Day One at Siggraph
Sunday, July 30th, 2006
Arrived in Boston late last night… jetlagged of course.
This morning I attended an all-day discussion covering the recent work of Imageworks and Rhythm & Hues. Imageworks started the morning with a discussion of their work on the upcoming movie “Open Season.” This is their first feature animated movie and it was interesting seeing how a visual effects studio approaches the rigging challenges of this medium.
The end goals are the same as most other animation studios; replicating the techniques and control of 2D animation using 3D tools. They showed some really interesting ideas and the look of the movie is great. Technically, hats off to Imageworks!
Next was a presentation by R&H showcasing their work on “Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.” Of course the work was great and stands as the greatest accomplishment of this studio. Because R&H is a completely proprietary pipeline, the solutions the employed for deformations and cloth and hair and rendering was interesting to see.
Although I set out on a walk to find what I could find in Boston I returned to the hotel once it became apparent that just about everything was closed in the downtown area, near where I am staying. makes sense… it IS Sunday.
Tomorrow I will have the morning to explore the city then a Digital Taxonomy course taught by my old boss at ILM. So stay tuned for more tomorrow!