One frustration about doing computer graphics is that you are essentially creating art with math. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. In fact, it’s a totally wonderful way to spend your time.
The problem comes in when you want to talk to people about how you did it. Nearly everybody loves art, but nearly everybody is afraid of math.
It might have something to do with the way math is taught in school. Instead of being taught as something fun and exploratory (which it is), math is often taught as a set of strict rules — if you get something wrong you fail the test.
But that way of teaching really has nothing to do with math. Math, like any art form, is really about creating, imagining, finding new possibilities. But try telling that to nearly anyone who has learned about it through the American education system.
So when I start trying to describe how I made something, I often see looks of fear and panic. People back away slowly.
Which is really a shame, because how we create computer graphics is every bit as beautiful as the end result. And in many ways even more so.