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Math at Work Monday: Andy the Design Director

You probably enjoy a good motion picture from time to time.  When watching, you probably do not think about how much math was used to design it.  Today, you will hear from Andy Nick who has been a Design Director  for ten years.  He makes a motion picture come to life.

Can you explain what you do for a living? 

I work for a full-service design firm and lead a team of video specialists. We are a small team, so we all do a lot of different jobs. I direct live action video shoots and handle post production and visual effects for short films, motion graphic projects and all sorts of other multimedia.

When do you use basic math in your job?

When I use Adobe After Effects (a motion graphics and visual effects program) to design and animate graphics using the old-skool cartesian coordinate system. I put design elements at a specific place using X and Y coordinates, and when I work in “3D”, I use Z space, too. Animation is just changing numbers around from their location on a graph to transparency, rotation on all 3 axes and scale. Sometimes, I write very simple mathematical code that calculates where something should be based on simple variables. It’s not calculus, but it does get a little tricky. It’s all very cool though.

Do you use any technology (like calculators or computers) to help with this math?

In my line of work, the computer does all of the number crunching. I just push and pull things around. Sometimes, I have to look carefully at the numbers to make sure that two graphics line up perfectly to each other. Other times I need an animation to look smooth, so I look at the graph that tells me how the numbers change over time. I see the results of math much more often than I worry about the actual number crunching going on.

How do you think math helps you do your job better?

Understanding the basics of plotting points on a graph is just the beginning of understanding 3D graphics, but it’s a foundation that you totally have to have. It’s especially cool for me to use these tools because when a video looks really spectacular, people don’t tend to think that you came at it from a mathematical point of view. Things just end up looking “right”.

How comfortable with math do you feel? 

When you’re working with graphics, all the math is “under the hood” which means that no one will ever see any numbers. When you come out with something that looks good, people don’t understand or care how long it took you to make two things line up perfectly, look realistic and move in proportion to each other in 3D space. All of the hard work that I do with numbers is gone, and people just say “that looks real”.

What kind of math did you take in high school?

Yep, I was decent at math. I was bad at memorizing formulas, but I really understood principles well, and I was especially awesome at using a graphing calculator. (Do students still use those?) If I remember right, I made it to Algebra 2 before graduating high school. I wish I had taken a trig class. I think that’s some really cool stuff, and hardcore programmers can make some crazy things happen on screen if they know some of that stuff.

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do the math you use in your job?

I never learned more math after graduating. I only learned how to apply simple math in a way that made sense to me. I move graphics around for a living. Having an understanding of what makes motion look real is definitely due to an understanding of basic math.

Anything else you want to mention?

If you’re interested in seeing some of the motion graphics I develop, check out our latest showreel at https://vimeo.com/60230695 (password: realreel)

Check out Andy’s motion graphics he developed.  This time you will be thinking more about how math is involved in what you are watching on the screen.  If you have any questions for Andy, I can send them his way.  Feel free to check out more of his work at nickad.com.

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In Math at Work Monday

Math at Work Monday: Katie the costume designer

Katie Curry

Two things you should know: First off, I once worked in the marketing and public relations department at Virginia Stage Company, an Equity theatre.  Second, I love to sew (and don’t have enough time these days to delve into my stash of fabric).  So, I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Katie Curry to Math for Grownups today.  As a costume designer and technician, she’s worked for the Berry College Theatre Company and the Atlanta Shakespeare Festival. She recently started her own venture called Nancy Raygun Costuming that caters to folks who are into cosplayand conventions or just want a fun costume.

What do you do for a living?

I design and build costumes for theatre productions as well as make custom clothing for individuals. I sketch my ideas and then make them into real pieces for people to wear.

When do you use basic math in your job?

I use basic math every time I sit down to work. Sewing is full of fractions — the standard seam allowance is 5/8 of an inch — and drafting costume pieces is all about angles where different pieces meet. It would slow me down a whole lot if I couldn’t add and subtract fractions as I go.

Do you use any technology to help with this math?

Most of the time I just end up using the calculator on my phone or just old school pencil and paper when I’m figuring out how much I need to take in a garment or that kind of thing. There are a number of computer-assisted drafting programs that can come in handy when it comes to design, but since I’m just getting started I don’t have all the fun toys that a lot of designers do. So for now, just a calculator and some brain power.

How do you think math helps you do your job better?

From Eurydice, a play by Sarah Ruhl, at the Berry College Theatre Company in 2010.

With just the actor’s measurements, you can draft costume pieces just using a little math. That means, you don’t have to go through the tons of fittings to drape a pair of pants.  Just put the measurements into a series of equations, and you get the exact lengths and angles that you need to draw in order to start construction.

How comfortable with math do you feel?

I am in no way comfortable with math. I have never been the type who could make sense out of a lot of numbers, so I was pretty bummed when I walked into my first costuming classes and was immediately handed a ruler. It took me a while to warm up to the idea that I would be doing math regularly, when all I wanted to do was make costume pieces. But once you see the end results of a long drafting session, everything starts to make a lot more sense. I don’t feel incredibly comfortable with a lot of other math outside of my profession, though. I can do basic things like balance my checkbook, but don’t ask me complicated things about statistics unless you just want a blank stare.

What kind of math did you take in high school?

In high school I took the simplest math I could get away with. I’ve taken algebra I and II, geometry and statistics and I’ve disliked every one of them.  If I brought home a B in an English class it was a travesty, but if I brought home a C+ in a math class the sentiment was, “All you have to do is try your best and somehow manage to pass.” I am in no way a math-minded individual, so I’ve always tried to avoid doing it as much as I can.

From The Beaux’ Stratagem, by George Farquhar, at the Berry College Theatre Company in 2010.

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do this math for your job?

I definitely had to learn new skills for building costumes. Costume drafting isn’t exactly something that gets covered in high school math classes, so there were a lot of equations and fractions that I was unfamiliar with that I needed to get very comfortable around. Despite the fact that I’d taken classes that were fraction heavy, I’d never actually had to use them on a daily basis until I started sewing every day.

Do you have questions for Katie?  (Do you need a costume?) Ask them in the comments section, and she’ll come by sometime to respond.

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In Math at Work Monday

Math at Work Memorial Day: Wendy the television line producer

What is a television line producer, and how long have you been doing this job?

Production companies hire me after they’ve received the “green light” to develop and produce a new television series. The first thing I do is read something called the bible, a document that explains the concept, visual look and tone of the show. My job is to create a production budget based on the amount of money the executive producer has for the entire project. For example, if he or she gives me $6 million to produce 26 episodes, I need to allocate every cent within several dozen categories over the length of the production. I also create the pre-production, shooting and post-production schedules, assist with casting, hire the technical crews and then oversee the whole project from beginning to end.  I’ve been doing this work for 23 years.

When do you use basic math in your job?

I have to break everything down in the budget and make sure we only spend what we have! So for example, I have to figure out how many days we need a wardrobe assistant, how much it will cost, and make sure we have some wiggle room for overtime, extra prep days, etc. Sometimes, if I’m working on a smaller budget show, I’m the one who calculates the actors’ and technicians’ time sheets, so lots of adding, multiplication, etc.

Every week or so, I have to do cash flow reports; how much I estimated to spend, the actual costs, and estimated future costs. It all has to balance out, so if we do lots of overtime one week, I need to figure out what needs to be cut over the coming weeks to make up for that shortfall.

Do you use any technology (like calculators or computers) to help with this math?  Why or why not?

Oh yes!! Time sheets are now calculated on the computer, but I still check everything with a calculator, as I’ve fallen victim to incorrect formats. Nothing worse than a camera operator coming up to you saying his paycheck is wrong!! Cash flows and budgets are either done on Excel or through special software, often MovieMagic, which has programs for film and television scheduling and budgeting.

🙂

I have to admit I also still count on my fingers sometimes

How do you think math helps you do your job better?

It forces me to focus on what is perhaps the most important part of any creative project: the bottom line. Television is lots of fun, but it’s a business, and the executives and broadcasters expect me to deliver a project on budget. Time is money when you’re on-set, so even 15 minutes of overtime can sink you, if you have dozens of cast and crew to pay. Math makes me more organized!

How comfortable with math do you feel?

Today, I’m very comfortable with math, but since I have a tendency to do everything quickly, my challenge is always to slow down and get it right.*

What kind of math did you take in high school?

I hated math all through school, and always excelled at writing, and other creative subjects. I had one fabulous math teacher in tenth grade who finally made math fun. Good thing I was in his class, because I’d always figured I’d never need math to pursue my career goals, but was amazed years later to discover how much math I needed when I started working in television production. I was a script supervisor whose duties included timing segments with a stop-watch, adding things up and making sure we wouldn’t go into editing with too many long scenes. I was terrified of making math errors, and realized quickly to slow down, relax and always double-check my work.

Wendy Helfenbaum is a writer and television producer in Montreal, Canada. Visit her at http://www.taketwoproductions.ca.

*This is perhaps the best advice I can offer anyone who is struggling with math.  Only your fifth-grade teacher and the Mathletes coach care how quickly you can do calculations.

Last week’s Math at Work feature was with my sister, Melissa, who is a speech therapist.

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