How It Works

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Daniel Maskit ’88

Venice, California
Technical director at Digital Domain, which makes digital effects for feature films, including Pirates of the Caribbean III, Flags of Our Fathers, and My Super Ex-Girlfriend

The Product

Digital animation effects. “Animators take digital models and make them run, fight, bite—you name it. Then they go to the lighting department for color and texture. Finally, they’re rendered into finished images.”

The Problem

Multiple cooks in the kitchen. “The lighters need something they can work on without damaging the animators’ work. Usually, they manipulate a cube that has all the information tucked inside of it, but sometimes they have to be able to go inside the cube to make final changes. I had to design a program that interacted with all the software and let the artists give the instructions they needed.”

The Solution

A program built around Extensible Markup Language (XML). “Think of a shopping list that you take to the grocery store. If yours looks anything like mine, you walk back and forth in the store with a jumbled list of things. But XML gives you a way of organizing the list. You have the same things you had in your jumble, but you can find them easily.” Maskit’s program gives users access to the information they need, when they need it.

Why It Works

It’s easy. “Part of the reason people hate computers is that they don’t make any sense, unless you’re a computer person. But designing software should be about designing something people are comfortable using. My XML solution gives you a set of buttons that perform the tasks you need. It took people about five minutes to figure it out.”