Episode 32: Agatha Yu

Animalators

Agatha Yu is a mechanics designer at Oculus in San Francisco, California. During our conversation, we discussed her experience working at Adobe and Oculus, what it means to be a mechanics designer and the importance of tools and how they shape what we create.

Links:

Moonwalking with Einstein book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346975-moonwalking-with-einstein

Website: http://www.agatha.is/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuagatha

Oculus: https://www.oculus.com/

Highlights:

-Mechanic

-Oculus in San Francisco

-In Facebook

-Working for three different platforms

-Building a rocket ship while falling off a cliff

-Thinking through movement and user experience

-What's working right now in VR

-Shooter games

-Quill drawing app

-Kevin Darts short film

-Long term thinking in current design

-Moonwalking with Einstein

-Memory palace

-The future of VR

-People learning and evolving to understand space

-Technology changes quickly

-Mixed reality : Illusion paired with physical space

-Laying a virtual reality over physical reality

-Mixed vs. augmented reality

-Makes a parallel to theatre

-From Sydney Australia, living in Hong Kong

-Learned Flash in the library

-Studying law

-Contract with startups

-Used Flash to express ideas and then moved to After Effects

-It's always good to have a dividing

-Importance of traveling

-Interested in building tools

-Humans make connections in a way that robots never will be able to

-Working at adobe

-Adobe’s switch to mobile space

-Why creatives can be hard to figure out

-Personal project: Game

-Switch to VR in studios

-Choosing to learn / collect inspiration

-Dream Client: Myself

-Favorite Animated Movie: Famous Japan Anime film in 2017

-What does your family think you do: Strap two computers to your face

-Animalator: A dog!