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SIGGRAPH 2008 Blog - Friday, August 15, 2008 Friday Schedule:
Soundtrack for the day: Hitori & Kaiso: 1998-2001, “Casino vs Japan†As I was dozing off on the subway, I kept trying to figure out what was so different. Finally, it dawned on me that there were fewer people on board. And then when I arrived at the convention center for the last day of SIGGRAPH 08, it seemed that there were far fewer people there as well. “What's going on here,†I thought. A couple cups of coffee in the media room got my synapses firing and I got the idea that because there was no Exhibition Hall open on the last day, all of the day pass people who wanted to visit the big company booths (like LucasFilm and Pixar) weren't there. And as I was walking to my first class, it really seemed like the Friday people were the hardcore computer graphics crowd. “The Art of Grant Writing†at 8:30 in the morning was hard to get up for. I expected a technical presentation that would be hard to follow (like the Legal Rights Class), but it was anything but. Starting with Mike McGrath greeting everyone in the audience (20 maybe?) with a friendly welcome and asking about what we wanted to get out of the class. This was the only event I participated in that a teacher/panelist came right up to you and wanted to know how you were doing. Nice job, Mike. I'd always been curious about grant writing, but never did much to educate myself. Well, that's going to change after listening to the three presentations in this class. Essentially, there is money there for people who want to solve problems and advance learning. Computer Science grants have risen dramatically over the last decade, along with the approval rate. I learned what grants are, who reviews and approves them, the process of grant review, and lastly, common mistakes made in submitting grant proposals. This last topic was covered in great detail by Lawrence J. Rosenbaum. His frank and matter-of-fact delivery had me chuckling under my breath. This was a superb class. I had to leave just a bit early from the class to take a call from Nick [nickcharles], my editor at Renderosity. We chatted for a bit about the week and what I hoped to accomplish in the coming weeks with all the material I had gathered. It was nice of him to check in like that. Ironically, right as I hung up with Nick, I ran into Sergio [nemirc], who looked at me with tired eyes when I greeted him. We hung out for a while and talked about what we had done at the convention so far. Grabbed a nearby student volunteer to take our picture together (he cut off our legs) and I got a nice single shot of Sergio looking very cool. We agreed to meet later that evening to have dinner as he had nothing to do since his flight leaves tomorrow (Saturday).    We bid each other farewell and I hustled over to the Nokia Theater for an Animation Festival Screening, something I now wish I had done a lot more of during the week. I decided to stay for the seventh series of films, plus the redux (repeat) of the finalists. After a very thorough security screening (“take that change out of your pants, sirâ€), I settled into a comfortable seat in a beautifully designed theater and saw some amazing animated films, commercials and science documentaries.    The technical level of every single film was top level, even if some of the films had less successful stories. I don't envy the judges as there was something unique and interesting about each one (that's why they were selected). I'd have to say that the experimental film “Avatara†by Kam-Li Cheng, was my favorite film because of it's amazing artwork and it's complete unpredictability. A close second was a non-fiction work “Fighting Infection by Clonal Selection,†which consisted primarily of 3d illustrations of how the human immune system fights infection. In this case it was strep throat. I can't even begin to tell you how beautiful and creative this film is; an extraordinary animated film. After kicking myself hard for not going to the Animation Festival sooner, I went back to the Convention Center and sat down next to a wall (along with dozens of other geeks and their Mac Book Pro's) to look at the program guide and decide what to do last. I decided on the SpeedLab finals, since I hadn't seen a lot of student work and it sounded like fun. I almost fell asleep at this point after I closed my eyes for a minute or two.    The SpeedLab is something new this year to SIGGRAPH. The idea was to get groups of students (and volunteers) together in teams to tackle a scientific problem or two and then share their results with an audience. The best three presentations would win prizes. The teams had met on Monday, got their problems and then (presumably) spent all week working on it. Well, it was a good idea, but I think SIGGRAPH needs to do a little refining to make it work. Many team members didn't show because they had to leave, so the actual winning team consisted of one guy who did the presentation. The problems, while interesting, seemed more appropriate to a college science festival than a major computer graphics convention. Almost all of the final presentations consisted of PowerPoint shows on their Mac laptops. And even though the idea was to have fun, I got the feeling that many of the groups really didn't take the projects seriously. It often seemed more of an attempt to make jokes and entertain than to seriously address the subject.    One of the problems consisted of trying to re-create the subjective experience of an animal. Almost every team chose this problem, which created a lack of variety. I'd say they should just assign the problem to teams next year in order to insure everything is covered. And if it were me, I'd ban the use of PowerPoint. And I think the audience would be with me on this, as the one fellow who announced he had no PowerPoint to show got a huge round of applause. This is probably an event that will grow with time. I hope so, since the enthusiasm and personalities of the students were all exciting to see. And perhaps they could upgrade their “prizes†from posters, chocolate and mugs, to really useful items like graphics cards or software, as SIGGRAPH could certainly get a sponsor for SpeedLab. I think the students would appreciate it more as well.   Poster Presentation  Finally, I ended up wandering around recording more sounds and people watching. I looked at the memorial wall they had created in the main hall for anyone to write down the name of someone in computer graphics who had died recently. On Wednesday, I had written Peter Rasmussen, a great machinima filmmaker who died not long ago. I looked at his name and wondered what he would make of SIGGRAPH. I think he would have loved it.    At the media center, I spoke briefly with Jason Kennedy who was typing up an article, then gathered my notes and recordings for the trip home. Jason saw me off and I caught the subway home. And after cleaning up a bit, I picked up Sergio for a nice Mexican dinner a little later in the evening. Sergio wanted to know if I knew what the name SIGGRAPH stood for. I told him I didn't and he looked at me and grimaced slightly. When I asked him what it meant he said, “that's what the Internet is forâ€.    After I dropped Sergio off at his hotel and wished him a good flight back home, I drove straight home in bad Los Angeles traffic and looked up SIGGRAPH on the wikipedia. “Hey, Sergio! SIGGRAPH means “Special Interest Group on Graphics and Tecniquesâ€. It was a pleasure to meet you, my friend. And the rest of the Renderosity gang as well. I sincerely hope we can all do this again next year in New Orleans. I don't think I've ever been to a convention as interesting or as inspiring as this one.    Ricky's Blog
- SIGGRAPH Day One Ricky's Blog - SIGGRAPH Days Three and Four  Ricky
Grove [gToon], Staff Columnist with the Renderosity Front
Page News. Ricky Grove is a bookstore clerk at the best bookstore
in Los Angeles, the Iliad Bookshop. He's also an actor and
machinima filmmaker. He lives with author, Lisa Morton, and three
very individual cats. Ricky is into Hong Kong films, FPS shooters,
experimental anything and reading, reading, reading. You can catch
his blog here. |
August 2008
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