SIGGRAPH 2009- GEORGIA DUMERGUE

SIGGRAPH December 2009- an account by GEORGIA DUMERGUE

Georgia in front of Ninja

In December I was lucky enough to travel to Japan and volunteer at Siggraph Asia 2009, the world’s biggest animation and visual effects conference.

TOKYO
I have never really travelled so arriving in Japan was like walking into another world - far removed from anything I have ever known. Greg and I followed the crowd and got help with tickets to our next locations. Greg jumped on his train and eventually I found mine. I felt a little frightened alone on a train in a foreign country, but soon I arrived at my destination and pushed past the millions people to get off. I walked into what looked like the set of Blade Runner. It was late and I found my Hostel in the midst of a downpour. Thank goodness for google maps. The experience so far had been surreal.

As I stepped inside the hostel I smiled to myself. I had just made it half way across the world, alone, in the dark and pouring rain.

Hostel life was a lot of fun and I made new friends quickly. I spent two full days looking around Tokyo City before Jill arrived. My new friends from the hostel took me out and showed me around. Markets, temples and buildings boasted the most beautiful architecture I had ever seen, and the perfectly turned out gardens were amazing. We couldn’t get enough of our fantastic surroundings.


Temples

Temples 2

Jill eventually arrived after getting lost (to my horror) for several hours. We travelled around the city together by metro. At first I was very confused by this crazy train system, but after a few days a pattern started to emerge from our gridded mess of a map. 12 Hours at Tokyo Disneyland with Jill and Greg, our teacher, gave me more animation ideas than anywhere else on earth. They’d thought of everything, and it was here that I ate my very first Mickey Mouse shaped Pizza.


Disneyland

Disneyland 2

Disneyland 3

We also visited the Ghibli Animation museum which exhibited all the old animation techniques used before computers. A beautifully designed museum and a wonderful learning experience, Ghibli was one of my favourite places in Japan. I would have loved to have taken pictures of everything but unfortunately photography was limited. The trip to the museum was an experience on its own. Jill and I took a guy with us from the hostel who could speak fluent Japanese, which came in very handy as we had to jump trains several times to get to Ghibli.


G1

G2

G3

On the third night in Japan we travelled to Yokahama where I found myself without accommodation. That night Jill and I stayed at a new friend’s house. Here we experienced the traditional Japanese lifestyle. It was very interesting and the people were so accommodating. A hot, home cooked Japanese meal was just what we needed before spending the next hour on a commuter train.


YOKAHAMA

Finding the Siggraph Asia 2009 conference centre was a mission. Eventually we found our room and our team leaders. Jill’s first shift had already started, but mine didn’t start till the following day. I took the opportunity to explore the beautiful but freezing cold city. While Jill completed her shift, I traveled on the world’s fastest lift, took in views of Mt Fuji, tasted some strange yet amazingly delicious ice-cream and found an outdoor ice skating rink! This is where Jill and I chose to spend our first night in freezing Yokohama city. A photo (below) that a group of us took that night won Jill, Rene and I the Siggraph Asia 2009 photo competition. I believe it speaks for itself.


Jill and Georgia

I was issued with a bright red vest on my first shift at Siggraph so everyone would know I was a volunteer. We had a tour of the building and the exhibits were briefly explained to us. When the first of the public arrived it was like the blind leading the blind, but I soon got a feel for the exhibits and exhibitors. Showing people round and teaching them about the exhibits quickly became very enjoyable.
We had one or two shifts every day so Jill and I would have to plan our time together wisely. When one of us was working the other usually took time to look around the conference and attend talks that interested us.
Some of the technology I saw was mind blowing. A robotic sunflower that opened only when a human hand hovered over it. Robotic food, Still and moving images, animations, music, singing teddy bears, live performances, 3D face scanners, Motion Capture. The list goes on…

Sunflower
See-through hands

Installation

Jill and I immediately made a lot of friends. Apparently kiwis are known as friendly people and everyone wanted to know about our rugby team and of course, the Maori culture. Jill and I became known as the Kiwi Girls, and people wanted to know all about our country and what we did. Others had never heard of New Zealand so it was great being able to enlighten them. I hadn’t realised what a unique, close-knit little country we are until I talked to other people about their lives. Every day was packed with interesting adventures. At the end of our shifts, Jill and I would grab a bunch of people and we would explore different parts of the city. Every day our group would grow. Together we tried new foods, experienced new traditions and tried out a new way of life. It opened my eyes to the wider world and future adventures.


Out with people

Jill and Georgia

Dinner with friends, BELOW: Georgia, Jill and Chip

Georgia, Jill and Nic- sunwook

Below is me standing in front of Salvador Dali’s paintings. What an amazing experience.


WOW

Being an intern at Siggraph gave us the opportunity to mix with industry people we could only have dreamt about. Below is an image of Jill and me standing either side of a man we named ‘Mr Pixar’. This photo is one of my favourite photos from the conference.

Jill, Pixar and Georgia

Over the several days at Siggraph I met people from the companies who made Harry Potter, Star Wars and my absolute favourite, Up, the newest Pixar animation. I was lucky enough to attend a talk by four guys who worked on Up, who, to be honest, were not much older than myself. They explained the creation of the animation from start to finish and why it was so successful. Their talk inspired me more than any other I went to while at Siggraph.

Siggraph Asia 2009 gave me the opportunity to make many new friends and contacts from around the world and opened my eyes to the beauty of other countries. Jill and I had a wealth of new experiences in those 10 days and although I was sad to leave, it was exciting to come home with so much knowledge and friendship. I know my experiences in Japan will soon take me to other great places.

All images courtesy of Georgia Dumergue