FXPHD - PYT201 Python Fundamentals for the Pipeline

may

Taught by returning prof Michael Morehouse, PYT201 will explore the use (and, only occasionally, abuse) of Python in solving the fundamental problems of a VFX pipeline. Rather than focus on the various APIs of the dozens of proprietary and commercial packages you might encounter in your career moving from facility to facility, this course will emphasize the core fundamentals of building robust, efficient, well-documented and easily maintained modules and command-line tools that do the job well and do it often, and yet remain customizable enough to be empower future development as you build a library of useful tools. We will focus on keeping your code and skills as portable as possible, leveraging on the versatility of the core Python package and a few basic open source packages such as PyYAML. You will learn to document code using the Sphinx document generation system and ReStructured Text, and you will learn to check your good coding habits using Pylint.

Throughout the course the emphasis will remain on thinking through a problem and attacking it with a library or command line tool, then testing and optimizing your code, while documenting it all the way through. While some of the more glamorous and exotic solutions will have to wait for later courses, this course will give you the fundamental skills that will help get you and keep you employed in the pipeline.

For this course you should come prepared with a reasonable familiarity with the basic Python language. Be comfortable with the idea of creating several modules which import from each other. Be familiar with how to define functions and classes, and have at least a passing understanding of object-oriented inheritance. Be prepared to work along in the command line and be reasonably familiar with terminals and their operation. Some basic shell scripting and administrator knowledge is desirable, and ideally you are comfortable enough to download and compile some simple code from source. The lessons assume you are either working in a Unix-style environment, or have your Windows configured sufficiently to engage in Unix-like command line operations. Additionally it is presumed that you have a working copy of Python 2.X installed, preferably at least Python 2.6, as well as the text editor of your choice that supports Python syntax highlighting.

Having come from a life where he rose through the ranks and changed careers more often that some people changed their pants, it's pretty surprising to realize that Morehouse has been a 2D TD at Digital Domain for almost three years now. At Digital Domain he has been responsible for large projects involving cross-facility asset and software syncing, outsource data ingestion, and the overall Nuke pipeline while also supporting films such as Tron: Legacy and Thor. Prior to that he worked in motion tracking while teaching himself Python, and before that he did everything from build and prep cameras to inventory management, tax accounting, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in the production rentals end of the industry. In short Michael is far more flexible than a rubber sheet and equally as hard to pin down.