![]() ![]() In March 2007, Melvin flew to Columbus, Ohio, for the National Society of Black Engineers’ career fair. He found the task fascinating but had no idea where it might lead. Melvin wrote software to segment the photographic image, grouping pixels together to form objects. Meanwhile, for his senior project he was working with a local company designing a Web-based tool to convert still photographs into comic-strip art. “You have to think of everything a player could do and make sure that you have that case covered. “I liked the graphics part but not all the minute details,” Melvin says. Previously, he’d spent his spare time on small projects related to game design-he made a 3-D rain simulator, for example. ![]() It was the first time he’d ever built a game end to end. He took the course and developed a strategy game based on the U.S. Finally, in the last of his four years, the university offered a single class in game design, focused on educational simulations. That “made me want to get a new major,” he says, but instead he stuck with it, adding classes in media arts (targeted more toward film majors) and graphic design. Not so then.Īs a computer science major, Melvin quickly found out that his professors expected him to study computer security or networking systems, because that’s where local jobs were. colleges offer majors in video-game design. He liked video games-particularly the animation sequences between levels-and wanted to create them. His grades in college were marginal not because he wasn’t interested in studying computers but rather because he was too interested in computer applications that weren’t in the curriculum. Emmys and Oscars glitter above cool tile floors, and the stunningly good food in the cafeteria is free.Īctually, it wasn’t luck that landed Melvin the job. He spends his days on the spectacular DreamWorks Animation campus, where fountains and streams wander through olive groves, palm trees shelter a beach volleyball court, and movie stars and famous directors drop by for screenings at the 148-seat theater. He worked on Kung Fu Panda and is finishing up How to Train Your Dragon, due to hit theaters next month. ![]() Melvin is now a technical director for DreamWorks Animation SKG in Glendale, Calif. He’s worried about graduating.įlash forward a few years. He’s not worried about trying to land his dream job. He’s got a two-point-something grade point average, and he’s barely hanging on in a required class. It’s March 2007, and there’s Jacob Melvin, a senior computer science major at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This profile is part of IEEE Spectrum’ s Special Report on Dream Jobs 2010. ![]()
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