Siggraph 2007

I attended my first Siggraph Convention this last weekend in sunny San Diego. Having been raised there most of my life, it was a great chance to see my mom and check out the awesome sites at Siggraph.

Sunday, August 5th - Day 1

After registering the night before, I attended a Pixar Course on the making of the food for Ratatouille. It was a well presented and technically savvy class. I could understand most of it, until Athena Xenakis made her presentation on shading. Blew my mind!!! She was so well versed on the technical aspects, it made me realize that these people really are the best in their field. Other presenters included Apurva Shah (Effects), Jun Han Cho (Modeling) and Stefan Gronsky (Lighting). After meeting with AM for a graduation rehearsal, I attended the Shrek class by Dreamworks. It was not nearly as successful as the Pixar presentation and included some technical glitches. It wasn't nearly as informative either and didn't provide me with a whole lot of insight. Oh well.....one out of two isn't bad. Not too much to report that night, except that I went out with my Mom and Father in-law for dinner.

Monday, August 6th - Day 2

I volunteered with my amazing animation school, AnimationMentor.com, and worked at the graduation today What an awesome experience! The graduation was so inspiring, I almost lost it. Seeing how much passion Bobby, Shawn and Carlos have, and how much this means to them, was just more than words can say. It made me wanna go animate something immediately. The guest speaker was David Schaub, the senior supervising animator on Surf's Up. Of course I sucked it up and drug myself to the party at the W Hotel afterwards. It was a great honor that AM let the volunteers go as a Thank You. I met some awesome AM graduates and there was plenty of industry people there. A couple recruiters and employees for some of the best companies in the world!! Pixar, Dreamworks, Sony, Blue Sky, ILM, Animal Logic, Rhythm and Hues....the list goes on and on. There was so many people and it was such a great party, I totally missed the Autodesk party on the deck of the USS Midway!!! Would of been cool, but oh well. I got pretty hammered and probably made a fool of myself, but heck, it was great time so who cares! We did get to see the fireworks go off from the deck of the aircraft carrier from the roof.

Tuesday, August 7th - Day 3

The next morning, I struggled, but finally made it to the convention center for my shift at the AM booth. Apparently, my other institution had a booth as well, Academy of Art University, but I didn't know about it and it was a very bland presentation. Just some models (or fashion students...probably models) and some video screens. After picking up my Ratatouille poster at the Pixar booth, I was ready to work! And boy did we work!!! The AM booth was jam packed with prospective students, prospective mentors, recruiters, current students and graduates. It was both overwhelming and exciting at the same time. It was so easy to "sell" people on the AM idea because it was just conversation. The school sells itself and all we had to do is share our personal anecdotes. I think me and the other volunteer, and new friend, Aja, signed up like 50 people ourselves! Pure Craziness!!!

From there I hit the exhibition floor. Visited lots of studio booths and just talked to people. I picked up the Pixar annual teapot giveaway and seemed to always find myself back at the AM booth. I watched Shawn and Carlos do some awesome demo reel reviews, picked up the AM coffee cup giveaway and then hit the exhibition floor again. After that it was time for the Animation Mentor "Birds of a Feather" gathering (BOF). Basically, its anyone who is part of, was part of, or wants to be part of AM gathering to listen to a presentation and just hang out.

The BOF was superb. Bobby Beck introduced Mike Belzer (Disney) to us and he made a little inspirational speech to the room. He is also a mentor at AM!!! A panel of recruiters was then introduced to the room and we had a Q&A about the business. There was a representative from Dreamworks, Sony Pictures Imageworks and ILM all there to answer our questions. Then came the big moment.....Bobby talked about the changes coming soon to the AM website. There are some awesome improvements coming our way soon....thats all I can say. Lastly, there was a huge giveaway. It seems like Pixar, Sony, ILM and Dreamworks all donated autographed and other items to the school for giveaway. There was a TON of stuff. Being the unlucky guy I am, I knew I wouldn't win anything....and what do you know....I didn't! But......there is a happy ending. After the BOF was done, I met with all the recruiters and got their cards (I had met a couple before at the AM Grad party) and then had
Bobby, Shawn and Carlos sign my coffee cup. Sweet!!! As I was leaving, Shawn came up to me and handed me a poster, he said this is for all your hard work and for being around so much. What was it you ask? Ummmm, only an autographed poster by the directors of Open Season!!! So much for luck huh?

After the BOF, it was getting close to dinner time and I had a couple options. I managed to get an invite from the Dreamworks recruiter to their party they were having that evening and also got a invite from the Pixar folks to attend their party that same night too! Also, there was the Adobe party and demo that I had previously registered for. I had all these options, but after meeting some cool AM classmates I decided on the least glamorous of the options. I had a ticket to the Electronic Theater, so a small group of us decided to do that instead. Yeah, I know, I am crazy for passing up on all the parties right? Well, I would say no. I had a great time with my new, and old, AM friends and I think I would of rather hung out with them than try to force myself upon the industry folk.....at least for that night. I was tired, and it was a really fun time.

Wednesday, August 8th - Day 4

Feeling better today, I decided to hit the job fair. I wasn't ready to be hired just yet, but I decide I would try to "work the room" and get some personal contacts at different companies so I had someone to contact directly in the near future. I was pretty successful. I got personal contacts at the following companies...Double Negative EFX, Pixar, Fisher-Price, Blue Sky, Imageworks, Animal Logic, Reel FX, Tippett Studios, Cafe FX, ILM, Dreamworks, EA, Walt Disney Animation and many more. WOW!!! The AM booth had another event filled day and I stopped by for the "Meet a Mentor" events and introduced myself to Dana Broadway and Chris Williams. Stopped in for some more Demo Reel reviews and caught a preview of the new animated film "Terra". I had met the AM Mentor and one of the lead animators on the film, Kevin Koch (formerly of Dreamworks) and a junior animator on the film Heather Shrewsbury at the AM Grad party earlier in the week and they told me about the movie. It looks alright, I will have to wait to form a better opinion, but if nothing else, they managed to pull some nice voice talent for the film.

Finally, it was time for the AM/Reel FX party at Buster's Beach House in Seaport Village. What a great party! It seems like every major studio came and the drinks were flowin. Hung out with all my AM friends and made some new ones too! Talked to a ton of industry folks and just had fun. It was a completely relaxed and cool setting. Just a ton of people hangin out.

Well it was time to fly out, so I made it to the airport and finally went home. I would of like to stay for the next day or two to finish off the convention, but I did a lot in my couple days there and I know now what to expect for 2008 in Los Angeles.