Dena AddedSaturday, September 6, 2014 at 12:56 PM Engineers in Entertainment I'm a senior and I know that I want to be an engineer. But, I want to be an engineer in the entertainment business. Stuff like special effects, robots, etc. However, I don't know what career options that entails. Also, how much of an art background would that require? Reset Sort By Default Kim Wheeler , Abbott Answered Saturday, September 6, 2014 at 12:56 PM Hi Dena, Having a strong background in the engineering fundamentals will help you in a career in the entertainment industry, and having an additional art background will never hurt. Working at Disney I know some engineers with fine arts minors and lots of artistic skills, but it is certainly not a requirement. Most people have focused on their engineering and business degrees. Typically as engineers our focus is guest safety and overall functionality of a ride, and we leave the creative part to the visionary folks or the artists. Some schools have specific programs in "entertainment technology" which focus on entertainment themed projects that spread accross a variety of disciplines within engineering. For example Carnegie Mellon has a fantastic program in this. The key to being an engineer in the entertainment industry is having a very wide background and knowing a lot about a bunch of different types of systems. One saying we have here is "be profficent and sufficent". This means we should be profficient in our field of choice (I am mechanical, for example), and we should have a sufficient background in other forms of engineering as well. I know a lot about electrical systems, controls and structural engineering. Kim Wheeler , Abbott Answered Saturday, September 6, 2014 at 12:56 PM Hi Dena, Having a strong background in the engineering fundamentals will help you in a career in the entertainment industry, and having an additional art background will never hurt. Working at Disney I know some engineers with fine arts minors and lots of artistic skills, but it is certainly not a requirement. Most people have focused on their engineering and business degrees. Typically as engineers our focus is guest safety and overall functionality of a ride, and we leave the creative part to the visionary folks or the artists. Some schools have specific programs in "entertainment technology" which focus on entertainment themed projects that spread accross a variety of disciplines within engineering. For example Carnegie Mellon has a fantastic program in this. The key to being an engineer in the entertainment industry is having a very wide background and knowing a lot about a bunch of different types of systems. One saying we have here is "be profficent and sufficent". This means we should be profficient in our field of choice (I am mechanical, for example), and we should have a sufficient background in other forms of engineering as well. I know a lot about electrical systems, controls and structural engineering.