Siggraph 2006: Sunday July 30

My first day at Siggraph 2006...plus Pixar, parrots, and a naked Bostonian.

It was a piece of cake catching the shuttle in front of the Marriott, only a 1-minute walk from the Colonnade. (Oh, and a side note: everyone in Boston gives time-based directions, as in "It's only 10 minutes in that direction" or, as mentioned above "only a 1-minute walk." We don't do that here, and I found their directions disconcerting. What if I walk faster than the person giving me the directions? That's a distinct possibility considering my reputation as a fast walker). I had my little green wristband on, which I thought was a nice touch. I wish everyone at Siggraph got a wristband, not just the people staying at hotels that needed the shuttle. It would have made it easier figuring out who was in town for the conference and who was just in town.

I went through the doors of the convention center and my Siggraph virginity was blown away by the excessive air-conditioning. I was totally cute in my black MINI t-shirt with Union Jack lettering, white denim skirt, and t-strap walking heels, but, silly me, I left my winter jacket back home. I basically spent the rest of the week freezing wherever I went. Boston was having its hottest days ever....the heat was killing people, government offices were open til midnight to provide an air-conditioned environment for the less privileged, and the mayor was on TV asking people to set their thermostats at 80 to avoid overloading the power system and causing blackouts. Meanwhile, the convention center had their thermostat set on Meat Locker. I thought that was a bit tacky of them.

I attended the Open Season course put on by SonyDreamworks and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though I am a successfully employed animator, I don't work in the animation industry, so it was nice to learn the process behind creating an animated movie. Actually, nice doesn't cover it. I found it downright inspiring. Everyone who works in the industry specializes....modelers model, animators animate, texture artists create materials, lighting techs light, etc. I'm the ultimate generalist since I have to do everything from model to texture to light to animate to DVD production, but not all of those categories are my favorites. If I decide to get into the industry, I would never have to do lighting again, and that would be fabulous! :) Just learning that is worth the Siggraph registration fee!

After the class, I picked up the million billion pounds of literature that go with a full registration, shuttled it back to the hotel, then shuttled right back to catch some afternoon classes. I started in a class on modeling Urban Environments, but left once the presenter started talking about strings and other programmy-techy things. So I sorta kinda made my way to the class on materials.

I say "sorta kinda" because the class was on the second floor and I had, ahem, some issues getting there. The whole fear of heights thing made it impossible for me to take the escalator that high because it was in an open atrium looking down all the levels, and the one elevator I knew about crashed. Not crashed as in Kaboom but crashed as in it's programming died and it refused to be summoned. I wanted to take the stairs, and while there are stairs EVERYWHERE, none of them were available. They were all wired with alarms as emergency stairs. I finally found a second elevator, after asking 5 (!) building employees where to find another one. I had to keep asking because no one seemed to know. Apparently when you work for the Boston convention center, you are assigned a floor and there you stay, possibly forever.

The class on materials had been going for about 40 minutes when I walked in, and I only stayed for 5 minutes before deciding to leave. I couldn't hear the presenter well because she was basically muttering into the microphone--a common problem this week. Almost everyone given a microphone was scared of the sound of their own voice and proceeded to mutter, gargle, and otherwise render themselves incoherent to the listeners. The minute anyone heard their voice projected loudly and clearly, they startled, worried about being a nuisance, and went back to mumbling.

After walking out of the class, I decided to head back to the Colonnade. J.D. was due in late afternoon, and I figured she would want to do dinner. I should have spent some time going through the various rooms and displays and so forth, but I figured she would want to do them all and I thought it would be fun for us to see them together. Of course I was wrong. She has no concept of time (or space, for that matter, which is mind-boggling considering she is an animator, too) and runs late all the time, which means we were constantly out of time. Next year, assuming I make it all the way out to San Diego, I plan on viewing things a little more independently. (I say assuming because I will have to convince work to let me take my car because I am NOT taking the train, even if they pony up for a sleeper car).

As is, we didn't finish dinner until well after 8pm. We had the same cute waiter I had the day before, and J.D. took a liking to him. He asked me if I remembered him from the day before, which of course I did. After dinner we talked to two Brit Siggraphees in the lobby and found out there was a party at the Marriott that was just ending. Why didn't we know there was a party? Siggraph attendance is over 90% male, and you'd think that those in the 90% would want to make sure that those of in the 10% at least knew what was going on. And before anyone flames me because the event was listed in the little Conference and Exhibition Locator booklet, let me point out that there is no way of knowing that the event listed was going to be a party. It was a Birds of a Feather, of which there were many during the week, of which many required belonging to a particular special interest group, and there was no way of really knowing that it was open to all. Or that it was a party, for that matter. For all I knew, the Siggraph virgin that I was, Opening Barrel was a new type of source code.

But J.D. and I wandered over to the Marriott and indeed found a party that had apparently finished about 10 minutes before we showed up. Almost everyone was gone, although a man with a live parrot on his shoulder still remained, and yes, I wound up with the live parrot on my shoulder. All I needed was an eyepatch and I could have been a pirate. J.D. and I did get to talk to a few guys from France and Austria who were milling about, and the Austrian actually took a picture of my MINI shirt because he liked it so much. It was odd, though, because a non-computer-nerd probably would have taken the picture from my head to my waist, but he took a zoomed shot just on the words. Somewhere out there is an Austrian with a picture of my rack.

J.D. didn't like the bar in the lobby of the Marriott, so we walked back to the Colonnade for info. We ran into our cute waiter in his street clothes (very nice clothes, by the way) outside the hotel, and he recommended a place called the City-Bar in the Lenox Hotel. Since we didn't know how to get there, he offered to drive us, and J.D. accepted on our behalf before we could discuss whether that was a good idea or not. (It's never a good idea to get in a stranger's car, but he was short and I figured if a problem came up, I could take him in a fight). As it turned out, it was a totally fine thing to do. He was just being nice and wasn't expecting anything in return for his generosity. He gave us business cards for the restaraunt he plans on opening later this year, and said that we were some of the nicest customers he's ever had. Apparently the locals can be a bit, um, bitchy.

Anyway, the City-Bar was a fabulous choice (although they had no idea how to make a margarita because I wound up with straight tequila in a glass with a lime wedge) and I wish I had a million dollars to tip the waiter for getting us there. We noticed a group of people who looked very Siggraphy--lots of men and only one woman--and it turns out they were the contingent from Pixar!!!! That's right! We spent the next two hours chatting with some of the folks behind the best animated movies of all time. I've got the personal business card of one of their technical directors to prove it, too.

J.D. and I walked back to the Colonnade from the Lenox because I actually have a sense of direction and realized it wouldn't be far (about a 5-minute walk in Bostonian terms). On the way, we passed a dance club aimed at the 20-something set and a nice young local with an ultra-heavy Boston accent decided to take advantage of his drunken state and strip for us. He ripped his shirt off and dropped trou down to his boxers all while shouting, "Hey, youse ladies wanna have sex with me? I'll get naked for you." It was absolutely hilarious because he was so drunk and his friends were literally rolling in the streets laughing at him. I'll admit he had a nice body; obviously he works out a lot. :) Perhaps lifting all those beer bottles.

Tag: Siggraph 2006