Omnibus Computer Graphics

I was taking the 1 year post graduate program in Computer Graphics, when I saw an ad for an animator at a commercials house called Omnibus Computer Graphics. The ad said that they were looking for a 'Unix C' programmer. I asked my teacher Dick Friesen if he would write me a letter of recommendation. He said no, and told me to put everything you've got in your portofolio, and "go nail the damn job." 

So I brought everything to my job interview. Drawings, background paintings, 16 mm film, even print outs of PL1 programs from Guelph. I layed it all out on the coffee table in the office we met in.

What do you think they picked up first? The PL1 programs. I wondered, "What was I getting into?

My first week at Omnibus I did photocopying. The receptionist was furious. She pointed out that because I was a woman, that’s why they’d asked me to do it. 

I had to learn unix.

I mv’d everywhere (moved) and rm’d (removed) everything. I wiped out my account. Heads were shaking around me.

Omnibus and Abel were industry leaders, meaning they worked on, or in many cases developed, the highest-end, most specialized graphic workstations available before desktop 3D workstations became common. 

I remember thinking on one of my first days at Omnibus in January 1984 “where is the drawing tablet and the pen?”

I was asked to do a robot walk. We were using PMat and PPoly. A 3D language tool developed at the NYIT Computer Graphics Lab. These tools were pivotal for creating 3D computer animation in the era of early 80s

I made a robot from simple shapes. I cut out the shapes. Put them on graph paper. Measured the angles for the bends in the legs and arms, typed it all in.

We were in the company board meeting. They were going to show my training assignment the robot walk. I’d gotten one of the editors to put music on it, so I thought it looked pretty good.

The music played, the robot walked. A treadmill cycle. The music ended, the robot stopped. The editor used a freeze frame. 

Rick Ballabuck looked around the room with a look on his face - See, she DID IT!!!

Next assignment a logo. Again,  photostat over graph paper write out the coordinates, type them in.

I was sent to the University of Toronto for night classes in Unix C programming, so I could write the animation scripts for the logo commercials. 

I was at Omnibus until it closed its doors in April 1987.