The operation’s digital requirements are impressive: 800 physical servers, 200 database clusters spanning 15 types of databases, a 52,000-core render farm that expands to 75,000 cores at night, and 13 petabytes of storage. And while its creative franchises are well-known–including Shrek, Trolls, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon-not everyone is familiar with the technology required to produce those films. That entails overseeing all of DreamWorks engineering and operations divisions, including production software, digital operations, network and storage infrastructure, info security, and strategic partnerships.ĭreamWorks Animation typically has 3-5 films in production at any given time, each taking 3-4 years to produce. In his new position, he’s moved up a level, and is responsible for the company’s vision and long-term technology strategy. “The group that I was in charge of is responsible for the vast majority of software used in the studio-large-scale proprietary tools built from the ground up, extensions to third-party tools to enhance artist workflows, and infrastructure that our production pipeline is built on top of,” Ballew said. In his previous role as Vice President of Research and Development, Ballew (’91) oversaw a team of about 100 software engineers with expertise in microservices, rendering, full-stack web development, configuration management, and FX simulations. And after rising in the ranks from software engineer to executive, Ballew was recently named CTO. Twenty-five years later, that startup, DreamWorks Animation, is now owned by NBCU/Comcast, the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world.
When Cal State Long Beach computer science graduate Bill Ballew went to work for a startup, he saw an opportunity to connect two of his passions-computers and animation.
Part-Time Lecturer: Chemical Engineering.Endowed Beavers Distinguished Faculty of Practice.Part-Time Lecturer: Biomedical Engineering.Part-Time Lecturer: Aerospace Engineering.
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