Physicists, others using science to help art of film animation
Henderson, 47, is part of an expanding cadre of high-level physicists, engineers and other scientists, including many former NASA employees, who have left careers in aerospace and academia to work in the movie business.
Demand for their services has grown as animated movies, once created by hand, push the boundaries of what can be created on a computer screen. Artists at DreamWorks, Disney-owned Pixar and other studios increasingly rely on the services of people such as Henderson to create complex algorithms to simulate realistic-looking water, fire, dust and other elements in movies packed with action and special effects.
"The physics behind what's happening in these movies is incredibly complicated," said Paul Debevec, a computer scientist and chief visual officer at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. "You need real scientists to understand what's going on. These are Ph.D.-level folks who could have been publishing papers in Physics Today. Instead, they are working on Hollywood blockbuster films."
"This whole company is a very interesting mix of left brain and right brain," said Jim Mainard, head of digital strategy and new business development for DreamWorks. "Often we end up at the same place, but from different directions."
Much of their focus is on what he calls improving the "scale of production." Because there are so many shots in a single movie — one film might have 700 scenes with fire, for example — Henderson and his team spend much of their time trying to devise more efficient ways of simulating effects through improved software and hardware.
"I can go work for an oil company or I could go back to academia," he said, "but the personal gratification of doing something where you can clearly see the results of your work, and where you feel you are providing a unique benefit to the artists — that's what keeps me coming here every day."
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