We had a great time this year at Siggraph 2010, the premier show for CG artists in the USA. Siggraph has an exhibition of all things bright and beautiful in CG, and lots of evening activities for rubbing elbows with our fellow artists. Not surprisingly, many vendors used TurboSquid models to show off their hardware and software.
This year, TurboSquid was in the ATI booth showcasing their FirePro card with Eyefinity technology, which can display up to 6 monitors simultaneously.
The ATI booth was decorated with a series of jungle murals depicting macaw birds. TurboSquid provided the murals using models from two of our top sellers, Narkohol and 3DRivers, who were mentioned by name in the booth signage.
TurboSquid models were also used in the Gamecaster booth, wherethe GCS3 virtual cinematography system showed users how to navigate a scene with a virtual camera and take images as if they were in a live shoot. Here, the city and car in the scene are from TurboSquid.
One of the high points of the show was the appearance of William Shatner and Dick Van Dyke in the Newtek booth to promote Lightwave 3D. The duo sat in front of a greenscreen while Newtek composited them live with images from Star Trek and Mary Poppins (which, if you recall, includes several rotoscoped scenes with dancing penguins). Dick has been hands-on with CG since the 1990’s, and was surprisingly conversant on all the new Lightwave 3D features. Bill doesn’t know much about CG—he was more about plugging his online community for sci-fi fans—but it was fun to see him anyway.
But Siggraph is more than just an exhibition; it’s about catching up with friends and colleagues. Over the course of the week we hung out with several of our associates—3D Artist magazine, the developer of the FumeFX plug-in, the CGSociety crew, and countless customers and artists. On Wednesday night we had an exclusive briefing for SquidGuild members, then we were off to a huge (and wonderful) party hosted by Blur Studio.
Now, at the end of the week, we troop home tired and a little fuzzy in the head, but glad we got to see everyone. Next year’s Siggraph will be in Vancouver. Maybe we’ll see you there, too!