TECHNOLOGY INTERN POSITIONS | 2017Walt Disney Animation Studios has been combining the best in artistry and storytelling with cutting-edge technology to bring wonderful new characters and adventures to the big screen for audiences around the world

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PREDICTING RENDER QUEUE METRICS THROUGH MACHINE LEARNING & STATISTICAL ANALYSISPROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:WDAS Technology Department develops software to support production of our animated films. The internship will be held at our Burbank, CA studio for a duration of 12 weeks beginning in the summer of 2017.

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ batch queueing system is responsible for distributing hundreds of thousands of tasks across thousands of processors every day. Every time an artist submits a new task, they’re asked to provide several metrics that help the queue make informed decisions on where to execute the task. These metrics are difficult for a human to predict, so default values are often used instead leading to sub-optimal packing of our render-farm. This internship will focus on analyzing data produced by the queueing system to make intelligent predictions about future tasks. The goal is to develop a model that can continuously learn from new data, and can make reasonable predictions hundreds of times per second.

PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:• Analyze existing datasets stored in SQL databases●• Generate a model to provide predictions of several render metrics●• Demonstrate the model on live data●• ●Work with queueing team to integrate model into dispatch decisions●• Report results and present work to the Studio

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS:●• Undergraduate or graduate student with a major in Statistics or a related field●• Ability to effectively manage time over the course of a project●• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Statistics, or other related field●• Knowledge of Linux and OS X Operating Systems●• Willingness to learn new skills●• Experience with SQL• Strong communication and interpersonal skills

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:• ● Experience with Python●• Experience with C++• Knowledge of large-scale batch

queueing

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ASSISTING ANIMATION WITH PHYSICS

PROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:WDAS Technology Department develops software to support production of our animated films. The internship will be held at our Burbank, CA studio for a duration of 12 weeks beginning in the summer of 2017.

Software Engineers on the Motion & Simulation team work in two different and mostly decoupled areas in computer graphics: Animation & Simulation. Animation is concerned with precise control over motion frame to frame and is usually done “by hand” by artists in interactive workflows whereas simulation is more related to physically-based phenomena and needs expensive computation.

PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:• Familiarize themselves with existing Disney animation and simulation workflows●• Gather requirements and input from production artists on desired workflows●• Propose changes to the animation workflow that incorporate fast

simulation techniques●• Evaluate existing real-time physics engines for use in the production of

animated features● ●• Integrate prototypes into existing production workflows● ●• Demonstrate products to stakeholders● ●• Take direction and work independently with support and mentoring● ●• Document progress and results throughout the internship with a final

presentation at the end

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS:●• ●Strong communication and interpersonal skills• Experience or relevant coursework in Computer Graphics●• Majoring in Computer Science, Mathematics, or User Interface/Interaction

Design programs• Strong C++ programming skills

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:• Experience with interface design●• Experience with animation workflows●• Experience in physically based simulation techniques such as ●Position

Based Dynamics

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VR ANIMATION WORKFLOW TOOL

PROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:WDAS Technology Department develops software to support production of our animated films. The internship will be held at our Burbank, CA studio for a duration of 12 weeks beginning in the summer of 2017.

In this Summer internship you will work with our team to develop new tools and workflows that will investigate integrating virtual reality into our film making process. The intern will create a set of prototypes and explore a variety of approaches to assess usefulness and productivity.

PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:• Develop tools and libraries to pose, modify, and animate assets in VR• Optimize the tool for high frame rate VR requirements• Create a library to be reused on different prototypes• Create clear documentation about the project both for developers and end users• Assist artists on the usage of the new tools• Document progress and results throughout the internship with a final

presentation at the end

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS:• Graduate student in computer graphics, computer science, or related field• Experience with commercial VR Headsets• Experience with real-time graphics engines, such as Unity or Unreal• Strong C# skills• Experience using third party APIs in the real-time engine• Ability to effectively manage time over the course of a project• Strong communication and interpersonal skills

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:• Basic knowledge of the 3D Animation

process• Basic knowledge of Autodesk Maya or

other 3D content creation package• Alternative interaction methods (e.g.-

leap motion)• UI/UX Design • C++

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FLEXIBLE, ON-DEMAND RIGGING SYSTEM

PROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:WDAS Technology Department develops software to support production of our animated films. The internship will be held at our Burbank, CA studio for a duration of 12 weeks beginning in the summer of 2017.

Current rigging methodologies pre-build all foreseen control structures and solvers, then publish assets to animation. This makes for heavy assets and difficulty adding new manipulation on top of the pre-built structure.

Instead, we would like to explore the use of more on-the-fly rigging (IK, FK, etc) where artists can selectively choose the controls to manipulate, and rigging builds in-the-moment in a non-destructive way.

PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:• Defining an efficient architecture for the on-demand rigging system in C++/Python• Creating a structure that works with an arbitrarily complex skeleton graph• Designing a Maya plugin-based prototype solution• Conducting artist research to determine potential workflows for the new system• Designing a prototype for the user interface• Iterating with mentors on technical implementation• Iterating with production artists on usability

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS:• Candidate must be an undergraduate or graduate level student pursuing a

degree in computer science, computer animation, or a related field.• Candidate must have experience with rigging and dynamics as applied to

computer graphics and animation.• Candidate must have a solid understanding of Inverse Kinematic systems

and solvers.• Candidate must have a solid understanding of graph theory• Candidate must be able to work as part of a team• Proficiency in large scale development in C++, Python is required• Past experience in using Maya is beneficial, though not entirely crucial• Past experience in user interface and user experience design is a high priority

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EXTENDING BATCHED RAY TRAVERSAL FOR ACCELERATED PATH TRACINGPROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:WDAS Technology Department develops software to support production of our animated films. The internship will be held at our Burbank, CA studio for a duration of 12 weeks beginning in the summer of 2017.

This intern project will investigate extending our batched ray traversal system for accelerating path tracing. The intern will research and investigate ways to leverage the unique properties and behaviors of our production renderer’s batched ray traversal system to take advantage of state-of-the-art work in fast ray tracing. The goal of the project is to produce faster ray traversal techniques that can improve interactivity when rendering production assets on local artists machines.

PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:• Investigate and evaluate state-of-the-art traversal algorithms and libraries• Research and evaluate different accelerator systems currently available,

development tooling and platforms, etc.• Design potential strategies for integrating different techniques and systems into

our production renderer• Prototype strategies outlined in previous step• Measure and evaluate memory bandwidth, runtime efficiency, total performance

impacts, etc.• Prepare presentation with conclusive recommendations on future work• Maintain continual project updates via internal blog and collaboration with our

engineers• Collaboratively publish if appropriate

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS:• Masters or PhD candidate with a focus on computer graphics• CUDA or OpenCL experience• Strong desire to engage with different roles in technology and production to

understand problem space, prior development, and production needs• C++11 • Linux

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:• Experience with Monte-Carlo path tracing• Experience with complex ray-traversal algorithms• Experience with Embree or Optix• Experience with accelerator coprocessors such as GPUs, FPGAs, or Xeon Phi• Strong software engineering skills• Comfortable in a collaborative environment and also able to self-manage and

work independently

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RENDERING WITH AUTOMATED LEVEL-OF-DETAIL

PROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:WDAS Technology Department develops software to support production of our animated films. The internship will be held at our Burbank, CA studio for a duration of 12 weeks beginning in the summer of 2017.

This intern project will investigate automated processes for geometric and material complexity reduction with a focus on representing complex sub-pixel geometry for more efficient rendering. The project’s goal is to research, evaluate, and recommend alternative techniques to aggregate this information to allow for artist flexibility and reusability beyond a single shot setup, with potential future applications to final and preview rendering, faster scene interaction, and shot dressing.

PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:•● Investigate geometric and material simplification techniques associated

with level-of-detail• Research potential advancements and applicability for production problem-

spaces• Design an experiment to measure efficacy of proposed techniques• Prototype techniques as outlined in the experiment• Measure the expected memory and runtime advantages• Prepare presentation with conclusive recommendations on future work• Maintain continual project updates via internal blog• Collaboratively publish if appropriate

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS:• Masters or PhD candidate with a focus on computer graphics• Strong desire to engage with different roles in technology and production to

understand problem space, prior development, and production needs• C++11• Linux

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:• Experience with material acquisition and geometric simplification• Experience with Monte-Carlo path tracing• Strong software engineering skills• Comfortable in a collaborative environment and also able to self-manage

and work independently• Familiarity with Python

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TECHNICAL DIRECTOR INTERNSHIP:PRODUCTION TOOL DESIGNPROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:Walt Disney Animation Studios has been combining the best in artistry and storytelling with cutting-edge technology to bring wonderful new characters and adventures to the big screen for audiences around the world. We currently have an exciting internship opportunity in the Technical Director group located in Burbank, CA beginning June 6, 2017 for 12 weeks. Technical Directors are stewards of the production pipeline. They strategize solutions to a range of production and pipeline issues. TDs use their knowledge of the production process and technical skills to write scripts, adapt tools, and modify workflows in support of artistic endeavors.

We are seeking a qualified candidate to design an intuitive and artistic set dressing tool to be used by the Modeling department during set authoring. The goal for the summer is to architect a set dressing suite that can allow modelers to build environments fast and efficiently with a focus on incorporating painting techniques and rigid body collisions into the set dressing process.

PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:•● Engage with artists to understand the current tool set and processes.• Work iteratively with TDs and artists to come up with an efficient workflow.• Piece together the design logic needed for the project making correct use

of in-house libraries and utilities.• Design an interface for ease of use.• Setup documentation.

INTERNSHIP REQUIREMENTS:• Undergraduate or graduate student in computer science or a related field

of study.• Classwork or research related to graphical user interface or user

experience design.• Strong working knowledge of python and pyQT and experience

programming in Linux or other Unix environment.• Ability to take initiative, prioritize, meet deadlines, and work in a team setting.• Familiarity with CG production processes and workflows is a plus.

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DISNEY RESEARCH INTERNSHIPS

PROJECT GOALS AT WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS:Disney Research at Walt Disney Animation Studios (Burbank), is offering a number of openings for summer and potentially fall internships.

The goal of all the projects is to perform cutting edge research which one day may help create our animated films. Most candidates will be PhD students although exceptional master students may also be considered.

All internships are initially 13 weeks with flexible start and end dates. Successful projects will typically lead to a publication and all interns will get an opportunity to experience how Disney magic is made.

• Splines and subdivision surfaces• Continuum mechanics• Collision detection

• Nonlinear optimization• Multigrid methods• High performance computing

• C++• Matlab or Mathematica• Strong math skills

• Linux• Excellent communication skills

©2016 DISNEY

Research

EXPERTISE OF PARTICULAR INTERESTS INCLUDE ANY ONE OF :

ALL CANDIDATES SHOULD BE PROFICIENT WITH :

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