The New Animation Technology Exposition and Conference Viewed and Reviewed
by Ben Fried
Pixar technology chief and executive vice
president
Ed Catmull gave an early morning keynote address
at the New Animation Technology Expo.
Photo courtesy of Pixar.
Once again the
World Animation Celebration has come and gone, transforming the Pasadena
Civic center into an extremely happy (but not "The Happiest")
place on Earth. For many Los Angeles-based industry professionals the Celebration
is like an animator's New Years, a time to reflect and take stock of progress
and change, as well as set resolutions and goals for the next Celebration.
One indispensable element of the Celebration is the New Animation Technology
Conference and Exposition, a selection of workshops, seminars and presentations
designed to help the industry professional keep abreast of this rapidly
evolving field.
Like many traditional animation artists, I have felt the pinch of encroaching
technology, and have been simultaneously intimidated and awe-inspired by
the expanding visual parameters in this new era of digital animation. I
found both the exposition and the conference seminars to be helpful in
demystifying new advances in digital animation, as well as informative
on a variety of business topics. However, each had their own strengths
in presenting this information.
The exposition I enjoyed mostly for the personalized one-on-one demonstrations
provided, as well as the freedom to hop from presentation to presentation
in relative anonymity. I could ask the questions I wanted without risking
the group contempt of a classroom of more advanced users, as well as grill
demonstrators on specific items of interest without delaying any particular
schedule of topics. For these reasons I generally preferred product presentations
on the Exposition floor to their counterpart Conference class as many companies
did both.
Conversely, I benefited from the conference class presentations because
they gave a broader overview of a topic. Jill Smolin, event organizer and
also the training and artistic development manager at Cinesite, explained,
"The whole focus [of the courses] was to establish the foundations."
She wanted to "get away from the `learn a package in an hour and get
a job'" mentality of many events. "The fundamentals are imperative,"
she said.
More than 60 companies exhibited
at the New Animation
Technology Expo, which will move to Silicon Valley in 1999.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Klein-Häss.
During the conference classes, I also learned
from the mostly intelligent questions posed by a relatively well informed
audience. However, what I really enjoyed about the classes were the more
conceptual business topics covered, where nothing was being sold or promoted,
merely taught. Many of these business classes covered a scope much broader
than the digital animation realm and both enlightened and inspired. Finally,
the quality of the conference classes depended heavily upon the chosen
speakers. I preferred the professors and similarly experienced speakers
over the programmers and computer techies whose presentations were real
snoozers. I particularly enjoyed the speakers who used quirky, whimsical
anecdotes to underscore their point or whose bubbling enthusiasm and excitement
for their topic became contagious.
The only drawback to the New Animation Technology Conference and Exposition
was the excess of different events simultaneously competing with each other.
If a presentation didn't capture a person's interest or teach them anything
within the first ten minutes they left because they were probably missing
something else more enlightening. On the last three days there were six
Conference classes simultaneously competing for each hour and a half time
slot, not too mention the Exposition floor. If you go next year choose
wisely, plan ahead, and if at all possible wake up early; coffee is still
a legal stimulant in this country, so use it.
Ben Fried is a Los Angeles-based freelance graphic designer and animator
who works for many of the major television animation studios. He also creates
independent animated films and has supervised ASIFA-Hollywood's life drawing
workshops for over two years.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor
by sending an email to editor@awn.com.
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