Over at the animationmentor.com booth the company’s CEO Bobby Beck provided some fantastic insight into their online training methods. With over 700 current students from more than 50 countries worldwide, Beck has secured Teachers, a.k.a. “Mentors” from some of the best respected animation companies in the world–Dreamworks, Pixar, etc.

Students learn very specific animation techniques over an 18 month curriculum (Beck says a new, updated curriculum is launching in 2009) in which students can learn at their computer via live video webcasts where students get more individual exposure and training to their Mentors than can be found in traditional classrooms. more

Today is my third day at Siggraph 08 and overall its been a wonderful experience thus far. I was very surprised at just how massive this event is. Four days is barely enough to cover even a third of it. If you are interested in any part of the computer graphics world then this is the place to be. the only low part for me so far was that Natural Motion was a no show. Other than that its been spectacular!

Once again, the Siggraph party scene seems to be living up to all expectations–thanks to another blockbuster from Softimage. As is seemingly tradition from Avid’s professional 3D animation software division, Softimage in cooperation with Dell put their cool spin on Siggraph with a party at 740 Club in downtown L.A. where they promoted their new transformative open platform ICE with a 45-minute set by notorious hip-hop and reality TV icon Vanilla Ice. more

The major studios are finally starting to get the hang of this viral video business. Tippett Studio’s marketing chief Lori Petrini pointed that out to me a few minutes ago as she showed me a couple of YouTube! videos created by Tippett to strategically help promote Disney’s upcoming film,Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Tippett is doing some of the effects on the film, but also made the videos “Viva Chihuahua” and “Heel Chihuahua” that you can easily find on YouTube (but in case you can’t, try: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vr3ZL-Ykdo or www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt5eXc6RwEU). more

Why does a visual effects company sell plug ins? Frantic Films made their reputation with the huge bullet-time shot on Swordfish and their Emmy-nominated work on Storm of the Century. More recently: the VES-nominated Superman Returns and Poseidon, and currently Eric Brevig‘s Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D.

From the start, says Bond, Frantic was conceived as a collaborative company both internally among their three offices and in their relationships with industry peers. To that end, they wanted to share the fruits of their painstaking R&D.

“A lot of companies keep the stuff proprietary. But for us, there‘s nothing to gain from being closed.” he says. But as it turned out, sharing wasn‘t so easy. At first, Frantic simply gave code from their products away for free. But the purpose-built code didn‘t translate one-to-one into new situations. more

With due credit to the product engineers both at the chip and workstation level, and to the demands of ISVs, as I look around Siggraph I also give credit for all this hardware innovation to the users. It was user standards and pushback that truly drove the remarkable dialog in software lo these many years; same is true now with hardware. You get what you settle for, and DCC has never been a place for people who settle for anything. No chance of that abating and here’s the proof: check out The Wheels on the Bus exhibit on the main floor and see what kindergartners are up to.

Lots of video game-playing action at the Digital Media Art College Booth (551), where players battled with plastic guitars to the Toadies Possum King in a game called Guitar Hero. The guitars, outfitted with plastic colored buttons, were used to knock out riffs which displayed in sequence on the screen. “You Rock!” greeted the triumphant winner.

The great Dan Garza has made his way back to Siggraph this year and we’re delighted to have him provide his thoughts on Siggraph ‘07. As you recall, Dan was one of our student bloggers back at the ‘05 show in LA and did a great job. So, we’ve invited him to give his thoughts on this years show, so, without further ado:

The last time my hawaiian patterned eggplant physique swaggered into SIGGRAPH was two years back. We had won a national competition and best in show at a film fest and were flown to LA. A lot has changed.

Quick recap LA ‘05 through my eyes:

-Sensory overload phase: Flashy lights, first rate hotel, VIP parties, gifts, industry give-a-ways, dancing, drinkin’ to the point of blurry and new friends. Woo-hoo! more

Be sure to check out the Art Gallery located on the upper floor. Here is a sampling of some of the astounding artwork up there:

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These have been the most AMAZING couple days ever. Being a winner of the HP/Saytek Team Animation contest has really gotten our team’s names out there. I worked on the short with my two close friends Danny Garnett and Manuel Sierra. Our school, The Art Institute of Philadelphia, has been doing a great job of introducing us to many people already in the industry.

Day 1 (Monday): Lay of the Land

After being in San Diego for a bit and checking into our amazing hotel (Hilton Gaslamp Quarters…conveniently accross the street from the convention haha), we headed out for some food. Stopped by “The Field” near fifth and market. We all decided to get boxties since we have never heard of them before. They were delicious, pretty much a potato pancake wrapped around bacon, cheese, and covered in a white wine sauce. Now onto the convention itself. more