SIGGRAPH 2008: it's a wrap.(Editor's Note)(Editorial)

After a two-year hiatus, SIGGRAPH once again returned to Los Angeles, and attendance was up by nearly 4000 from last year's San Diego show, with more than 28,400 artists, animators, modelers, scientists, researchers, game developers, academia, students, and others enjoying the technology.

The Computer Animation Festival had a new structure, and the week-long festival proved popular and allowed viewers more flexibility in catching a program or two ... or more. A special screening was held on Friday to showcase the prize winners (see "Best of Class," pg. 10).

A special treat was the keynote by Pixar's Ed Catmull, an industry legend. Yet, he stood humbly on the stage, revealing some difficult decisions Pixar made, particularly concerning the release of Render-Man--celebrating its 20th anniversary--as a commercial product.

Throughout the halls, show-goers could easily spot the industry's Vikings, those proud and brave--not to mention sleep-deprived--artists who competed for 32 hours straight to create the best animation of at least 15 seconds in length. In the end, Team Grojf took home the honors for "The Red Truck." Attendees also had a chance to step back in time to ancient Rome, through the venue Rome Reborn, a CG rebuild of the city at its glory in 320 AD. Chief among the technologies used was Procedural's CityEngine, software that allows for the fast creation of large-scale urban environments and used to quickly generate 7000 buildings for this project. Rome Reborn was part of the New Tech Demo area, which evolved from the previous Emerging Technologies.

The show floor seemed larger this year, though some attendees thought otherwise. The New Tech Demos and Art Gallery dissected the exhibition area, both situated on the exhibition floor. While the venues received more ...