By Dan Sarto

Yesterday evening, I sat through the SIGGRAPH Technical Papers Fast Forward presentation. The official program description is as follows: 

The Fast Forward is an entertaining, illuminating summary of SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Technical Papers in one exciting, fun-filled hour! Authors are allowed a little less than a minute to wow the crowd with their results and entice attendees to hear their complete paper presentations later in the week. 

 What the official description should really say is:

We are smart – you are not.  Get over it.

This was not your typical gathering of wily-old geezer scientists in smocks and meerschaum pipes, ruefully rubbing their beards while thoughtfully using 10 sentences to explain things where one sentence would completely suffice. This tech paper presentation, for the most part, was a gathering of kids (I learned this form of categorization from my dad, who at age 90 would call 80 year olds “Junior”), certainly few older than I, all dedicated academics, researchers, scientists and scholars, doing research in areas of computer graphics and visualization I can’t even pronounce, let alone understand.

There was no way I could comprehend anything being said.  And I was OK with that.

 

 

By Dan Sarto

18 hours in planes, 8 hours in airports, 2 hours in shuttles, all in the quest for a chance to meet some of Asia’s brightest computer graphic technologists and to once again eat roast pork overlooking the majestic Hong Kong harbor.  A worthy goal, I must say.  My trip from Los Angeles was excruciatingly long and uncomfortable.  My bag of honey roasted peanuts had to go through x-ray twice.  For 15 panicked seconds I thought I lost my wedding ring.  The kid sitting next to me on the flight from Japan knocked his tea all over my lap. The hour I spent in Hong Kong customs was made slightly more bearable by the entertaining antics of a big huge German man who screamed at the top of his lungs for 30 straight minutes, swearing non-stop at the phalanx of pint-sized policemen who tried in vain to calm him down.  They finally handcuffed him and tried to sit him down quietly on a bench, but he would have none of that, continuing to yell four-letter invectives at everyone in range.  I’m not sure if he was drunk or just off his meds but his rage enveloped the entire hall.  I fully expected him to start swatting around cops like some mythical beast from a Harryhausen film; he was so much bigger than the assembled authorities and so completely crazed. Guess he didn’t like the food on United either.

I finally made it to the hotel at 2 am, only to find that I had no room reservation and the hotel was full.  Sweet.  Channeling my inner Adam from Mythbusters, I told the young man behind the desk “I reject your reality and substitute my own. Indeed you do have a room in this hotel for me so why don’t you call whom you need to call, confer a bit, type something into your computer and then hand me my key.”   Needless to say, “a bit” became 30 minutes but he did eventually hand me a key and off I went to sleep.

By Nancy Phelps

In Ukrainian, KROK means “step”, but to animators, KROK means watching animation, making music, dancing and meeting friends, both old and new.  For me KROK is summer camp for animators and the best ten days of my life every year.

The festival is unique.  Each year an international group of animators boards a multi-decked river cruiser and spends 10 days sailing together.  Every other year, the festival location alternates between the Ukraine, which programs professional films (third film and later), and Russia where the films are student works. This year we sailed down the Dnepr River and across the Black Sea on the ship Princesa Dnepr from Kiev to Odessa in the Ukraine.

 

 

By Zoe Chevat

On a rainy L.A. weekend in mid-November, the Burbank Marriott’s convention center was packed as young talent and seasoned professionals alike descended for the Creative Talent Network’s 3^rd annual expo. Hailing from as close as here in town, or as far away as San Francisco, Utah, and Egypt, the mob of students, young professionals, and animation fans were eager have their portfolios reviewed, browse artist’s sketchbooks, and soak up advice from some of animation’s most experienced names. While the packed convention floor played host to many kinds of exhibitors, including independent artists’ wares, studio reviewers, and cable-laded tech booths displaying the latest software, it was clearer than ever that, though the attendees might all consider themselves fans, this is no casual fan convention. An event like this aims to accommodate a broad swath of the animation community, but a large amount of its resources –and its advertising – are aimed at bringing in students. CTNX is for the young and hungry, boasting a crowd of current students and the recently graduated, who are looking at an angle into their beloved, but notoriously tough, contemporary animation industry.

Now in its third year, CTN Expo has gotten over some of its growing pains. Gone was the hectic chaos that was last year's event, replaced with the efficiency that so impressed in its inaugural year. Los Angeles has been in need of a quality animation gathering and this fills the bill nicely.

Gunnar, Nancy and Nik

Gunnar Strom, Nancy and Nik Phelps

By Nancy Phelps

ANIMATION VOLDA is a unique festival run by animation students at Volda University College.  Volda is a town of roughly 7,000 people of which 3,000 are students and the festival is primarily for students and festival guests.

ANIMATION VOLDA began five years ago by renowned Volda University College Associate Professor of Animation Gunnar Strom.  This year’s three student festival organizers,  Anja Malec, Lara Zlatar, and Ivan Dujmusic, did a wonderful job of decision making, programming, and problem solving but I have a feeling that larger-than-life Gunnar was always around to offer assistance when needed.

 

 

Weta Digital’s Wayne Stables, Digital Domain’s Eric Nash, Pixar's Sharon Calahan, ILM's Scott Farrar, ILM's Roger Guyett, DNeg's Gavin Graham and PDI Founder Glenn Entis are some of the speakers slated to present next week at VIEW, Italy's largest computer graphics conference.

In a surprise addition to an already powerful roster of speakers lined up for the VIEW Conference, October 25 to 28, overall visual effects supervisor Erik Nash from Digital Domain has chosen to give the world’s first presentation of that studio’s work at VIEW Conference. A virtual production workflow designed by Digital Domain and Nash allowed director Shawn Levy to see CG characters as if they were actually present on set - in the boxing rings where background plates were shot - just as he would shoot any other scene with human actors.“We are thrilled that Erik Nash will share these important techniques with our attendees at the VIEW conference,” says conference director Maria Elena Gutierrez. “It is exciting to watch computer graphics characters move from post production up the pipeline and into production.”

"CTN is Bringin' it On to Pass it On - One Artist at a Time!"  

Dates: November 18-20, 2011
Venue: Burbank Marriott, Burbank CA

"Animation Capital of the World"
Website: www.ctnanimationexpo.com

 

Wayne Stables, visual effects supervisor at Weta Digital for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin has chosen to give the world’s first presentation of that studio’s work on the film at the VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy.

Tintin, Spielberg’s first computer-animated feature, opens in Italy on October 28. Based on the popular classic comic books created by Belgian artist Herge (Georges Remi), and co-produced by Peter Jackson, the story centers on Tintin, a young explorer, and his faithful dog Snowy. The first installment of a planned trilogy, the film stars Daniel Craig as Red Rackham, Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, and Jamie Bell as the voice of Tintin. To create the film, Spielberg used performance capture techniques at Weta Digital similar to those used by James Cameron for Avatar. Prior to Tintin, Stables was a visual effects supervisor on Avatar, and lead technical director on the Lord of the Rings trilogies.