funrun
August 20th, 2006, 05:18 PM
This summer I spent a week at the coolest conference in the world. No, not GenCon, but SIGGRAPH, "the world's premier international conference on 3D graphics and interactive techniques." I first attended in 2004 and missed out in 2005, and after 2006 I can't wait to go every year. I've found some great videos of things I did and saw there, so read on and see if you don't agree with me for why this is the best conference ever.
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Unbelievable Networking Opps and Behind the Scenes Learning.
I got to talk personally with the people who actually create the world's best movies and video games. These companies (listed with their well known movies) that I talked to were: Weta Digital (King Kong and LOTR), Disney (Pirates of the Caribbean), Sony Imageworks (Spiderman), Lucasfilm/ ILM (Star Wars), Dreamworks (Shrek), Pixar (Cars). I didn't talk to the gaming people, but Blizzard, EA, Microsoft, and more, they were all there too. I also talked to a lot of respectable smaller companies who do great work that you would recognize, but you wouldn't recognize if I name dropped the company.
I sat in on a presentation where Rhythm & Hues (one of those great smaller companies) explained how they created the lion, gryphon, and crowd scenes in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Weta Digital also explained how they created the jungle scenes and the ENTIRE city of New York in the "King Kong" movie. Sony Imageworks explained the making of the 3D water in their dam break scene in their upcoming animated movie "Open Season" (release end of Sept). I saw a lot of unreleased scenes from this movie and it is going to be really funny for adults and kids.
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Cool Hands on Exhibits.
I also got to use a lot of very cool and cutting edge technologies. For example. . .
I got to be an actor on a motion capture stage, just like Andy Serkis did to play Gollum in LOTR! I had to put on a "wet suit" full of sensors. There was a stage area set up with cameras that can record the positioning of the sensors on the suit. This xyz coordinate data then gets applied to a 3D model that has the same points on its body. This way the human motions get translated to the 3D model. The company doing this liked my belly dancing enough that they rendered this sample animation of one of my belly dance moves. Now I just need to get a bunch of them strung together with some music. The hands are a little stiff because not every motion gets recorded, that part would be animated as a finishing touch. Warning, naked 3D lady to follow, and no, its not a model of me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0UG2HSiIbc
Forget one finger touch screens and 2D navigation systems, now imagine a computer screen that replaces your keyboard and your mouse and allows you to zoom, scale, and moves things intuitively. I used a wall mural sized version of this mutli-touch screen shown in the video here. AMAZING technology. http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch
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2005 World's Best Animations (the good ones that I could find online.)
A large part of this conference is to show the best or most technically advanced animations from the previous year. Most of these have funny storylines. Some will take a long time to download but any wait is worth it. I recommend not playing any till it downloads completely.
One Rat Short (won Best of Show)
http://www.oneratshort.com/trailer.html
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos 2006 Intro Cinematic (:drool:)
To get to the video, click "Selected Works" in the left nav. On the next page in the middle column, click an "Intro" link under "Play". There are two file sizes which translate to different screen sizes. There are also two options of how to play, bittorrent and QT, try one to see which works for your computer.
http://www.digicpictures.com/dataeng/pager.htm
Robin Hood Flour - "Giving" Commercial
http://www.richardrosenman.com/project/movies/?mov=h320&cid=71
"A Mean Robot Ate My Homework"
http://www.transbuddha.com/mediaHolder.php?id=939
Guinness Commercial
http://www.framestore-cfc.com/commercials/guinness_noitulove/launch_noitulove.html
Carlton Draught - 'Big Ad'
To get to the video, click on "paul middleditch". On the next page click Carlton Draught - 'Big Ad'.
http://www.plazafilms.com.au/
Racing Airplanes, "Racing Beats" (sorry I couldn't find the translation)
http://193.196.129.35/fmxtrailer/06/big.mov
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Free Parties Till You Drop.
All the main companies host some form of party. Multiple parties happen every night and span the time from the exhibits close (6PM) till the bars close (2AM). Most parties involve free hors devours, a free Tshirt, and free alcohol. You can't beat the free alcohol! The biggest annual party is always at a hot night club and animator geeks know how to dance!
---
A week of parties, cool technology, amazing animations, and fun people. SIGGRAPH is the best conference ever. My first year was in LA, this year was Boston, next year: San Diego! Here I come!
---
Unbelievable Networking Opps and Behind the Scenes Learning.
I got to talk personally with the people who actually create the world's best movies and video games. These companies (listed with their well known movies) that I talked to were: Weta Digital (King Kong and LOTR), Disney (Pirates of the Caribbean), Sony Imageworks (Spiderman), Lucasfilm/ ILM (Star Wars), Dreamworks (Shrek), Pixar (Cars). I didn't talk to the gaming people, but Blizzard, EA, Microsoft, and more, they were all there too. I also talked to a lot of respectable smaller companies who do great work that you would recognize, but you wouldn't recognize if I name dropped the company.
I sat in on a presentation where Rhythm & Hues (one of those great smaller companies) explained how they created the lion, gryphon, and crowd scenes in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Weta Digital also explained how they created the jungle scenes and the ENTIRE city of New York in the "King Kong" movie. Sony Imageworks explained the making of the 3D water in their dam break scene in their upcoming animated movie "Open Season" (release end of Sept). I saw a lot of unreleased scenes from this movie and it is going to be really funny for adults and kids.
---
Cool Hands on Exhibits.
I also got to use a lot of very cool and cutting edge technologies. For example. . .
I got to be an actor on a motion capture stage, just like Andy Serkis did to play Gollum in LOTR! I had to put on a "wet suit" full of sensors. There was a stage area set up with cameras that can record the positioning of the sensors on the suit. This xyz coordinate data then gets applied to a 3D model that has the same points on its body. This way the human motions get translated to the 3D model. The company doing this liked my belly dancing enough that they rendered this sample animation of one of my belly dance moves. Now I just need to get a bunch of them strung together with some music. The hands are a little stiff because not every motion gets recorded, that part would be animated as a finishing touch. Warning, naked 3D lady to follow, and no, its not a model of me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0UG2HSiIbc
Forget one finger touch screens and 2D navigation systems, now imagine a computer screen that replaces your keyboard and your mouse and allows you to zoom, scale, and moves things intuitively. I used a wall mural sized version of this mutli-touch screen shown in the video here. AMAZING technology. http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch
---
2005 World's Best Animations (the good ones that I could find online.)
A large part of this conference is to show the best or most technically advanced animations from the previous year. Most of these have funny storylines. Some will take a long time to download but any wait is worth it. I recommend not playing any till it downloads completely.
One Rat Short (won Best of Show)
http://www.oneratshort.com/trailer.html
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos 2006 Intro Cinematic (:drool:)
To get to the video, click "Selected Works" in the left nav. On the next page in the middle column, click an "Intro" link under "Play". There are two file sizes which translate to different screen sizes. There are also two options of how to play, bittorrent and QT, try one to see which works for your computer.
http://www.digicpictures.com/dataeng/pager.htm
Robin Hood Flour - "Giving" Commercial
http://www.richardrosenman.com/project/movies/?mov=h320&cid=71
"A Mean Robot Ate My Homework"
http://www.transbuddha.com/mediaHolder.php?id=939
Guinness Commercial
http://www.framestore-cfc.com/commercials/guinness_noitulove/launch_noitulove.html
Carlton Draught - 'Big Ad'
To get to the video, click on "paul middleditch". On the next page click Carlton Draught - 'Big Ad'.
http://www.plazafilms.com.au/
Racing Airplanes, "Racing Beats" (sorry I couldn't find the translation)
http://193.196.129.35/fmxtrailer/06/big.mov
---
Free Parties Till You Drop.
All the main companies host some form of party. Multiple parties happen every night and span the time from the exhibits close (6PM) till the bars close (2AM). Most parties involve free hors devours, a free Tshirt, and free alcohol. You can't beat the free alcohol! The biggest annual party is always at a hot night club and animator geeks know how to dance!
---
A week of parties, cool technology, amazing animations, and fun people. SIGGRAPH is the best conference ever. My first year was in LA, this year was Boston, next year: San Diego! Here I come!