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Juan Zubiaga writes from SIGGRAPH 2008
Western Australian animator Juan Zubiaga received a ScreenWest Practitioner Development Travel Grant to attend the SIGGRAPH 2008 conference in Los Angeles, California. Juan gives ScreenOnline readers an overview of his experience at the conference.
"SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is the foremost conference for the international computer graphics community and is held once a year consisting mainly of educational courses, papers and talks plus a showcase floor of the latest software, hardware and production techniques," Juan said.
"This year the SIGGRAPH was attended by 28,400 artists, research scientists, gaming experts, developers, filmmakers, students, and academics from 87 countries, plus more than 230 international company exhibits. Additional, I was able to attend the Autodesk master classes that run parallel to the annual conference.
"Siggraph presented the latest technology and techniques applied on the production of the recently released blockbuster films, such as Wall-E, Ironman, Kung Fu Panda and Hulk. The master classes were great value for money. They helped me enhance my skills and increase my knowledge on specific software such as Maya - the lead software in the production of visual effects and the main tool I use for post production work.
"The conference was a great opportunity to network with artists, filmmakers and researchers around the world. I managed to attend a couple of the software user group meetings such as Autodesk, Pixar Renderman and XSI."
Juan holds a Diploma in Computer Graphics Animation from Eunoia Animation School in Mexico. Upon completion of his studies he worked for the Cluster Animation Studio doing modelling, rigging, character animation and lighting.
In 2004, Juan relocated to Perth and immediately started teaching in the SAE 3D Department as well as freelancing for Mushmedia, Mango Blue, David Downie and Siamese. Juan credits include local productions Hidden Creatures (VFX artist), Dogstar (VFX artist) and recently the television series Time Trackers (3D Animation). Currently Juan is studying a Diploma in Advances Studies of Character Animation. He is also the head of the 3D Department at John Cheese Studio, a local post production studio, where he is working on the new animated campaign for the Perth International Arts Festival.
You can view some of Juan's work online.
To read Juan's full report from the conference see the attached document.
