nerdology 101

Last week I attended the annual SIGGRAPH convention in San Diego. Now I know it may seem that I make a fortune just from my fame off this blog, you know … the same one I contribute to like twice a month. However, I actually have a day job as some of you know working for Side Effects Software, creators of Houdini.

I started working at Side Effects straight out of college, in fact, my entire career was born out of a marketing internship I started while in my last year at USC. I still remember interviewing, and working with someone who is now one my closest friends and mentor, my old manager Sarah.

“So you’ll notice this industry has some pretty cool people. Mostly guys, but like really geeky sweet guys.”

“Oh, I’m used to nerds, I’m into a lot of that stuff.”

“Yeahhhh, this is like a REAL nerd though. I mean, these guys, bless their hearts, they like telling math jokes.”

Four years later, I really know what she meant. It took me ages of spending time with various breeds of nerds to truly appreciate the type I surround myself with.

You see, I think we can really divide the majority of the modern nerd world into two segments, the web/graphic designer nerd … and the 3d minded, math nerd. I’m not really sure if one is better than the other, but I have noticed their apparent differences.

Web Nerd:

Dresses well
Has hip girlfriend
Interested in modern applications of practical internet web usage
Reads Digg and Wired magazine
Got into web design to make clean, pretty designs and make a difference.
Will help you with your computer
Ahhs when the new Mac stuff releases

3D Nerd:

Can dress well, but usually slaps on whatever is clean due to 70 hour film production schedule. Also, will generally wear a vendor t-shirt at least 3 out of the 7 days of the week.
Makes math jokes, but more importantly…expects others to get it.
Got into visual effects to fulfill childhood dream of creating film fantasies.
Refuses to help you unless you consider switching to Unix.
Ahhs when they see flawless wet hair in CG.

Anyhow… a few pictures from SIGGRAPH 2007.

Darrin from Black Ginger and Angie Jones (Spicy Cricket). Remind me later to blog about the differences between FX kids and character animators. These are $3 margaritas, naturally we had about 4 each.