Well I have just gotten back from Siggraph. It was in San Diego this year and my first time going too. All in all it was a good show although not as big as I would have hoped. But that is more the fault of my mind hyping it up more than it should have. 
I wish I had gotten some pictures, and next year if I am able to go I will take some. But I finally got to meet some fellow CGTalk'ers and old Fathom peeps. Most notably was Jeremy Birn, who is the creator of the lighting challenges here at CGTalk and part of Pixar's lighting team. It was very brief but nice to put a face to a name.  (Maybe next year I will have more time to talk to everyone and vice-versa....had too much to see and do..lol).
I really wish I would have signed up for the Softimage party at the House of Blues. Would have made things much easier to meet new people and network. Heh, live and learn for next year. I didn't get to see all of the booths this year, but I am pretty sure I covered the main ones. Autodesk showed off Maya 2008 and 3dsmax 2008. Not much of a max user myself anymore, but some of the features of maya 2008, especially the rendering part, will excite some artists.
One feature that makes me giddy is the mia_material_x. It's the same as the previous shader but allows the output of multiple passes like diffuse, specular, reflections, refractions, etc. Like the third-party Mega_TK shader really. Like that shader I am assuming it would be an automated solution. For the hardcore maya users, yes I know one can create the shader with layering smaller nodes and piping each into a framebuffer. The new shader just makes things easier (even if there isn't as much control). They did however make creating framebuffers/output shaders much easier (no custom text).
Other notable features were the Ncloth stuff, which I don't have much experience in but the demos were very cool.
I don't want to sound like I am reviewing the siggraph show...after all it's my first one. But wanted to share a little bit of what I saw.
I will admit I wasn't prepared as much as I should have been. But we'll see next year! |
). I am planning to put up some tips and such soon but haven't had the time lately. Family issues and crunch time at work. 
