On Sunday, August 2, at 6:00 pm, Chief Editor Karen Moltenbrey will be hosting a panel of industry experts who will relay their experiences in the industry and discuss current trends and technologies for the student volunteers of SIGGRAPH.
On Monday, August 3, at 8:30 am, Contributing Editor Barbara Robertson will be hosting a panel titled Building Benjamin Button: A Blending of "Technique-ologies,"
in which artists from Digital Domain and Lola take an expansive look at the main techniques and technologies developed and deployed to create the CG head of Benjamin Button, and the aging and "youthening" of the character. The panelists present behind-the-scenes images and clips to educate and entertain, and discuss concepts of invention, artistry, and technology. They include Ed Ulbrich, Steve Preeg, Jonathan Litt, Marco Maldonado, Paul Lambert from Digital Domain.
On Wednesday, August 5, at 10:30 am, Barbara Robertson also will moderate a talk titled From Pitchvis to Postvis: Integrating Visualization Into the Production Pipeline. The talk will focus on how the role of previs is evolving beyond the traditional animatic to an integral part of filmmaking’s creative process. This session explores how leading studios are using visualization as a part of their visual-effects production pipeline, as well as highlights the innovative techniques and cutting-edge technologies that are pushing filmmaking into a brave new world. Panelists include Steve Sullivan and Michael Sanders, Industrial Light & Magic.
Also, Contributing Editor Evan Hirsch is chairing the real-time content at the Computer Animation Festival and has the title of Real-Time Rendering Chair for SIGGRAPH 2009. He will be hosting a number of panels, including a Production Session on Wednesday, at 8:30 am, titled “Big, Fast, and Cool: Making the Art for Fight Night 4 and Gears of War 2.”