Siggraph 2003: San Diego

Article by Michael Tran and Harry Lam
July 27-31, 2003

Conclusion:

Siggraph always has something new to offer each year, however this year's conference was geared less towards marketing and sales and more for education and art appreciation.  The committee worked hard to create the rather plain convention center into an art museum, with modern and local pieces of art exhibited around the convention center.  In addition, the computer animation festival seemed larger than usual, with a huge showcase of CG and animated artwork.  The convention featured two theaters, the animation theater and the electronic theater.  The shows were packed with small clips and shorts that were created by various artists and animators around the world.  The electronic theater even featured a piece that won best animated short film by Sam Chen called the Eternal Gaze.  Siggraph had countless workshops to teach the public various innovative professional techniques used in the market.  nVidia's major focus on this show were their numerous workshops and demonstrations to teach developers about their graphical technologies and shading techniques.  After a couple of days of conferencing, it was nice to see that Siggraph had somewhat returned a bit to its roots, with less hype surrounding the show and rather more of the education inherent with the shows of old.