XSI ICE is a standout and as user-friendly as Shake - Report from SIGGRAPH

Summary - SIGGRAPH has been one the best experiences of my life. For one week the entire computer graphics industry congregates to share one common interest, the evolution of computer technology. The convention was more than just a tech demo; it was a social gathering of great minds. Other than the Olympics, I believe SIGGRAPH was the second largest international gathering this past week.

It seems that the tech lingo of our CG community spreads widely across the globe. I found myself in conversation with some Japanese developers who were researching how to render a kitchen scene by ray tracing it with 10 bounces in just a matter of minutes with 6 lights. A fellow student volunteer from New Zealand explained how he coded his own expressions to generate particle effects. At home, I have trouble explaining the work I do to my family during Christmas. This was an enlightening experience to speak to people who could tell me how to get the right results from my HDRI Map!

Out of the major packages, one that stood out to me was XSI ICE. Its multi-threaded technology delivers high-end real time interactive results. The best feature is its node based command workflow. I found the system very user-friendly coming from an Apple Shake background. With this in hand, it shortens production time on a project without having to produce intricate lines of code.

The most underrated section of the convention was the New Tech demo located in the South Lobby. An exhibit that stuck out was the Copycat Arm system. The contributors were Kiyoshi Hoshino, Motomasa Tomida, and Emi Tamaki from the University of Tsukuba. Users were able to film their arm in front of a high-speed camera while an algorithmic program translated pre-calculated data to a robotic arm. In other words, the mechanical arm imitated the users movements without any pre-calibration.

I’m very fortunate to have participated in this year’s Student Volunteer Program. Not only were we able to network with peers, they fed us every day and gave away free stuff at the end of the week donated by our sponsors! And in compensation for the amount of shifts we worked, the Committee organized office luncheons and hall lectures throughout the week with industry representatives from Computer Graphics World, Dreamworks, Sony Imageworks, Disney, Howey Digital, Curious Pictures, and ILM. We even received cool hats from Reality Check Studios.

It is difficult to cover all the amazing things that happened these past five days. It’s just been hard searching for an equitable vocabulary to describe the entire experience. If there is one thing from SIGGRAPH that I genuinely earned, it is the new friendships I made with my fellow Student Volunteers whom someday I’ll be working with.