Siggraph

It was an exciting day when I found out that my short film “Distraxion” was going to be featured in the 2008 SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival. I had spent the last two years bringing it to completion and I was constantly motivated by the goal of a screening at the CAF. The first year, I was a student in the short film curriculum at AnimationMentor. The next year, I had landed my position as staff animator at DreamWorks Animation and had dedicated my nights and weekends to completing the remaining work on the project. As exciting as it was to learn about my acceptance to the festival, it was even more exciting to learn that in 2008 a new format was being introduced. This new format combined the festival with what was in previous years known as the Electronic Theater. The two showcases would be shown intertwined in high definition digital projection at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theater.

There are always a few variables that a film maker has to worry about when presenting work to an audience. Of the utmost importance are the picture quality and sound. In the blocked short film format with multiple screening sessions there are some other elements to consider. Quality of the surrounding work in the blocks as well as the audience’s mood and expectations can have a huge impact on the film’s success.

This Thursday was the day that “Distraxion” played for an audience and I could not have asked for better circumstances. The picture quality at the Nokia Theater was absolutely stunning and the sound mix was spot on. The space was filled close to capacity at the ground level and the work surrounding my film was nothing short of inspiring.

There was a myriad of the latest and greatest in the computer graphics field. For the animation enthusiasts there was the hilarious “My Little Angel” by Flurry Studios.

and “Do Penguins Fly?” by Planktoon. The highlight in the showcase had to be the award winning Oktapodi from Gobelins. Overall, the French schools Gobelins and Supinfocom had a dominating presence in the festival. The VFX crowd also had their share of eye candy. The highlight reel from Dai Nipponjin showcased a collection of hyper-real creatures that will forever be imprinted on the mind of the viewers. I’m sure that film is going to appear on quite a few Netflix Queues in the next few weeks. There were even a few gems in the motion graphics contributions. I was pleasantly surprised by the appeal of the abstract shape morphing and music in the “What makes you special” IBM web campaign by Little Fluffy Clouds.

I had memorized the lineup for my block and I knew that soon after the final fade of the scenes from “Appleseed:Ex-Machina ” that my film Distraxion would appear. My heart was beating out of my chest with excitement and nervousness. I was seated with Scott Trosclair, the films lighter as well as some of my fellow animators from the AnimationMentor program and DreamWorks Animation.

There it was. “Distraxion” was up on the screen. My attention was focused more on the crowd reaction than the film on the screen which I could play beat for beat in my mind. “Wow, it was working!” There was a big laugh when the boss initiated the soft jazz music and sax man made his first appearance on screen. There were more laughs each time he trapped our hero and then a huge laugh at the end followed by applause when our hero fights back with his heavy metal. Just like that it was over. Two minutes had flown by and the screening went as well as I could have hoped for.

The audience response gave me a vote of confidence as a film maker. More so, it spoke volumes about the effectiveness of the new format of the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival. What started out as a showcase for advances in computer graphics technology has evolved into a forum for up and coming animators. I would encourage all animation artists to target the CAF as venue for their work. I can guarantee that seeing your final piece up on the screen with the highest quality picture, surrounded by work that represents the current state of the art in computer graphics will make it worth all of the hard work that it takes to create a piece of finished animation.