. Physics and algorithms play a powerful role in empowering the creation of those heartwarming movies. Just think — would Sully be as cuddly to Boo without his shaggy hair? And have you seen the side-by-side comparisons of Toy Story Andy and Toy Story 3 Andy? During my tenure at Pixar, I worked as a software engineer in the Tools department with the team responsible for Pixar’s open-source project USD (Universal Scene Description). In a nutshell, USD is Pixar’s standard for sharing, editing, and passing of 3D data. Creative pipelines, such as movie making, generate tons of data — things like character model meshes, textures, and lighting information. USD basically makes it easy and efficient for artists, who may be using different creative applications, to import, view, edit, and share this data seamlessly as a given shot moves through development.
In general, as a software engineer in the Tools department, you’re not slated to focus on a specific movie. Rather, you’re juggling both technical support for artists working on a given production as well as feature development for the studio as a whole. Depending on the team, you don’t necessarily even need a computer graphics background to be an effective software intern at Pixar. Compared to the more theoretical, math/physics-focused graphics work from school, internship work in USD was certainly geared towards the practical application side (I mean hey, it is a software engineering internship). The day-to-day work of a software engineer at Pixar is very much like that of a software engineer at, say, Google — reading code, thinking about code, writing code, debugging code, and thinking some more about code. However, if you are a graphics enthusiast, the entire mission of Pixar means there are plenty of relevant and incredibly interesting problems to work on. The Tools Department is laser focused on creating ways to make pixels look beautiful and help artists push the boundaries of how these beautiful pixels can touch the human soul. It is inspiring to be surrounded by fellow graphics enthusiasts and experts working on a wide variety of problems on the pioneering edge of the field. Plus, I think graphics bugs are the most entertaining:
Wacky. Weird. Wonderful.
Sometimes when you’re coding or debugging, you get stuck. Maybe you want to give your eyes a break. What do you do in this situation? Well, you can plunk yourself down on some vintage theater seats with your teammates and work on a Lord of the Rings puzzle. Or get some cereal. Or make yourself a peanut butter sandwich. Or eat a peanut butter sandwich with cereal while solving a Lord of the Rings puzzle.
There’s no denying that Pixar is fun. Everyone is friendly. There are all sorts of quirky traditions and celebrations. You get to see famous Pixar people eating lunch in the atrium. Fun seems to make up the DNA of the campus itself. From the artwork on the walls, the whimsical decor surrounding the cubicles, and the friendly movie characters dotting the hallways (except for Edna, she’s always judging you), they’ve cultivated a wonderfully lighthearted, playful work environment. The environment is built to help inspire artists and engineers alike as they work, because at the heart of the studio, bundling human stories into wildly imaginative, tear-inducing, laugh-provoking movies is the mission that fuels everything. This unique culture attracts all sorts of equally unique and quirky folks. One person on my team likes flying planes. Another enjoys making beer. Another person does woodworking. I mean seriously, when I saw that 4D LoTR puzzle, I knew — these are my people.
I was actually surprised by what ended up being the most refreshing aspect of Pixar culture to me — the fact that engineering culture does not dominate everything. Don’t get me wrong. As I stated before, technology plays a huge role in enabling and inspiring the movies that end up on the big screen. There are some seriously bright engineering minds working at the studio. But you also have some of the most creative artistic minds working alongside them. I think in the Silicon Valley, it’s easy to form an “engineering first” mindset where engineers really dictate the direction and culture of a given company. Lunchtime conversations more often than not center around algorithms, deep learning, and efficiency measured in CPU cycles. But at Pixar, you can talk to artists about charcoal rendering techniques and geek out about raytracing rendering theory with the team at the lunch table. I think the company makes a huge effort to make all employees feel like they’re an important, contributing part of the team. Whether you’re a backend engineer, a storyboard artist, a cafe worker, or a security guard, you’re part of the family.
Those three months at Pixar were an incredible experience. It was really a fulfillment of a childhood dream of sorts. With its art-tech synergy, Pixar is truly a unique place to work as a software engineer in the Silicon Valley. It’s a place where your math, logic, and code can create rich visual experiences that truly touch the soul.
A huge shout-out goes to my team, the wonderful people in the Pixar family, and the recruiters who made this magical experience possible.
Note: All the views expressed here are my own; I do not represent Pixar or any of my former or current employers in this post.