3D Cyber Careers: An Overview

Remember that great shot early on in Titanic where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are standing on the bow and the camera tracks back overhead along the length of the ship? Computer-animated. You probably already knew that; I did--but what my eyes saw in that theater was a real ship. Computer animation has come a long way since the blocky Amiga CAD days. NASA's "L.A.: The Movie," the cool landscape flyover made some years back, took NASA's supercomputers weeks to create; today, a home computer and a few hours would produce the same result. 3D Cyber Careers: An Overview, to paraphrase a popular TV auto commercial, is not your father's career video. Divided into six segments, the program looks at the work of computer-aided designers in space science, product design, architecture, facilities design, commercial animation, character animation and virtual reality. Viewers will see a myriad of incredible applications for 3D modeling (house plans, for example, which not only allow you to walk through the house, but under various lighting conditions simulating night and day) and hear the encouraging words of workers in the field who admit their jobs are a helluva lot of fun, but also encourage students to work hard in math and science. In addition, the program dispels any lingering notions about computer-aided design being a male field: both of the designers shown working on the film An American Werewolf in Paris are women. With many so-so career videos priced at quadruple the price, this engaging and very affordable production is a no-brainer--and it's not age-sensitive. A grade-school student and a beginning college student could be equally inspired. Highly recommended. Aud: I, J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)