Rochester
Fingerlakes SIGGRAPH Professional Chapter
Article
about the SIGGRAPH 2007 conference
The Rochester Fingerlakes
SIGGRAPH Professional Chapter was well represented at a brand new exciting
event at the SIGGRAPH 2007 conference this year in San Diego. Faculty
member Marla Schweppe served on the committee that developed the project ( http://www.siggraph.org/s2007/attendees/fjorg/committee.html) and
two of the 15 teams were from Rochester.
In the first international FJORG! - an iron-animator event at SIGGRAPH 2007 -
competing three-person teams of CG animators had 32 hours to create a 15-second
or longer animation based on a theme presented at the event, using the tools
and assets provided by FJORG! Their goal was to resist the distractions and
meet the deadline for creating the best character-driven animation the world
has ever seen.
In return for their efforts, these teams of artists earned the attention of
recruiters and talent from the top studios in computer graphics, feature films,
animation, and game production. Teams were also provided with food and a
glorious nap room during the competition.
The competition was judged by representatives from Industrial Light and Magic,
Sony Imageworks, Dreamworks Animation and Pixar Animation Studios.
Two teams of RIT alumni participated in the competition with 13 other teams.
The Rochester teams were the "Commandos" comprised of Joe Daniels,
David Suroviec and Jed Mitchell and the "Prosethetic Foreheads"
comprised of Kristin Callahan, Erick Rohn and Ferris Webby. Although they
are alumni the members of the second team still reside in the Rochester area
and will hopefully share their experience with the chapter in the fall. The competition began on Monday, August
5th and finished on Tuesday, August 6th. We were all cheering our teams
on!!!
At the RIT reception on Wednesday from 5-7 in the Omni San Diego Hotel as the awards for the best FJORG! Project were announced (a coincidence)
we waited with bated breath to see how our teams would fare. We all had our fingers crossed, but
while they had a great time participating, met lots of amazing professionals,
and did a great job, they did not win the prize. Better luck next year!