So here I am in Ottawa, and the film I submitted this year to the festival was rejected. Not only this year but none of my films have made competition here. (I once made the Ottawa student film festival - does that count?)

Not only that, but I'm blogging on the festival and my blogs are really positive. 

So I'm thinking, maybe I should put in some heavy doses of criticism so the folks at the OIAF won't think I'm kissing their royal Canadian asses. But I don't care if they think that. Let them. I'll blog what I want.

So here I am, curled up with a real printed version of the Ottawa International Animation Festival schedule, which I picked up at a local grocery store.

And a red marker.

One more page, last page. It's a handy-dandy candy pink, blue and green, colour coordinated idiot proof festival schedule with all the dates and times.

I can see that half of my choices conflict with each other.

I'll sign off now while I make extreme choices and chop dream screenings.

Attendees dug in with the "Glowing Pathfinder Bugs" display.

The 2010 SIGGRAPH Art Gallery has done away with the old phrase “look but don’t touch.”

The 14 juried pieces exhibited this year absolutely require human interaction with a focus on haptics (touch).  Richard Elaver from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne has taken the cross disciplinary theme of Leonardo and applied it to the selection process for the exhibits on display.  Leonardo is a journal that has a philosophy of combining science, technology and art.  Leonardo can be explored at www.leonardo.info.

Richard comes from a traditional art background of metalsmithing and jewelry making.  He was always chasing new techniques and looking for different ways of doing things.  Technology is fine, but there is something satisfying about working with materials.  As a boy, when the others were making snowmen, Richard made a six foot toilet out of snow in his parent’s front yard.  Certainly that was different, more importantly, it was a combination of science and technology to produce art.

By Rick Kerrigan

Last night I attended the SIGGRAPH 2010 Computer Animation Festival in downtown Los Angeles. At the end of the two hour presentation my viewing partner kept muttering to me about “sensory overload” as we shuffled out the door. It’s one of the dangers of today’s world. The big Hollywood movie was well represented by clips from The Last Airbender, Iron Man 2, Alice in Wonderland, 2012 and Avatar. The digital work on these films is, of course, excellent but overwrought compared to the smaller films and shorts. Simple stories told using the computer took the day.

Attendees clamor to get a look at the 360-Degree Autostereoscopic Display.

written by Eric Post

Preston Smith began with SIGGRAPH as a volunteer 15 years ago and is the current Chair of the Emerging Technologies section.  Preston is a network administrator.  When he graduated from college, he thought seriously about getting involved in CG.  The more he watched what the kids in this industry were doing with technology, the more he became interested in supporting that technology. Today, Preston is the Linux administrator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research.  He supports the fMRI, or function Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine.

At Laureate, the doctors and staff study brain disorders such as eating disorders.  The new idea is that the MRI runs when the patient is performing certain tasks, hence the “functional” portion of the test. This allows the researchers to see how normal or not so normal specific portions of the brain reacts when given tasks that target those specific locations.  So Preston has a keen eye to emerging technology when it has a potential to benefit people.

Pixar's Jim Morris

Jim Morris, General Manager and Executive Vice President of Production at Pixar Animation Studios has over 23 years experience as a producer and production executive in the motion picture industry.  He came to the 37th Annual SIGGRAPH, his 20th time in attendance, with a message.

Jim posed the rhetorical question, “Who comes to SIGGRAPH?”  It is the people who, at some point early in life, watched a movie that lit a spark in them.  For Jim, it was stop animation in some of the older movies like Jason and the Argonauts.

Thousands jam the exhibition floor.

by AWN Publisher Dan Sarto

My SIGGRAPH Day 1 was actually the 3^rd day of the entire event, the first day of the main exhibits.  Either I’m getting old (which I am) or it’s just getting harder and harder to focus and keep track of people I’ve met, sessions I’ve attended, screenings I’ve sat through.  Despite 20 pages of notes and a handful of photos, I’m still trying to make proper account of my day before starting all over again today.  Here goes nothing…

I took the train to Annecy full of excitement and great expectations for the 50^th Anniversary of the festival. According to the festival press release, they were expecting 6,700 participants from 66 countries, 1,647 companies crowding into MIFA, 300 journalists and 230 international buyers. For a festival to pull off such a grand event with minimum problems would be a miracle indeed. When people tried to get tickets for events, however, it felt like there were twice as many people in attendance.

The first hint of trouble came when there was no invitation to the opening night ceremony or the party. I was looking forward to seeing the opening night film, The Illusionist, but was told that this year no journalists had been given tickets because they were just too many people and 150 seats had been relegated to non-industry VIPs (which translates to money people). Journalists were told that there was no problem: our names had been placed on a request list and we should just keep checking back with the press office to get our passes. To make it even worse, two hours before the ceremony we were finally told that there was no possibility for us to get tickets. I finally managed to get a ticket from my friend and fellow journalist Olivier Cotte, who had gotten two tickets from someone who actually didn't want to see the film. Both Olivier and I wasted a good part of Monday afternoon looking for tickets instead of seeing films.

Wooding's first visit to MIFA was a worthwhile blur of activity.

This was my first time at MIFA (Marche International du film d'animation) and I could not have been more pleasantly surprised by the experience. Taking in the splendor of Lake Annecy's turquoise waters while meeting friends for cocktails in an ancient village immersed in a steady flow of creative energy was invigorating.

Having spent the majority of my career selling cartoons to broadcasters around the world, I normally attend the standard international markets like MIPCOM Jr., MIPCOM, Kidscreen and MIPTV. On occasion, I work into the travel schedule a trip to Toy Fair, Comic-Con and Licensing show. Although often set in great locations such as Cannes and NYC (I promise you I do not get much sympathy from my significant other), these markets can be pretty. My schedule is typically jam-packed with meetings every half-hour from the moment I land to the moment I get into the taxi to head back to the airport. And can they make a week seem like a lifetime.