SIGGRAPH 2010

I'm here to update everyone on my exciting adventure to So Cal for SIGGRAPH! Feel free to skip through it because I'm going over ALL OF IT!

So I arrive Thursday night before the orientation on Saturday. I got accepted to be a Student Volunteer and needed to be there before the actual conference started. Alec Vaughan (a friend from CSU Chico who let me stay for the week) picked me up from the airport and the next day we went to Raleigh Studios for a screening. I recently got some freelance work from a small production company in the LA area and they invited me to see their release. We were in the Charlie Chaplin Theater in the back (we had to be on the VIP list and everything!) and I finally got to meet the producer/ important people. After some amazing tacos and free margaritas, I met with some of the others and we went back to Santa Clarita to get ready for my departure for the rest of the week.

We arrived at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown LA before noon so I can be on time for the orientation. My new room mates that I met on FB and split the room with met with me in the lobby. It was weird, I had never met them before but because we had conversed for weeks online, I immediately knew it was them! John drove us to the Convention Center, ESPN was setting up for the X-Games outside. The Orientation was relatively interesting, although I knew what to expect considering I volunteered for GDC this Spring. Afterward, the Committee set-up a CGW panel with Craig Ring ( Visual effects supervisor on How to Train Your Dragon), Rob Powers (Animation technical director and virtual art department supervisor for Avatar), Les Ekker (Creative director and VFX supervisor at Zoic Studios), and Paul Amer (A senior technical art director at Microsoft Games). They went over a lot of their personal work and recommended a few things for students for how to get into the industry. It was really insightful and I'm glad the Committee put it on for us. I think one of the most interesting things that I learned was when Rob Powers explained how instead of creating the environment and then recording the mo-cap and cleaning it up based on the environment, they programmed the environment to form around where the characters moved in the mo-cap. AMAZING!

So next was Sunday, where we started our shifts. I worked two shifts and attended a SV Session beforehand (all the days are running together so as I don't really remember what I saw, I'm sure it was entertaining). Monday night was the ACM Chapters party, which was honestly exciting that we got in free, however the $8 Bud Lights have convinced me that I need to make some money before I can move to LA. Alec and his friend met us and I ended up dancing on stage with DJ Dirty Draws. Most of the people there were in the industry and really drunk so it was relatively fun!. Tuesday we were planning on attending the Houdini Release Party, however, I got off my shift too late and we just decided to chill at the hotel instead.

Wednesday was actually one of the most exciting days. Autodesk announced that if you wear their bandanna and post pictures of you wearing it on Twitter, they will give away a pair of Blur tickets (a studio famous for commercials and TV series). I did not have a Twitter Account, however, I created one and posted the hell out of those pictures and eventually won the tickets. They told me 1 guy and 2 girls per ticket, so I tried to get as many people to go as possible. After driving to Hollywood in a cab following the Reception at our hotel, all of my 21-and-over room mates and my guests made it to The Music Box. Trevor Tuttle, Sarah Delucchi, and David Hyatt met us there and we got in line. The club was absolutely amazing and there was huge lines for the free drinks. After what seemed like forever, we got our drinks and found the center couch to see Crystal Method perform. Eventually it was time to go home after Trevor introduced me to Kevin Bailey and I found my room mates and we grabbed a cab and went back to the hotel. Thursday, I finally had time to go to the Exhibition Hall and Job Fair before I caught the shuttle for the Dreamworks Studio Tour. Taylor Alread was on the shuttle, so I saw a familiar face thankfully! The Dreamworks Studio was so beautiful, anyone would be lucky to work there. They even had a hedge in the shape of the boy on the moon (their logo)! The lunch was really good because they have their own cafeteria and chefs! Jim Conrads showed us around and I recognized him from the Redwood City tour so all the info was familiar. We later met with Angela Lepito whom I met at the CSU Media Arts Festival from the Dreamworks talk she gave regarding the Outreach Program. After visiting the gift shop and seeing the awesome conference room, we hopped on the shuttle and headed back. We ended the raffle and said our good-byes to all the SVs and decided to have a last dinner at Wolf-gang Pucks outside of the Convention Center. The Crab Cakes and Sweet Potato Fries are TO DIE FOR (apparently I defy the laws of the world because I had them twice!)

Saturday night Alec and I left toward Orange to visit Jeff Clifton and Renzo D. We went to a restaurant called The Crosby where Renzo's cousin was the chef. Absolutely amazing appetizers (including the Italian Chips and Salsa!)and the Duck Tostadas were sooooo good! We went to bed after a few drinks, woke up, and drove to San Diego to see Eugene Chung whom I had worked with in Summer Arts 2 years back. He gave us some great insight to the industry and showed us some of his portfolio before we went to PF Changs for a bite. After talking for a while more, Alec and I headed back to Valencia to chill for the rest of my stay. We got to go in the hot tub and watch movies which was a great ending to my busy week. Eventually, I packed my stuff and got on my flight home.

So what did we learn from these past 2 weeks?
1) There's no way I can have an industry job while not living in So Cal- especially if the entertainment biz is slowly following the economy on its decline.

2) I'm gonna try to get better at a lot of different things so that when I'm down south, I can be as versatile as possible.

3) Mo-cap and Motionbuilder is unavoidable and I need to stop being stubborn! I'm gonna do some tutorials!

4) If I happen to be a student and apply to be an SV next year, I am signing up for 18 hours for the sake of networking with people who aren't in school still. If I'm not, I'll volunteer anyways because I love helping out with events.

5) Not all dinner plates in LA over $20 are worth that much.

Alright! So that's the scoop on SIGGRAPH 2010! Feel free to IMDB any of the aforementioned people if you want to know more about them. And if you have never volunteered, been to a conference, or just want to have a good time, make sure you check out SIGGRAPH!