The flight yesterday from London (and Heathrow in general) was packed with visual effects and other CG professionals getting ready to descend on SIGGRAPH. Seemed fitting that our first night here coincided with the last night of the annual Celebration of Light, a global fireworks competition.
SIGGRAPH is being held outside the US for the first time this year, reflecting the massive dispersion of companies and talent across the globe. As a relatively recent transplant to London, I'm attending with a slightly different perspective than I have in the past, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the industry is changing on a global scale through the official SIGGRAPH presentations and by just catching up with old friends and colleagues. The shift is clear when you walk around Vancouver, as I passed by several VFX studios without even trying, and even got a sneak peek at MPC's new Vancouver location (http://tinyurl.com/3jnvgg9).
In addition to using the time at SIGGRAPH to gauge how the visual effects industry is shifting, I always look forward to seeing how other corners of the computer graphics universe are evolving, in hopes of finding new and interesting ways to share technologies and approaches to solving production problems. As games are continually improving visually; films are trying to do things faster; and everyone is trying to find efficiencies in production, there is so much to learn from what others are doing.
I'll be blogging about the buffet that is SIGGRAPH: technologies, products, people, and events that shape the conference and will shape the next year in computer graphics. Check back throughout the week!
Michael Stein is with The Moving Picture Company in London. He can be reached at: michael-s@moving-picture.com.
For more on MPC's Vancouver facility, click HERE.