Glenn Entis.

Then I attended Glenn Entis' session. I always like his presentations. Fast paced, incredible amount of information, but most of all a great capacity to summarize trends and historical periods related to media and technology. Glenn Entis is a pioneer in the CG field. He co-founded PDI, which became DreamWorks. He sat in the directing chairs of Electronic Arts and now is continuing research business opportunities in the online entertainment markets. So his precise and exhaustive analysis of the evolution of media up to the current “gamification” was illuminating, to say the least. After the exposition of several trends, which clearly identify where the industry and the media are going I personally engaged Glenn in a series of questions, which I couldn't stop myself to make. The issue of privacy, greed, addiction, technology vs. nature, freedom of expression and others where raised and accepted by Glen as sensitive points to discuss with more dedicated time in another context. I will email the questions to him. Great lecture on the modern history of technology.

I promised a genuine Neapolitan Pizza to some good friends if they could follow for me some of the parallel sessions but you will have to wait to have the details of: Zbrush Workshop 1 “Zbrush 3.5: Sketching with Zsferes”, Daniele Angelozzi, 3D Artist, NVIDIA Cuda Workshop, An overview of NVIDIA's tools and technology that are defining the future of GPU's by Will Braithwaite, STEREOSCOPIC VISUALIZATION “Living in a 3D World” Carlye Archibeque Executive Producer SIGGRAPH 2009 Computer Animation Festival.

Next I attended, instead, ANIMATION WORKSHOP “Creating Effective, Spontaneous Performance” by Travis Hathaway an animator at Pixar. Travis explained the full animation pipeline for characters. Focusing most of all on how he personally follows it. Very useful were the many video examples selected among classic American films for specific acting performances. A great introduction to animation for beginners and a way to consolidate the profession for advanced animators. We were delighted by a breakdown of the animation process of Karl and Russell meeting Kevin from the movie Up. In the process Travis showed all the principles, techniques and guidelines to apply.

Travis Hathaway.

I missed a session which I really wanted to attend: PSDRevolution.it, a website of friends and colleagues promoting the interaction between digital visual artists and students. They launched “Condivisione Creativa” an online collaborating project where several artists have managed to create artwork together. Bravi ragazzi.

When I will remember his name I will say hi to the indestructible guy selling books in a wonderful booth just at the entrance of the main hall. People are passing by and browsing those book gems like bees on flowers.

No real time for a proper lunch but the bar outside served me with a delicious Polpettone Ripieno with Spinaci e Pomodorini. Time to get back to work! After a coffee, of course.

It was back in the hall that I finally met Paul Hellard of CG Society. We have exchanged quick chats through the years but never talked seriously. He is really a nice person and is now managing the most respectable online community of digital artists in addition to publishing wonderful art books.

It was also time to say ciao to my good old friends at Spark Digital Entertainment. They are working in Italy as an animation and post-production facilities, recently gaining Enrico Valenza, of the Blender Project Movie, among their artists.