Siggraph is always a blast, and this year was no exception. I caught up with old friends and attended a lot of exciting talks and left feeling invigorated and exhausted at the same time!
The big topics this year were virtual/augmented reality and real time rendering (kind of like GDC actually). The technology is becoming more advanced and the price point on the equipment is dropping, so a lot of companies are now investing money into VR with hopes of creating something they can monetize.
The good news is that this might translate into new jobs if the research bears fruit. In general, I have noticed more hiring this year, and I cannott help but wonder if the interest in VR has something to do with it. Companies will need artists and programmers to help create these new experiences.
Unfortunately, the one downside that I can see is the jobs in demand will center around people who can work entirely in CG. If you are a compositor or a roto artist, you might be out of luck. However, someone from ILMxLab did say that people have been researching recreating reality with footage of reality, so we will have to see if that research bears fruit, which brings me back to one of my earlier points.
VR is hot again. In the past, people have gotten excited about creating VR experiences for the consumer only to have the technology not work out for some reason. We will have to see if the research dollars actually create services or products that people other than computer graphics nerds want to buy. I urge cautious optimism.
