Siggraph 2011 | Vancouver

This year's SIGGRAPH had a lot of firsts for a lot of people. It was the first summer that SIGGRAPH was in another country (now we have SIGGRAPH Asia in the Winter[this year [Hong Kong]) Vancouver played host city to a very eager crowd! (Well done Vancouver!!! My first demo was this year. Many of my students had their first trip to another country, their first SIGGRAPH, and most of my students had their first missed flight! My fiance' attended her first SIGGRAPH for 1 day to check out my presentation, it happened to be her first time seeing me speak as well! And as always, I made many new friends and didn't get to see enough of old ones.



I was lucky enough to speak along with about a dozen other individuals throughout the week in the Studio under the 'Digital Artistry Workshops' led by Stephen Burns of Chrome Allusion. My topic was Creating Camera Rigs in Maya. A cheap way to minimize 'roller coaster' rides, and maximize 'Michael Bay' types of camera movements in a 3D program. The techniques are mostly just intimidating for many, but very simple to adopt with a little technical experimentation. It was a great experience, I was nervous for the the first time in a long while and spent much of the first days of conference fretting over small details. When Wednesday came the crowd seemed to like the content well enough. Most rewarding, I had several artists asking me to follow up with them and to stay in touch! I love SIGGRAPH.

Indiana and the Art Institute had a strong showing in the Studio this year. Demian Moon Stevens a friend and acquaintance of Stephen Burns helped get so many of us out there.

The Indiana Line up was often called the Art Institute of Indiana 'Dream Team' because myself and two previous students were presenters.

Brian Phillips of the Basement Motion + Design
Topic - 3D Motion Graphics with Photoshop and After Effects

David Ortel
Topic - Digital Abstract Art w/Real Flow and Maya

Demian Moon Stevens
Topic - Cross-Platform Concept Illustration
Topic - Zbrush Life Sculpting and Portraiture

and myself with Real World Camera Rig Creation in Maya

I plan on posting a detailed write-up for Camera Rigging and the techniques about it all in a few weeks.

The greatest part of the talks was that we had the opportunity to represent Indiana and its growing industry in front of so many people in Vancouver. Brian and I even pitched the 49hour Film Contest as well as IndianaUploaded. Both get huge support, hopefully we inspire other areas to do similar projects!



Great work to all the S.V.'s and Indiana's own Josh Grow and Eddie Pohill for another kick ass Electronic Theatre and Animation Festival!!! I can't wait for next year's SIGGRAPH and what happens in between. Hopefully we all get to see more of past friends and colleagues in L.A.

Stay thirsty my friends.