Siggraph 2007

Well another year goes by and anther Siggraph goes into the books. Siggraph always congers up memories for me. Going to a show floor, being inundated by demos, stuffing a bag with product literature. Getting home filled with all these crazy ideas, your head filled up as that product literature bag. Then back to work, the ideas and product literature bag remain untouched.

In the last few years, I've tried to be more conservative to Siggraph. Do what is important, meet a few key people, get a few interesting contacts to follow up on, have a few key conversations rather than hundreds of superficial ones.

This year as in many others gone by, Siggrraph was about evolution. Sometimes we forget, how mature this industry is getting. It's about 16 years that 3D Studio has been on the market now. Well I missed anything revolutionary, but if it was happening it probably was in a back 10x10 booth.

It has been years that I've used Autodesk products, never regretted starting my CG career with AutoCAD, then 3D Studio. Last year I figured that the Alias acquisition would only help Softimage. People would turn to alternatives. Well it looks like I was wrong, It has helped Softimage AND Side Effects (Houdini). Softimage sales are apparently up 40%, The Houdini books were flying off the shelves in the Focal Press booth.

This year, Pia & Ken Maffei were kind enough to invite me to stay with them in their home. On Wednesday and Thursday, Amer Yassine and Michele Bousquet joined us for a pleasant day where we participated in a real 3D expereince. Golf at Redhawk.. My favorite..:-)