Doug Cooper from DreamWorks Animation presented “What Filmmakers Should Know about Games.” He clearly outlined how the two genres can form effective, symbiotic cross-production strategies.

The remarkably articulate Doug Cooper from DreamWorks Animation gave an awesome talk: “What Filmmakers Should Know about Games.” Talk about cross-pollination! I went because I like Doug, but wasn’t deeply invested in the talk. I walked out of that talk with new understanding and interest. This synergistic trend will become ever more key to developing significant new revenue streams and Doug clearly outlined how the two genres can form effective, symbiotic cross-production strategies.

I was pleased to spend some time chatting with old friend Jeff Kleiser, who gave two interesting talks. One presentation was on the Kleiser-Walczak style of character animation and the other was a fascinating one on stereoscopic animation. This is possibly an emerging trend and Kleiser-Walczak is right on top of it.

Patrick James from Pixar gave two edifying presentations on the wonderful short film One Man Band, talking about both the artistic and the pipeline considerations. This is one of Pixar’s in-house financed productions they use to hone young wizards. Clearly, it’s a worthy investment.

One Man Band was well represented by Patrick James’ two talks on the short film. © Pixar.  

SIGGRAPH’s Terrence Masson gave a pair of very interesting talks in which he dispensed sound advice and divulged inside information.

Terrence Masson, jury chair, Electronic Theater SIGGRAPH 2006, gave a pair of very interesting talks. The first: “Computer Animation Festival Success: How to Get Your Film Rejected” was directed at anyone who ever unsuccessfully submitted a short animation project and how to overcome their mistakes by figuring out common elements of success— excellent all round advice here. His second talk was simply an insightful look at “What Makes Great Animated Films.” You can’t buy this kind artful inside information.

David Sproxton, co-founder of Aardman Animation, is a man of keen vision and finely honed business acumen. He is also one of my favorites. He always takes a moment to talk with students and others, yet to build cachet, encouraging them on their way. A few words from this animation power broker can do wonders for a young discouraged spirit. David gave a terrific presentation on Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Jenny Fulle, evp of Sony Pictures Imageworks, gave an informative overview of the company’s four areas of expertise: character animation and vfx in live-action features (epitomized by the Spider-Man franchise and the upcoming Superman Returns), 3D-animated features (launching with Open Season this fall), performance capture CG features (this summer’s Monster House) and the 3-D stereoscopic pipeline (The Polar Express and Open Season in IMAX 3-D and Monster House in Real D).

In addition, Troy Saliba, animation supervisor for Monster House, discussed the animation challenges on that film and how they differed from The Polar Express, while vfx supervisor Doug Ikeler took a nice look at the deep artistry that went into Open Season.

It wasn’t all feature films or U.S. houses, though. There were also a huge number of smaller European houses represented. My head spins. Some of their talks were not in English, and another trend that was bandied about is: “If you want to be considered an international company, you have to have English as your working language.” This is easier than it sounds. Being familiar with several European houses in transition from their native language to working in English, I can tell you it is a massive effort and may severely limit your talent pool.