Playing Guitar Hero 3 in Texas.. aka I love my job

I am in Dallas thsi week with Peter de Lappe and Jodi Vetterl, attending the Game Education Summit. I'll post more details on the conference tomorrow after I have had a chance to attend a few sessions, today was more about the exhibition hall for me.

Oh, and playing Guitar Hero 3. Which i LOVE.

Softimage has a kiosk at this event, and so does Dell University. Dell brought Guitar Hero 3 master player "Tipper Queen" to do some demos and play GH3 with the attendees. I played "Hit me with your best shot" with her. So fun. but WOW. I was on easy and she (of course) was on expert.

I have played Gh3 and Rockband with some pretty good players, but Tipper is absolutely amazing. I think she was playing right handed instead of her usual left, and she is killer. She played onstage during Bill Gates' CES keynotes with Slash.

Tipper, aka Kelly, is also studying game design, and peter doesn't know it yet, but he is going to be teaching her some XSI tips tomorrow during a session break.

Tipper Queen (L), Guitar Hero 3 player & game design student, rocking out with another conference attendee (who did impressively well on the hard setting!)

http://www.delluniversity.com/

http://www.tipperqueen.com/

http://www.gameeducationsummit.com/

Reviving the travel blog.. getting ready for a BIZZY summer!

Hello!

It's been ages since I updated the Soft travel blog, and there are actually several reasons for that, which are not that interesting and mostly to do with me not making it a priority. BUT - we are looking towards a BUSY summer filled with SIGGRAPH action, so its time to get back in the habit again!

So where have we been since my last post February? GDC was in San Francisco in February this year, and we didn't have a booth this time. We chose to have private meeting suites on the show floor, and directed our energies to our Education Summit and Softimage Student User Event, which were both firsts for us. It was a good week - a different GDC experience, but a good one!

Student User Event at AI San Francisco..

.. where Mark really enjoyed the demo he gave!

After GDC, there were a couple of small customer trips, until I got to spend 10 days in Los Angeles and Las Vegas this April for NAB, and a few LA-based events. NAB was interesting for us, since Avid didn't have a booth on the show floor. I have to admit, I thought it would be an easier week. Typically, NAB is filled with partner meetings to go over roadmaps and co-marketing planning sessions squeezed between hours of booth duty. This year it was crazier than ever - how does THAT happen?? Everyday started at 8am and finished at 7pm. We met resellers, customers, partners, educators, Avid counterparts. It was a ridiculously busy schedule, and as a result, a relatively lowkey week in vegas. Although I did have time to go to the AJA party at the Bank at the Bellagio, which gave me some inspiration for our SIGGRAPH 2008 User Event. More on THAT later!

I actually do not have ONE picture from Vegas this year. I had misplaced my camera, and only found it when I left. Honest.

After leaving NAB, I headed back to LA for a User Event at Gnomon. We held the event to kick-off the class that started on May 5th, and got to see some familiar faces!

Pam Hogarth (Gnomon) with Michael Isner & Colin Brady

Long time XSI user and friend Anthony Rossano and his colleague William, who won a copy of XSI Essentials!

Mark with Rudy Sarzo, Softimage user and rock legend. Trust me. Google him.

Darren Krumweide of Gnomon (left) and Gnomon staff member.

Heather Hughes and Pam Hogarth (Gnomon) with Kath Hayes of RFX (R).

From left: Peter de Lappe, Javier von der Pahlen and Jeff Wilson of Softimage, Ron Frankel of Proof and Ken Knobel, Softimage.

and even though the Gnomon event wrapped at 9:30pm, our day wasn't done yet! Mark and I headed downtown to do a walkthrough of the location of the 2008 Softimage SIGGRAPH User Event. We found an excellent location, and are feeling pretty pleased with the way it's shaping up.

Softimage SIGGRAPH User Event - Tuesday, August 12th from 8pm-1am. Put in on your calendar - it's going to be a good one. Invites will go out mid-to-end of June.

That's it for now - happy memorial day, America!

Note the huge smile on Mark's face. The event is going to be very COOL.

On the road again...

New year, new travels.. although being back in Seattle is a non-stop case of deja-vu. I have been here so many times for various Microsoft events and launch activities that we actually recoginized the Westin staff at the hotel this time around.

I have actually been home since November of last year, which was great, because i was fully focused on launching the new Education Programs. I was at a school in Seattle yesterday going over details of the program, and i don't know who gets more excited - teachers hearing about the free, learn at your own pace certification that comes with 40 hours of professional training, or students who hear about the free one year commercial license they receive if they graduate from a partner school. I can't wait to talk to the schools attending GDC next week about this - its going to be really great for the XSI community as a whole!

We also have more news coming soon on Professional Training.. i'll keep you posted.

So Seattle - it really is Microsoft town! Microsoft was holding an event for their WW field teams - 5 days of training and seminars for over 6000 staff. We were there for a Partner Summit, where Microsoft partners demo their wares to the attendees. Quite a few Microsoft employees were pretty happy to see us there, as they remembered when we were part of the family. I started telling people that the "soft" in Microsoft actually came from us. Just for fun. :)

Because I was with Mark, I got to pick something up at the Microsoft store. Mark can shop there because he is an alumni, so I know own "Scene It" and PGR4 for my Xbox 360.

We spent the next two days visiting clients and trying to plan last minute GDC technical details. Our brand new Dells - fully loaded with all the bells and whistles (I got to order them online - i have never ordered such powerful equipment - it was pretty cool to choose a 1TB hard drive) will be running the new ATI Fire GL 7600s which we have been testing all week.

So now I am off to Vancouver, I have client visits and education meetings lined for the next three days, and of course I get to see my friend Adam Sale, whose voice i know so well now, as I have listened to his instructor certification training material quite a bit in the last few months!

It's great to be back out on the road, but not that easy to snap back into it. I forgot how stressful it can be not having access to email and being able to get as many things accomplished from a hotel room. I just logged on at SEA-TAC and have over 100 new emails just from today that i need to look at and respond to. ack!

I am looking very forward to blogging at GDC - we don't have a booth this year, so hopefully I'll have more time to write about what's going on at the show.

jen

SOFTIMAGE @ VIEW Conference--Torino, Italy

Hello from Kevin G. -- on the road in Torino, Italy @ VIEW Conference (Nov. 6-9, 2007)

Torino (Turin) is the industrial capitol of Italy (home of FIAT- check out the new Fiat 500 - cute classic, Italian answer to the Mini Cooper). Located about 75 miles west Milan, the VIEW Conference (previously The Virtuality Conference)- is generating a huge buzz for SOFTIMAGE.

The 4-day show is a host to mostly students and 3D design professionals entering the industry. Italy is world renowned for its design, and this is the place where students come to learn about the craft of 3D, animation, design visualization and all forms of visual technology and story telling.



















The SOFTIMAGE booth was packed every day to capacity by students wishing to learn more about XSI, the art of 3D animation, and to watch in fascination the work of our customers in our SIGGRAPH Show Reel--and the show favorite, short animation, A Gentlemen's Duel (by Blur studios).



SOFTIMAGE is also offering Master Classes each day of the show, filled to capacity and led by Enea Le Fons, senior certified Softimage instructor. We've had outstanding special guest presentations from customers including:

Game developer PLASTOS (Luca Da Rios, President & CEO--Margarita & Kevin G.)



Visual effects and commercial post production houses- The Shift (Gianfranco Sgura and Emiliamo Colantoni-red background) and Xchanges post facilities (Marco Negri & Gianluca Pedrazzi - metalic background) also provided great presentations and demonstrations of how they successfully use XSI to win business and turn in excellent commercial works.

For the design industry attendees, we were very fortunate to have Massimo Giacon deliver an inspired and fun presentation of how he uses XSI to visualize and create many of the quirky and fun pieces for Alessi --an Italian industrial design and creation house.


Another great element of the VIEW Conference, is that it's really attracting world-class luminaries in the industry, including:
1) Glenn Entis--senior vice president at Electronic Arts
2) Joseph Olin--President, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (D.I.C.E Summit)
3) Pam Hogarth--Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Los Angeles
4) Peter Nofz--Digital Effects Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks (Spiderman movies)
5) PIXAR - Jessica McMackin- Technical Director Ratatouille
6) PIXAR - Alex Harvill - Technical Director 2D/3D effects on Ratatouille
7) PIXAR - Sharon Calahan - Director of Photography and Lighting -Ratatouille
8) PIXAR - Paul Topolos - Digital Matte Painter, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille
9) PDI Dreamworks - Lucia Modesto--Character Technical Director - all three Shrek films
10) James Clyne - Concept Artist- working with Ryan Church on the new Star Trek movie
... and the list goes on with many more guests.

And finally... The art dealer table was complete with many art books, making-of books, and the latest releases from Ballistic Publishing - and the new "Expose 4" art book

Digital Tutors/PL Studios Grand Opening

I had the honor of attending the opening of PL Studios (aka Digital Tutors) last Friday in Oklahoma City, OK. Before the grand opening, PL Studios hosted UPGRADE 2007: Evolving Art & Filmmaking, Oklahoma’s first annual computer graphics, animation and gaming forum.
http://www.plstudios.com/

The event was focused on exploring what it takes to develop, cultivate and maintain an animation, gaming, and digital filmmaking industry in Oklahoma.

It was a wonderful experience - I felt very privileged to be there.

Here are some photos..
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgoldfin2007/DigitalTutorsGrandOpening

Photos from Make Your Mark

I can't get over how fast time goes by.. we planned the Make Your Mark tour for months.. and in 2 short weeks it was all over.

Each city and presenter and panelist were all so different.. and i enjoyed the time we spent listening and learning from our clients in Boston, New York, LA & San Francisco.
Thanks to Marc & Todd (Boston), Chris & Youngwoong (NYC), John & Raffael (LA) and Jonathan (San Fran). Hearing your advice and experience in developing your careers was invaluable and inspiring to the audience as well as the Softimage staff.

For a complete album of photos, check out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avidtechnology
& http://picasaweb.google.com/jgoldfin2007

Tim Sweeney & Chris Johnson in NYC.

Kevin, Jodi & Jonathan Harb

Chris & his wife Melissa with Youngwoong

Make Your Mark Tour - Summary

I am having some technical issues here.. let's try this again...

See below for the MYM Tour Summary that my colleague Kevin G just prepared. I wanted to post this first, because it pretty much sums up where we have been for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the last event, held in San Francisco, and it was a little sad for us to see it end so soon!

This was the first time I have worked with all of the different divisions of Avid.. the Video team, who we know pretty well, but the Digidesign and M-Audio teams are new to us to collaborate closely with. It was a great experience..

Overall, the panel sessions were amazing. In all 4 cities, I felt like I learned something from each team on how to help my own career.. the advice and suggestions from Marc, Chris, John & Jonathan were invaluable, and I was very proud to have these 4 speakers representing the VFX industry.

Our four artists in the break-out sessions were equally fantastic... Todd, Young, Raffael and Jonathan all brought a different story to each city with their different career paths and projects.

I also got to work with our newest Softimage employee - Peter de Lappe - who is joining forces with Mark Schoennagel to spread the gospel of XSI as our new 3D Evangelist.

Here's Kevin's summary, we'll both be posting photos and more details later today.



For Make Your Mark, Montreal-based Softimage represented its professional 3D animation technology software, SOFTIMAGEXSI, by inviting 3D industry thought leaders to attend the lively and informative panel sessions in all four cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Softimage additionally provided highly-visual demonstrations of its professional 3D animation software in each break-out session—providing a comprehensive demonstration of how one can break into the 3D industry using XSI software for a career in 3D game development, visual effects, broadcast or pre-viz and design visualization.

In Boston, Modus FX president Marc Bourbonnais represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the Softimage break-out session, PSYOP’s Todd Akita shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some of world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola and more)—and provided advice on building a successful career using XSI 3D software.

In New York, Chris Johnson from TOPIX in Toronto shared his experience at the panel discussion about learning 3D and how he has applied his expertise in a career creating 3D visuals for major television advertisements. Youngwoog-Jang, recent winner of the Academy Award Student Gold Medal for his 3D animated short, Mirage, gave an inspirational “Making-Of” presentation at the break out session.

In Los Angeles, John Norris, director of Artists and Directors Cooperative spoke about how artists can break into the industry. Raffael Dickreuter, host of the XSI community site www.XSIbase.com and 3D pre-viz artist for Pixel Liberation Front, showed how SOFTIMAGEXSI was the best 3D animation software for next-generation games, film and television projects—and provided insider advice on how to get a job in the animation industry.

In San Francisco, Jonathan Harb, CEO and Creative Director at Whiskytree, shared his knowledge of working in the industry as an XSI artist to create specialized environments and his past experience of working on visual environments on films including all three Star Wars prequels, Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean.