LOS ANGELES—The worlds largest computer graphics tradeshow, Siggraph, celebrates its 31st year with over 25,000 international attendees from both industry and academia, and more than 230 vendors showing their wares at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
A very cerebral show by nature, Siggraph is all about learning and demonstrating new graphics technologies, products, and design techniques.
Many attendees are from the entertainment industry, including movie studios, digital effects companies, and 3-D gaming outfits. Some work in slightly less exciting 2-D/3-D workstation areas. Collaborative groups and individuals from numerous universities throughout the world, and research divisions of such companies as Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp., present summaries of their research projects at Siggraph.
Vendors not only show off their product lines, but many of their technical employees attend the numerous courses, panels and research paper discussions to gain knowledge and get a glimpse of graphics techniques that may eventually be implemented in future products.
Special events such as the Electronic Theater provide attendees with an entertaining view of interesting graphics animations, videos, and special effects seen in many Hollywood movies created over the past year. The Emerging Technology area highlights a number of interesting research projects from universities and private industry that often includes hands-on interaction.