SIGGRAPH 2009- JILL ROUND

SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 -an account by JILL ROUND

Siggraph_image_1: Logo at ice skating rink taken for intern photo competition.

Last year myself and Georgia Dumergue were accepted into the Siggraph Asia Internship program. With funding from CoLab, we were able to fly to Yokohama, Japan and attend the second ever Siggraph Asia Conference. The conference ran from the 16th to the 19th of December and over 6,500 people from 50 countries attended.

Siggraph_image_2: Aerial view of the exhibition hall.

Siggraph Asia is one of the largest computer graphics, interactive techniques and digital media conferences. It is where researchers, experts, developers and students in the areas of animation, computer graphics, digital media production, robotics, interactive techniques, virtual reality and gaming, gather to network with others from their respective fields. The convention was held at the Pacifico Convention centre in Yokohama which is one of the main creative centres in the world.

Siggraph_image_3: View of Yokohama at night.

The conference included exhibitions, job fairs, the art gallery, emerging technologies, technical papers, exhibitor tech talks and courses. The exhibition hall saw companies demonstrating their latest products and recruiting for jobs. The art gallery exhibited innovative work from artists around the world.

Siggraph_image_4: Me with the Lucas Film recruitment team.

The workshops and technical talks had over 400 industry speakers from companies such as Pixar Animation Studios, presenting papers and sharing knowledge. My own interests are in visual effects and animation so the presentations were extremely insightful and beneficial to my research. I also attended the electronic theatre and viewed the winning pieces from the latest Computer Animation Festival.

Siggraph_image_5: Georgia and me with Tony Apodaca the Supervising Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios.

Siggraph Asia holds an internship program run by Yoichi Matsuyama, where students volunteer their services for 12-24 hours in exchange for full conference entry. I was fortunate to be accepted for this program out of the thousands who applied.

Siggraph_image_6: Inside the Intern office.

Interns work in a variety of jobs such as Attendee Registration, Operational Support, Language Support and Gallery Management Support, which I was assigned to. As part of the Gallery Management team I was based in the exhibition halls assisting the exhibitors.

Siggraph_image_7: Inside the exhibition hall.

While I was working I was able to meet, network and learn from people in the industry, scope out future employment with companies and learn what is expected in the industry.

I spent a week in Japan and when I wasn’t working I was able to sight see around Yokohama and Tokyo, visit art galleries and museums including the Ghibli Museum and the Yokohama Museum of Art, and even go to Tokyo Disney Land.

Siggraph_image_8: Me at the Yokohama Museum of Art in front of Salvador Dali’s work.

The conference was such a valuable experience. I learned a lot, met so many people and made future contacts within the industry. It has helped me with my future career goals in defining what I want to do in the industry. I would recommend that anyone interested in digital media attend Siggraph and I would like to thank CoLab for making this possible for me.

Siggraph_image_9: Me with other conference interns from all over the world.

IMAGES AND BLOG COURTESY OF : Jillian Round, Master of Art and Design Student, Auckland University of Technology