Portfolio.

Each year the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival takes on a certain tone, or spirit, and this year's event was no different. Joyful. Funny. Sweet. Silly. Those are but a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe the 2008 juried content. Evolutionary is another word that could be used, which fits well with the festival's title, Evolve. "The animations improve all the time," says festival chair Jill Smolin. "And I just love the way the stories develop, the characters evolve, and our young animators seem to think the world's nut that bad after all!"

The selections, chosen from approximately 700 submissions worldwide, reflect many styles and techniques, from paper cutout-like animation to well rendered pieces.

"It's almost as if the technology has reached a point where artists are comfortable enough that they don't have to necessarily strut their technical prowess, but can concentrate on the very cool stories the technology lets them tell," explains Smolin. "Of course, because technology was such a significant component of our festival, one can see the evolution, particularly in the scientific visualization pieces. The evolution in real-time rendering is truly astonishing?

As Smolin points out, computer-generated animation has evolved exponentially since SIGGRAPH first started screening animation. "We've seen an industry explode with great stories, beautiful characters, and incredible technology combining to make us run to theaters as the next incredible piece hits the screen," she says. "Computer-generated animation takes us from way out in the heaves where we have yet to travel, to the ...