DreamWorks Animation produces computer animated feature films. I worked in the R&D department at the Pacific Data Images studio which produced Shrek 1–3, Madagascar 1 and 2, and Antz. Almost all the applications used in production are developed in-house.
I was the only UI designer at the company so I worked on a variety of projects. Mostly, I worked on the character animation, character rigging, and texture painting tools.
One of the biggest challenges for me at DreamWorks was learning about the production process. Computer animation is hard! Since I worked on multiple projects, I had to familiarize myself with many different tasks and workflows. It was fun and I learned a lot.
That having been said, lighting is still a mystery to me.