SIGGRAPH Observations

I was lucky enough to go to SIGGRAPH 2010 and experience some of the inside track on the computer-graphic industry. Fascinating!

Here are just a few observations, I might throw a couple images up in a while, but now, just text!

• There were tons of people using Macs. Mostly MacBookPros, and mostly the newer uni-body ones. I somehow thought there would be a higher tendency towards PCs, but it was at least a 50-50 split, if not in favor of Macs. Just anecdotal observations, but I found it interesting.
• Stereoscopic 3D was of course the big thing, but everything relied on glasses or other headgear. And unless it's a motorcycle helmet, headgear is rarely cool.
• All directors, producers and writers make a big deal about "story". Heck, even in my line of work, we make a big deal about "story". But so many movies are complete crap, who's actually behind the scenes hacking away at what may have been a good story and turning into schlock? I wish I knew... Harlen Ellison wrote a screenplay for "I Robot" and in the intro ranted that it would never be made into a movie, Hollywood would turn it into some action SFX drivel. He was right (although I did enjoy the Will Smith version, it was typical Hollywood.). All I'm saying is, I loved the panel with the folks from Tron: Legacy, and their stated attention to story and design, but the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding ain't ready yet!
• "Loom" was an incredible piece of animation, but it totally freaked me out! I have squashed several spiders, and one incredibly bold and now incredibly dead roach purely because of this short film. I never had a problem before...
• I went through the whole gamut of emotions at SIGGRAPH: super excited, totally inspired, completely depressed. Kind of in that order too. The Computer Animation Festival was great and the level of work amazing, so were several of the panels. The aforementioned Tron panel was pretty inspiring and totally depressing. One of those, "why am I not doing this?" sort of moments. Straight off, the director has a bach in Engineering, and a masters in architecture. Then he worked in SFX. Now he's a big time director. He even said he specifically wanted an industrial designer to be his production designer!
• Smartphones are the way to be. I need one.
• Limited access wifi is stupid. The convention at least had free wifi, but only in certain areas. And those areas were rarely where you would be waiting in line. Now the hotel was way, and I mean WAY worse. Not only did they charge $9.95 per day to use their stupid wifi, but it was slower than molasses! I had connectivity issues like you wouldn't believe and all the while trying to work. Sheesh, I'm trying to be productive and all I get is "no network available"! Lame.
• Emerging technology mostly left me bored with stereoscopic 3D, but two or three were incredibly cool. Surprisingly, a Sony prototype was my favorite. It's hard to describe, but it was basically a cylindrical "display" that was fully 3D -- you could walk around it and see the image inside from any angle. It looked pretty darn good. It was motion capable too, one of the demos was an Arkanoid like video game but totally 3D!

That's enough for now... peace out yo.