Hey!

So here I am… Ken Seward, student animator… at my first day of the Siggraph Exhibition… and it’s pretty damn exciting…. really!

It’s kind of overwhelming… but in a good way… a chance to see a lot of the faces behind the stuff that has been such an inspiration to me… the reasons I got into this business to begin with…

Everyone here has been really nice and friendly so far… it’s great to be able to walk right up to an animator from Rythm and Hues and ask him questions… you can listen to their war stories and see their process and just generally get a rush from it all… the excitement of creating stories and images.

All the software companies are pulling out their best stuff and giving demos and eager to help you figure out new ways to use their wares… the Z-Brush show was great… and the Adobe one too. I really enjoyed the Houdini presentation… someday I’m going to have to put in some time on that one too. more

Press Release:

SIGGRAPH 2006 attendees get glimpse of future for LightWave

Boston, MA, SIGGRAPH, Booth 1518 - August 1, 2006 — NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced that SIGGRAPH presentations for LightWave 3D will feature new technologies slated for upcoming releases of their award-winning 3D animation system. Among the new technologies to be presented are: a true, 3D photo-realistic motion blur, 3D photo-realistic depth of field, improved OpenGL capability in Modeler, additional capabilities for the new Advanced Camera Tools and improved sub-surface scattering.

“Our commitment to advancing LightWave with innovative new features and capabilities of most use to the 3D community is unrelenting,” said Jay Roth, president, NewTek 3D division. “We have just released LightWave v9 and the march continues to advance LightWave beyond anything currently available in the market. The technology preview we‘re showcasing at SIGGRAPH is just the tip of the iceberg. The beauty for LightWave users is that with the new Open Beta program we established with LightWave v9, they will get their hands on our new technologies as soon as we have them ready to test and not have to wait for an official ship date.” more

Another super hot day in Boston but at least the tradeshow floor is mercifully cool, there is a ton of good stuff to look at & demos left right & centre! Best freebie? Nintendo key ring lights that my nephews will no doubt covet. Good to catch up with the VFS booth. The Electronic Theatre was AWESOME!! Great atmosphere in there & absolutely packed - Really fun was the audience driven animal pong & etch a sketch beforehand, it got everyone in the mood. So many great films & the variety was incredible.

Anyhoo must get on with preparing my VFS talk for tomorrow.

Mark

OK-more of a pre-party. Google’s here with their new tool Sketchup, a super simple 3D, perspective based visualization tool. Great for previz or to create simple stylized animation–S.D. Katz will be reviewing it in our upcoming issue. It’s the first in what sounds like a product development push on Google’s part around “the big graphics problems they’re trying to solve.”

If you want to join the dialogue go to their demo (drinks, appetizers and ice cream); Wed. Aug. 2 3-5:30 Room 208 upstairs at the convention center.

Jobs:

User Interface Design Lead

User Interface Software Engineer

User Experience Researcher

Senior User Experience Researcher

www.google.com/jobs for more info or stop by the booth.

The floor has been a blast! The demos have really been intersting. Always fun to see what is coming out. Disney is showing some of their character rigs from “Meet the Robinsons” that I really found interesting. The amount of control and squash & stretch they are getting from the rigs these days is just amazing. I really enjoyed talking the the reps at Blue Sky and Rhythm and Hues too. Nice people that did not rush me along at all. I think I am going to to catch a little more of the Animation Theater!

-Chris Myers

www.chrismyers3d.com

Savannah College of Art and Design

Solomon Grundy

If you can find the booth (206) you may want to take a look at 1 Beyond’s HD OctoFlex 8-processor turnkey system with Blackmagic’s Multibridge Pro (upgrade options include Multibridge Extreme, and various other IO options from Matrox, Canopus, Bluefish, and New Tek). 1 Beyond touts its’ throughput and rendering speeds, so ask to see the specs. more

While many thought pioneering NLE creator Media 100 had folded long ago, the popular Mac software package turned up last year as part of the expanding Boris FX product line.

At the show, booth visitors got a preview of Media 100 version 11.5, due to have its official press debut at next month‘s IBC convention. New developments include improved performance as well as support for tapeless workflows. Highlights of the 11.5 point release include support for FireWire devices, support for P2 cameras,, support for SDI audio for the Media 100 HDX hardware, and improved Boris Red, BorisFX, and Graffiti integration with faster rendering. more

Wow!!!

After what I will always refer to as the SIGGRAPH SCRAMBLE - I am here.

The show is off to a great start. I saw Solomon Grundy in the Animation Theater yesterday. It is always very exciting to see the audience reaction to your work!!! I have been running by the booths and bumping into lots of old friends….and of course making new ones and passing out business cards. SCAD has a great booth and it was fun to see Solomon Grundy on thier SIGGRAPH DVD the school is handing out. Off to more adventures! I will write more later today.

-Chris Myers

www.chrismyers3d.com

Savannah College of Art and Design

Steve Perlman wants to make 3D face capture as easy as possible. And not just ’sorta okay’ capture that might do for games, but sub-millimeter accurate capture delivered without the usual mini-ping pong balls or other markers that today’s pricey, high-end systems require.

Perlman, CEO of SF-based Mova, has a varied career as a top Apple engineer, co-founder of WebTV Networks, and Moxi, the innovative set-top box company. Now, with the release of Contour (currently offered as a service, but soon to be a turnkey product), users need to merely dab on common phosphorescent face paint (the same stuff kids use for Halloween) and stand in front of an array of capture cameras. more

Big show for these two together–bigger I think than anyone expected. In addition to taking advantage of Intel’s well-received Core 2 Duo chip for the new HP xw4400 workstation, HP has the new Intel-based HP xw8400 on the booth here. This is the follow-on from the xw8200 which is deployed widely in the industry (as is HP’s AMD-based xw9300). But this show it’s Intel’s turn again in that high-end industry sweet spot as HP shows off the 64-bit Dual Core Xeon based multicore box. It’s Vista ready and supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS4 (64-bit), which has to be installed after market (with HP’s help–Red Hat Linux 32- and 64-bit OS are available pre-installed). more