Be sure to check out the following events at Siggraph 2000 that will feature staff from Walt Disney Feature Animation and The Secret Lab.

The Art and Technology of Disney's Dinosaur Course
Sunday, July 23, 1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
An exploration of the artistic and technical challenges in Walt Disney Feature Animation's recent film, "Dinosaur." When they began making this film in 1994, the production staff faced the challenge of designing and creating a full-length animated feature film with live-action background plates and photoreal, computer-generated characters. In this course, artistic and technical members of the production staff explain how they photographed the live-action backgrounds and acquired virtual set data; designed and modeled photorealistic characters; animated, rigged, and skinned the characters; integrated the 3-D characters into the live-action plates; and manipulated and enhanced live-action backgrounds. See the Siggraph Web Site Description.

Advanced RenderMan 2: To RI_INFINITY and Beyond
Tuesday, July 25, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Walt Disney Feature Animation's Tal Lancaster will present a portion of this advanced course. Many large and small animation production studios use RenderMan to create high-quality, often photorealistic, imagery for television and motion pictures. It is a powerful, flexible, extensible system that allows users to customize the software for situations that were not envisioned by RenderMan's original implementors. This course goes beyond the basics presented in the RenderMan Companion and teaches advanced techniques that are being used (or should be used) in turn-of-the-millennium special-effects production. See the Siggraph Web Site Description.

Timing Chart Sketch
Wednesday, July 26, 10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Walt Disney Feature Animation's Mike Blum presents this sketch that introduces the traditional animation concept of the timing chart and illustrates how these abstractions can be used to simplify the creation and spacing of keyframes in an animation package. See the Siggraph Web Site Description.

"Mission to Mars" in the Computer Animation Festival's Electronic Theater
Various times Monday through Thursday in Saenger Theater. A clip from "Mission to Mars" featuring work done by The Secret Lab will be presented as part of the Computer Animation Festival's Electronic Theater at Siggraph 2000.

Alias/Wavefront Users Group Meeting
Sunday, July 23
"Dinosaur" will be the topic of the Keynote Address at the Alias/Wavefront Users Group meeting at Siggraph.

Presentations on the Show Floor
We are doing presentations for some other exhibitors at Siggraph as well. "Mission to Mars" staff will be doing presentations at SGI, Alias/Wavefront, and Nothing Real. "Dinosaur" staff will present at Alias/Wavefront.