SIGGRAPH is always a magic combination of technology, art and learning as seen in Tentacular Continuum, Detail 3 by Kent Oberheu. Image courtesy of Ken Oberheu and SIGGRAPH.

OK, I'll admit that I find it disturbing that SIGGRAPH is shrinking. Why is it that the CG industry seems to be getting bigger all the time -- more shows are using 3D characters and effects than ever, we have a whole slate of all-CG feature films in the theaters and in production -- yet SIGGRAPH, the pre-eminent trade show for all things CG is getting smaller? Well, I, for one, saw more interesting developments at this year's show than ever, so here is my theory on the size problem: no vapor.

You see, with the economy spinning into a nosedive, companies tend to wise up and focus on their core products. Leaving aside the consolidations, mergers and buyouts rampant in the hardware business, many businesses that were tempted to hype a load of vapor-ware during our economic boom are pulling back. SIGGRAPH 2001 may have seemed a bit more sedate, but I'm willing to bet that a larger percentage than ever of the products shown will actually be launched and deliver as promised.

Rendering translucent materials by Henrik Wann Jensen, Stanford University. Image courtesy of Henrik Wann Jensen and SIGGRAPH.

Research
As Jean Prudent, president of Reflex Systems, remarked, "The people at this year's show seem more serious about doing business, but you have to remember that SIGGRAPH is not here for business. It is for the researchers." Good point: SIGGRAPH is a non-profit organization. The trade show portion of it gets a lot of press, but it is the scientific papers and presentations that really drive the innovation in the industry.

An area of research to watch is the subsurface light scattering work of Henrik Wann Jensen, Research Associate at Stanford University's Computer Graphics Laboratory. By accurately calculating the way light rays bounce and scatter just below the surface of a non-metallic object before reflecting back out, his new shading model will have a great effect on the realistic rendering of translucent objects such as marble, skin and even a simple glass of milk. (http://graphics.stanford.edu/~henrik/papers/bssrdf/)

Learning
SIGGRAPH is as much about education as it is about research. The Birds of a Feather sessions, User Group meetings for nearly every major software package and informal get togethers are rampant. Learning from the vast experiences of others or hearing things directly from the people who write the software is one of the best reasons to attend.

One such opportunity was the 2001 Alias|Wavefront Global Users Association Seminar. A few hundred Maya users packed into a conference room at the Westin Bonaventure each day for four sessions with topics ranging from "Integrating a Creature Animation Rig Within a Production Pipeline" to "Lighting and Rendering in Maya 4.0" led by Jeremy Birn of Tippett Studio. It is always amazing to watch people have breakthrough "Ah-ha!" moments and there were plenty of these during the seminars as the speakers revealed their hard-learned methods.

These master classes were accompanied by an excellent support CD-ROM with sample files and notes from the seminars, making for a complete take-home educational package. Plus, they gave out really groovy Alias | Wavefront backpacks! Who says you can't score free stuff at trade shows anymore?!