Jason Waltman enjoys a challenge. A computer science major and double minor in art and mathematics, Waltman pursued his interests with vigor at Wittenberg, studying everything from photography and algorithms to software development. That focus has since translated into a creative career at one of the top film production companies in the country.

An FX developer with PDI/DreamWorks, Waltman regularly combines his artistic talents with his computer programming skills to help expert animators create special effects for such anticipated box office smash sequels as Shrek2. Using the C programming language, he also writes plug-ins to PDIÕs main renderer (ÒshadersÓ), which are designed to assist with the final look of the films

"We like to write our own applications so we can custom fit them to our specific needs and be able fix them immediately when theyÕre broken,Ó said Waltman, who tackles many of the same problems as other computer programmers. The only difference Òis that the code I write is going to be used to generate frames for a movie."

As part of his job, Waltman relies heavily on his broad skill set as he renders his own images or small-scale animations to verify that his shaders work correctly in typical situations.

"I'm finding that even after spending four years at Wittenberg and two at the University of Utah, I'm still learning," Waltman said, adding that it's "the perfect job."

"The thing that I'm most happy about in my job is that I'm able to be a computer programmer but still call myself an artist; my job is just as visual as it is scientific," he said.

"When you get to involve two primary interests like that and know that at the end of the day youÕre helping to make a movie that will be shown around the world, well, it feels pretty good."

--Karen Gerboth '93