Main content
Pixar in a Box
Course: Pixar in a Box > Unit 15
Lesson 1: Rendering 101Getting to know Susan Fong
Susan Fong shares her journey from a math-loving high schooler to the Global Technology and Rendering Supervisor at Pixar. She talks about the intersection of math, programming, and art in her work, the challenges of scalability in rendering, and how her experience with diabetes has helped her in problem-solving and trend-spotting in her work.
Want to join the conversation?
What if your not that smart with math, but you have a huge passion to work at Pixar and be a light and rendering artist(9 votes)
Hi Leon,
Did you know we learn more from what we don't understand then what we do , you are smart it just takes time to learn it first off remember to keep going , and you will keep growing. If your dream is to work at Pixar and be a Light and rendering artist don't let this hold you back you can do this just take some time practicing more on Khan Academy and reach out to peers on Khan and ask questions I believe you can do this and you are smart the only thing that is stopping you is yourself and your fear of math no one is born smart we become smart by determination and working hard to reach those goals don't worry your going to have your dream become a reality I believe your going to go far just remember Life is a highway and you are the person that drives the car at the end of the day its up to you to reach that destination you want to go.
Should you need some help or questions answer or just a Study Buddy I will be more then happy to
help you along the way don't worry You've got what it takes to reach the stars and Khan Academy can be here to help you along the way.(22 votes)
How do i make an animation on ka(khan academy)?(2 votes)
this video is weird(2 votes)
am I the only one here in 2023(1 vote)
Hi there I'm not good at math and The Military requires you to take the ASVAB and That involves math and I don't know what to do and I'm kind of nervous can someone help me understand more(1 vote)- I love art, drawing, shading, highlights, character design, and a lot of stuff like that! I would love to do this at Pixar, but when it comes to math, I'm as blind as a bat. How would I be able to do what I love, without having to do something that I can't do, like math? Thanks!(1 vote)
Hello SweetPotatoPumpkinPie,
You can learn math here on Khan Academy! I really didn't like math myself, but as I watched some of the videos I got to like it more. When I liked it more, it built up confidence so I started to love math! I hope the same goes for you. Heres a link to were you can learn some math: https://www.khanacademy.org/math
I believe it would help you a lot!
Don't say that you can't do math. Say, i'm not good at math YET while yet can turn I CAN do math! Hope this helped!(1 vote)
female robot ada style avatar for user Katey Gordon
Katey Gordon
3 years ago
Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to Katey Gordon's post “Hi Leon, Did you know we learn more from what we d...”
Good Answer
Hi Leon,
Did you know we learn more from what we don't understand then what we do , you are smart it just takes time to learn it first off remember to keep going , and you will keep growing. If your dream is to work at Pixar and be a Light and rendering artist don't let this hold you back you can do this just take some time practicing more on Khan Academy and reach out to peers on Khan and ask questions I believe you can do this and you are smart the only thing that is stopping you is yourself and your fear of math no one is born smart we become smart by determination and working hard to reach those goals don't worry your going to have your dream become a reality I believe your going to go far just remember Life is a highway and you are the person that drives the car at the end of the day its up to you to reach that destination you want to go.
Should you need some help or questions answer or just a Study Buddy I will be more then happy to
help you along the way don't worry You've got what it takes to reach the stars and Khan Academy can be here to help you along the way.
3 commentsComment on Katey Gordon's post “Hi Leon, Did you know we learn more from what we d...”
(15 votes)
Upvote
Downvote
FlagOpens a modal to flag content(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] How did you get into computer graphics? - Hmm.
- [Voiceover] What drew you? - 1995 Toy Story. (laughing) When I was in high school, I worked on yearbook staff, and yearbook staff was a very graphical, artistic endeavor; but I was also really good at math. When I went to college, I kinda discovered the magic of the union of the two: I could go to school, learn math, learn how to program, but create art the end of the day. When I first came to Pixar, I started as a rendering software engineer. That means I was actually writing the math of that rendering equation for a living. Over time, I moved out of software and into production, and I now am in charge of the entire rendering process from start to finish on a film, as well as all new technology needed for a film. So, my actual title is Global Technology and Rendering Supervisor. I think one of the biggest problems facing Pixar is the concept of scalability. Rendering keeps getting more expensive, more physically realistic, and the more expensive it is, the more computers we need to do the job. The more computers that there are to do the job, the harder we have making the entire system of computers work efficiently. That's really critical to having an affordable cost point for rendering a film. So I honestly think that one of the reasons I'm really good at math is because I'm diabetic. I've been a type 1 diabetic since I was five years old, and everything in diabetes is an equation: you eat 15 grams of carbs, and that equals one unit of insulin; and everything you do. I actually have a graph now, amazing technology, that shows me my blood sugar every five minutes. I can look for trends; I can correlate if this is how much I ate last time and this was the outcome, how might I change it next time? That kind of trending, of how would I fix the situation, actually extrapolates really well to a render farm: when you're trying to think about looking at patterns and trends on a farm, and trying to make decisions about how you might change it to change the outcome the next time around. So, kind of, diabetes set me up for this.