SIGGRAPH came and went last week. It was in Los Angeles again this year. Next year in Boston hopefully marks the return to the alternating coast format. Certainly, seeing the smog and urban sprawl that is L.A. from the plane early on Sunday put me immediately in a resigned mood.
I spent most of the time at the Pixar booth again. I did make it to George Lucas’ keynote. It wasn’t much to speak of, someone obviously noted that Lucas isn’t a great speaker and instead put him on a comfy couch with a moderator, so it ended up being an interview – mostly a rehash of things you’ve read in Cinefex or other trade rags. I will admit that I’m enough of a fanboy to have said “Cool!” at the sight of the full size X-Wing sitting in the lobby of the L.A. convention centre. At the booth I avoided handing out bronze teapots (no posters this year!) by talking about RenderMan for Maya (which is looking great) or in the inner sanctum attending meetings. All in all it was a very busy week.
The user’s group meeting went well. Hal Bertram got a well deserved standing ovation for his Stupid Rat Trick (which can be seen here). Release 13 was announced, which means I can mention one of the things I’ve been working on lately has been multithreading. Along with the SSE work I’ve been doing on and off this year it’s kind of interesting to find myself programming at a level I haven’t been before; right next to the metal, so to speak.
Electronic Theatre was in an exhibit hall again. I think I will be happy to live the rest of my life without having to watch another weird French animated short ever again, although I did disturb others with my laughter at Fallen Art.
The Friday after, Susan and I spent two hours at the Tutankhamun exhibit at LACMA. It was ok. I didn’t think it was worth the $25, although to be fair our ticket probably got us into the rest of LACMA and we didn’t bother. It was still cool to be two feet away from things that I’d seem in National Geographic as a kid. My chief complaint was that the flow through the exhibit sucked. The signs were too small and generally only on one side of the glass, even though you could quite easily have had people on all sides of the exhibits. As well, the sarcophagi and burial masks weren’t there, replaced by a sarcophagus of Tut’s grandmother-in-law (!), and some artifacts buried next to him: a golden dagger, a diadem, chestpieces, etc. Cool nonetheless, but not really what captures the imagination about King Tut. I kind of hoped for a linen wrapped mummy and had to settle for a metal cast of his skull.
We wrapped up the week with a short jaunt on Santa Monica beach. A latent cold manifested on the way home and I’ve spent the last week coughing and hacking. Apart from one party, a couple of reunions, and a dinner with He Who Shall Not Be Googled and friends, I think that covers SIGGRAPH 2005.
