Day 5

This is a sad day. Tis my last day. As I talked about earlier, the wiring people came and went and we have no clue what is wrong yet. Since the server room was really messy, I was given the task of cleaning up the mess. There were zip ties everywhere. They really don't like to clean up. Also I learned that since all the animation has to be rendered on the servers. It is extremely important that the servers keep running at all times. So, when the A/C compressor fails, people get worried. Since there are two large compressors and two small ones, it isn't a total loss. That being said, the computer people were smart when the designed the server room. The rendering system can detect if it is getting too hot in the room and automatically slow down the render speeds so that they don't over heat. Neat.

Day 4

Today we had an issue with commuters all of a sudden shutting down. We found that a breaker that is linked to the group of computers keeps tripping. We made sure there were no mini fridges plugged in or other extra power hogs. After it happened again, we decided to call the electrician out to see if there was a design flaw in the wiring. They should get here in the morning. For the afternoon I helped move some old servers out of storage. This was really difficult. One server contained 48 hard drives. I never would have thought it would have weighed so much. I soon learned why there were lifting handles built into the server. It weighed 175 pounds. Crazy.

About My Project

For my project I worked with a 3D animation company called Reel FX. They are known for the full length film, Free Birds. They are also responsible for doing commercial work for companies such as Chuck E Cheese. They are not a very big company, yet they seem to be very productive. For my project, I will be doing things related to computers and anything else.

Day 3

Today I got invited to sit in on a review / lighting meeting for one of the movies that the company is working on. The director sits in a small theatre with the people that did each scene and says whats good and what needs to be changed in each scene. Since this is all digital animation, the scenes can be changed over night. It is interesting because each piece of footage is not long, but is so highly detailed that it requires hours to be fully rendered. I'll sit in tomorrow to see if I can see the changes that were made.

Day 2

Today I learned how to ship things. I learned that next day overnight is really expansive. I continued to redo the storage closet. I found a server that they had forgotten about that weighed 170 lbs. I found this out the hard way when I tried moving the server from the floor to a cart. I would not expect the server which is not much bigger than a monitor and a bit thicker can be so heavy. Today I learned how firewalls can be set up to properly prevent things from being stolen from inside the building.

Day 1

Today I learned how to build a computer. The specific computer was being built for use with new 3d kits. This means that  instead of just hooking up a computer screen, the screen is split into to smaller screens to be put directly in front of the eyes. I also helped clean out a cabinet that needed to be used to store servers. I found a floppy disk from the 1990's and a windows 2000 operating manual. I learned about how managing the building's spaces leads to a more efficient work place. I learned that because I am one block from Deep Ellum, lunch is a block away, rather than having to drive, I walked. Another thing I learned is that people do not have to be at their desk at a certain time. In school, we had to be in class at 8, here people show up between 8:45 and 9:30.