I attended SIGGRAPH 2008 recently in Los Angeles, California. I was there primarily to attend the masterclasses, which covered a variety of areas such as rigging, lighting, animation, and even scripting. I also managed to find some spare time to attend some sessions in the main SIGGRAPH conference and exhibition area. The showcase of new technologies were simply amazing and I think that’s what SIGGRAPH is about: bringing new technologies to the industry, year after year. I enjoyed the industry talk sessions too since they showed a lot of behind-the-scenes footages, and sometimes even sharing some in-house tips and tricks that they use in production. After the trip, I gathered some good ideas for implementations that I can try out in the near future. I also got to see quite a number of graphics researchers (e.g. Jos Stam!) whose names I have seen in great research papers, and spent a couple of days touring Hollywood as well. Fruitful trip indeed!

SIGGRAPH 2008 at Los Angeles Convention Center