<p>Hi, I am currently attending BYU as a freshman planning on majoring in Computer Science because I enjoy programming, solving logic problems, etc. I have also always been interested in drawing/painting/visual arts. As of late, I have been increasingly interested in trying out some animation... and here at BYU they have a Computer Science: Animation Emphasis BS. Apparently, it's a pretty good program - Pixar actively recruits from BYU, and many student films have won awards, etc. </p>
<p>Anyway, I am torn between the straight Computer Science major and the Animation Emphasis. I think I would enjoy the animation emphasis more while in school, but I think it might limit me career-wise, as it requires fewer credits in actual CS classes to allow for animation classes.</p>
<p>I don't want a ton of money or anything, I just want to be able to get a decent job that I'm going to be happy at.</p>
<p>So I guess my main questions are:</p>
<p>Is it realistic to hope for a decent job at Pixar, Dreamworks, or another stable and successful company?</p>
<p>How does the technical side of animation compare with the artistic side of animation in terms of job availability, competition, and salary?</p>
<p>Would doing the Animation Emphasis limit me too much?</p>
<p>What does it really take to make it in this field?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Can you do regular CS, including courses whose concepts are commonly used in industry software jobs, such as algorithms, operating systems, networks, software engineering, databases, and security, with additional animation electives? Or can you do the animation emphasis but add as electives the regular CS courses whose concepts are commonly used in industry software jobs?</p>
<p>Animation is only a small part of the computer software industry, so focusing on that and not including the general CS courses and concepts may be limiting.</p>
<p>The CS courses required, even in the Animation Emphasis, include:</p>
<p>Introduction to Computer Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms, Introduction to Computer Systems, Discrete Structures, Advanced Programming Concepts, Introduction to Computational Theory, Algorithm Analysis, Software Design and Testing, Operating Systems Design, Ethics and Computers in Society, Computer Graphics, Internet Programming, Real Time Operating Systems.</p>
<p>The requirements also include plenty of math, physics, statistics.</p>
<p>The main difference between the straight CS major vs. the animation emphasis is that CS majors will take more career-specific electives (for software engineering, networking, etc.) while animation emphasis (obviously) take art and animation classes.</p>
<p>If that helps? </p>
<p>Thanks for the response, I was thinking I could just take animation electives in addition to CS but I’m just thinking if my school offers this great program with connections to Pixar, I might want to hop on that boat…? I’m not too sure yet.</p>
<p>I’ve heard anecdotally that Pixar is not a great place to work. Yeah, they employ many computer scientists with extensive backgrounds in computer graphics, but I’ve heard that the company culture is incredibly competitive and hostile.</p>