V3CTOR Night

Last night I decided to introduce everyone to my favourite night in Leeds (though only once in a blue moon sadly) named V3CTOR night. I was introduced to these back when I was a fresher at Leeds Met by fellow student and all round cool dude Owen Cowdry. As fate would have it his birthday was on the same date as mine AND V3CTOR night was in town.

Anyway, it's an awesome night featuring alternative electronica and ambient sound experiments with proper DJs mixing tunes with decks on the one side and laptops on the other. Suffice to say it's a tad more interesting than going clubbing! Of course it's no good if you're in the mood to head-bop.

No this is definitely more of a chillout evening to chat with friends, drink tasty liquids and experience something a bit different :)

iLiKETRAiNSPOTTING

Newly established magazine, No-TiTLE, were on the look out for some digital creatives. The straight-talking, no nonsense read was enhanced by our article covering a gig from the band: iLiKETRAiNS.

A bunch of Choir Boys

Leeds based band, BlackNoiseChoir, approached us with a request for a video projection to be used in the Music Festival Emergenza. A reverberating, resonating render complemented by ghostly images made the final piece an interesting sight indeed.

Kooji does Boston

We travelled to the USA to receive an award at the highly prestigious Multimedia Technology event, SIGGRAPH (also known as the 33rd International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Technologies). Over 27,000 delegates attended the conference and we made many friends during our stay.

Kooji does Boston - Day Eight

Since we were too exhausted from all the events of the previous day we left all our packing to do until this morning. We had to somehow make room for all the brochures, books and DVDs we wanted to bring back with us and so we desperately attempted to jam them in with the rest of our luggage. After a few rounds with the suitcases we eventually won overall, despite the increase in weight. Then we casually strolled down for breakfast. Afterwards and once we spotted the time, we sprinted back to our rooms, tearfully said goodbye to it, dragged the suitcases out and booked our last shuttle to the train station. We had intended to take the Silver Line train to the Logan Airport but due to the suitcases we decided the only sensible option was to take the Logan Express coach back. Our return flights home had delays on them but we were too shattered to care and the flight from Newark to Manchester Airport set off at night so we were able to see the whole city lit up which was stunning.

Johnny’s brother Andrew kindly came to pick us up from the airport to take us home. Until he arrived we took turns napping because we were so jet lagged and once I was in the car I kept dozing off. He asked how the trip had been and all I could mumble was “incredible” as I drifted in and out of consciousness. Later on everyone was treated to a much more in depth reply accompanied by a five hour slide show marathon. Luckily for everyone else however, they have been directed to this online diary. Thanks for reading.

Kooji does Boston - Day Seven

This was our last day to take in all the sights in Boston and also the last day for SIGGRAPH so after a quick swim in the hotel pool in the morning we planned out the day ahead. First we took a trip down to Charles Street, which is full of antique shops (and where we found a cool jeans jewellery trinket chain) and then on to the famous Cheers Bar on Beacon Hill. We stayed a while for drinks and then took the train back to the convention centre in time to gather the last few remaining brochures, key-rings and other freebies on the exhibition show floor before it closed at 3.30pm.

Heading inside the Cheers bar.

Thirst quenching, ice-cold beverages at Cheers. What bliss.

Johnny’s face got lodged inside his glass but luckily we were able to retrieve it.

We were so enthralled in our mad dash through the exhibits that by the time we went to find the others at the Education Booth, in time for the Awards Ceremony, they had already left to sit in the food hall. Unfortunately, we couldn’t work out which one they were in so we sat outside the main room with the Director for Education Colleen Case and Jake Pollak who is also a member of the Education Committee. We told them how much we had both been looking forward to this part of the trip all week since today’s award ceremony was the reason for our being here. I was really excited and so Jake gave me a sneak peek inside the room as they were setting up. Colleen told us this would be her last year as Director and that Scott Dunham will be taking over the role of Director for the ACM SIGGRAPH’s International “Space/Time” Student Interactive Competition this year.

Everyone was then allowed to take a seat inside the room but, because we were talking so much, we forgot to take anything from the buffet bar they had set up and by the time we realised it had all been cleared away. Silly us! The rest of the team arrived and, after several introductions from the committee, we patiently waited for our names to be called out. After a series of photographs we took of the team accepting their awards and several ones of me shaking hands (with each member of the Education Committee in turn!) Simon and Duncan hugged us goodbye and left hurriedly to catch their flight back to the UK.

The Leeds Met Team with Stephen Wroble.

Celebrating my success at the Awards Ceremony.

The ‘Kooji Creative’ Team.

Shaking hands with Jake Pollak.

Stephen Wroble, Coordinator, Interactive Media Category, SIGGRAPH Education Committee Space/Time Competition.

Colleen Case, ACM SIGGRAPH Director for Education.

Michael Mehall, SIGGRAPH Education Committee.

Kathy and Katherine.

Johnny and I then went to celebrate along with our new friends at a restaurant called the ‘Barking Crab’ where the SEMAFX Wrap Party was being held. We met more members of the group including Yael Lewis, a Matte Painter and Conceptual Illustrator and Sarah Randolph, an Animator and Editor (whose online portfolio can be found here: http://www.ladyloon.com). After chatting for a while we said our farewells and set off to catch our last train back to the hotel in Woburn. We had another swim in the hotel pool that evening then decided to call it a night.

>>> Kooji does Boston - Day Eight

Kooji does Boston - Day Six

‘Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.’

We returned bright and early just as I said we would to claim ourselves a rare and highly sought after ‘Walking Teapot.’ This year’s teapot was a limited edition flaming teapot. As we rapidly approached the Pixar booth we caught sight of a life drawing class being held by Sony Pictures Imageworks and so we made a quick pit-stop to attend a class.


Mr Karl Gnass pointed out that I’d gone ‘outside the lines’ on mine.

The demonstration by Karl Gnass lasted almost an hour and during this time we were shown several techniques of figure drawing including expression, musculature, and movement. Afterwards I asked Mr Gnass for his autograph:

Karl Gnass’ Autograph

We then went over to the Pixar booth to sit and listen to a discussion on RenderMan for a program called Maya. We were shown a demonstration using a tool called Z-Brush after which we were rewarded with a limited edition DVD which contained a free evaluation of the product. If we wanted a walking teapot we were then asked to join a queue (which encompassed the edge of the whole show floor), but after a surprisingly short wait we received our well packaged and dinky toy. Here’s what the description said on the tin:

“The Walking Teapot’s aerodynamic design is well suited for the stresses expected of any wind-up device, yet it’s sleek form has even greater significance, as the walking teapot is a homage to one of the first 3D models ever created – the Teapot – and this model has appeared everywhere in graphics publications since.”

In the afternoon we decided to do some sight seeing in Boston. We took the T into the city and as we struggled to find our way around accidentally came across the Hard Rock Café. Here we were introduced to the concept of ‘Re-Fills.’ Unlike the restaurants we were used to the waitress kept returning with more pink lemonade each time our glasses became empty. At first we said we didn’t want them exclaiming ‘we didn’t order more drinks!’ but once we realised you only paid the once we gulped down several glasses.

We accidentally stumbled across the Hard Rock Café in Boston.

Someone had obviously miscalculated their trajectory on the way through the entrance.

Inside the Hard Rock Café with my Leeds Met Teddy Bear ‘Yorkie.’

Afterwards we took a trip down to Copley Square and saw the Boston public library, Old South Church and Copley Place Mall. Inside one of the shops we were given directions for the Museum of Fine Arts so this was the next place we visited. Since it was Wednesday entry into the museum was free (which was a relief because our dollars were dwindling).

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Then it was time to make our way back to the Seaport World Trade Center where the Contributor Reception was being held that evening. First we stopped off at the Seaport Bar and Grille for drinks overlooking the harbour. We watched the ‘Spirit of Boston’ ferry people away, took photos of the jellyfish and then walked up to the reception.

The Spirit of Boston.

The Contributor Reception was more like a banquet and there were all kinds of food catering to every possible taste. The reception was also another networking opportunity and Johnny and I mingled with lots of people including Valerie Lemieux, a Graphic Designer specialising in illustration, publishing and web design (her online portfolio is here: http://www.phoenix214.com) and Kelly Birg, a digital photographer, graphic designer and fine artist (her online portfolio is here: http://www.birgdigphoto.net/ ) We shared many common interests and a passion for Art, Design and all forms of New Media.

A group photo with our friends at the Contributor Reception, Seaport World Trade Center, Boston.

The reception was also a chance to celebrate our success with my tutors and team mates. This photo of the team was taken with the group mascot ‘Yorkie,’ my Leeds Met Teddy Bear. I got him at my graduation in July and decided to pin an American Flag to his scarf bearing the Leeds Met logo, (a Yorkshire rose designed for the university by Richard Berry our Branding and Design Manager) and bring him along with us:

The Leeds Met Team in Boston.

A group photo of us posing in front of the Boston skyline.

Johnny and I winding down after the Contributor Reception.

A beautiful view of the city from the bridge near Boston Harbour.

The open air reception was a spectacular sight. We were treated to great food and drink and really enjoyed the company of everyone we spoke to. It made a brilliant end to yet another superb day. We rounded it off by admiring the beautiful Boston skyline, saying our goodbyes before making our way back to the hotel.

>>> Kooji does Boston - Day Seven

Kooji does Boston - Day Five

Today was particularly special, not only because it was my 27th birthday but also because this was the day that the main event's show floor opened. We had prepared for this by stocking up with several carrier bags beforehand for all the DVDs, brochures, books, sweeties, lobsters, yoyos, walking teapots and all the other many free goodies that were to be had.

Outside the entrance to the ‘Electronic Theater.’

We began with a visit to the Electronic Theater. This is a major attraction at SIGGRAPH and the crowd making its way into the venue was huge. As part of the Computer Animation Festival the submissions made to this year’s Electronic Theater hit record numbers. We saw work from countries all across the globe including the Guinness ‘noitulovE,’ ad from the United Kingdom, Foster’s Austrailia ‘Big Ad,’ a short film called ‘My Date From Hell,’ from Germany and our favourite: ‘One Rat Short’ which won Best of Show and told the tale of two rats and their attempt to escape a laboratory.



Guinness Draught "noitulovE"



It's a BIG ad!



My Date from Hell (Trailer)



One Rat Short

Just as we were leaving the theatre we were stopped by two cameramen from the Computer Graphics Society and asked if I would say a little about what I’d just seen for a video interview that would be uploaded to their site. I was really excited about this and so I went on at length about our reasons for being at SIGGRAPH, how far we’d travelled, Leeds Met University, the Space-Time competition and how amazed by all the sights we were. They thanked us and gave us a link to their site:

http://features.cgsociety.org/siggraph2006/part_one/



Here's the CG Society's video in all it's glory - my interview is at 5 minutes 12. I sound like I've been on fifty fags a day but it's actually a bad case of laringitis!

We then spent the rest of the day exploring the main exhibition. Industrial Light and Magic, LucasFilms, Disney and many others were exhibiting and we handed our portfolios to LucasArts who were also busy recruiting. We asked them if they had any positions opening in the United Kingdom to which they replied “No, but we have vacancies in Singapore.” I don’t think we would be able to commute that far we said, especially since it’s further away than the United States! It took us several hours to get round every booth and when we finally arrived at the Pixar booth I was disappointed to be told that they had run out of the famous walking teapots. They assured us that there would be ample supplies tomorrow and so we said we’d return in the morning. We couldn’t travel all this way and not bring at least one back!

Johnny tucking into the Spaghetti Cow outside the Conference Centre.

On our way back to the hotel in Woburn, which is a little town just outside Boston, we bumped into our tutors Simon and Duncan in the train station. This was pretty surreal since at the time I was actually saying ‘I wonder what Simon and Duncan have been up to this week’ and then there they were walking up to us! We had already bumped into Simon on Sunday so to see them again by chance was very lucky. We told them about the interview with the AutoDesk Coach group from SEMAFX and the Computer Graphics Society video and we all agreed that the event had been phenomenal so far.

The Silver Line in Boston’s Subway – The ‘T.’


The evening consisted of a meal for two and drinks at ‘Polcaris,’ a lovely little Italian American restaurant in Woburn, to celebrate my birthday. It was the perfect end to the best birthday I’ve ever had.

>>> Kooji does Boston - Day Six

Kooji does Boston - Day Four

This was the most crammed packed day out of the whole week featuring three major events: The AutoDesk User Group Meeting, The AutoDesk Party and The Chapters Party. Even though we were shattered from the night before at Lucky's Bar I was determined to attend all three events.

We started the day by taking another look at the Art Gallery and the 'Intersections' exhibition since there’d been so much to see and we hadn’t gotten round everything the day before. We then bumped into Jake again at the Education Booth who gave me a women's fit SIGGRAPH 2006 RoadTrip T-Shirt (this size is extremely hard to come by – you’re lucky to get an XL!) to accompany Johnny's and complete our His and Hers set. He offered to take us down to the Chapters Party in the AutoDesk coach later that day and we eagerly arranged to meet up later.

By the time we arrived at the AutoDesk User Group Meeting the whole place was heaving and we were very lucky to get in at all. In fact to begin with we had to sit in the aisle but after twenty minutes of this I insisted that we did a quick dash across the room to commandeer a nice bit of open floor space. (Simon Thomson and Duncan Folley later told us they’d seen us sprinting across). It’s a good job we’d done this because otherwise we wouldn’t have met J.Marshall Pittman who’s the president for an Animator’s Guild called ‘A Bunch of Short Guys’ -http://www.abunchofshortguys.com - from Dallas, Texas. This creative group supports students, educators, entertainment professionals and visual creators by providing an educational resource which focuses on career development. We exchanged business cards and he gave me a T-Shirt too which made the mad dash across the room all the more worthwhile!

The presentation lasted two and a half hours and during this time 3D Studio Max 9 was announced and we were introduced to several key speakers who demonstrated the features of both 3D Studio Max and Maya (since this year saw AutoDesk’s merger with Alias, the company which produced Maya). We were also shown outtakes, behind the scenes footage and special effects from Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest and Superman Returns.


3D Studio Max’s ability to cope with over 1500 3D characters was amazing!

The explanations for the process of creating and animating Davy Jones’ tentacle beard were astonishing.



We were then shown a demonstration using the physical attributes of cloth, fluids, and particles. A 3D model of a torso was inflated using an air pump and then exploded before us (guts and all!); it was quite remarkable and also pretty worrying. I hope Duncan isn’t expecting that level of advanced work for the third year!

The AutoDesk User Group Meeting ended with a performance of percussion music for those willing to wait behind. Most dashed to the snacks and drinks in the hall and courtyard outside.

Next was the AutoDesk Party which consisted of a large congregation out on the hotel lawn. We met a whole array of interesting individuals including Steve Stanchfield, a professor in the Animation and Digital Media department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Steve was a pleasure to talk to and gave us lots of advice on starting our business ‘Kooji Creative.’ http://www.koojicreative.com We were then whisked away to the Chapters Party at Roxies. At this point we were suffering from lack of sleep (plus we’d missed dinner but hadn’t noticed) but we battled on and had ourselves another great night out. We finally headed back to the hotel and concluded a very exhausting but most rewarding day.

Waiting patiently for the train in Boston’s Subway – The ‘T.’

We also chatted with Randy and Maya Rockafellow who were also travelling on the AutoDesk Coach with SEMAFX. Here they are dancing at Roxies.

>>> Kooji does Boston - Day Five

Kooji does Boston - Day Three

This was the first day of SIGGRAPH and after registering for our conference passes we went to meet Steve Wroble at the Education Booth. Steve showed us the SIGGRAPH 2006 Education Committee catalogue where my artwork features on page 18! I was really pleased to see my work in print and so I took several copies away for family and friends back home:

http://www.siggraph.org/education/conferences/S2006/SIG_ED_Catalog06.pdf

We also went to take a look at the Teapot Exhibit in the main lobby. It showcased all types including virtual teapots, teapot inspired images and interactive teapots. All pretty apt for the city of Boston I thought since it also has an association with tea along with computer graphics, multimedia and the world of art.


The main exhibition hall didn’t open until Tuesday but we had more than enough to see before then. We went along to the ‘Animation Theater’ which was part of this year’s Computer Animation Festival and we were amazed by the technological advances on show in the Art Gallery: ‘Intersections.’ There was also a retrospective exhibit featuring the work of Charles Csuri, C G pioneer. Many of the art installations allowed visitors to interact with them and we were overwhelmed by the sheer amount on offer. We played virtual table tennis with mobile phones, walked through a garden undergrowth that reacted to the pressure of our feet, rocked a baby to sleep (it was no ordinary baby mind you, it was a machine that mimicked its reactions), and we controlled miniature beings that moved in time to the rhythm of our heartbeats. It was a phenomenal sight.

We ended our day by accepting an invite to accompany Scott Dunham, Jake Pollak (who we had met the previous day) and their group from The ACM SIGGRAPH Pro Chapter in SE Michigan, also known as the SEMAFX Network (http://www.semafx.net/) to the CG Society Meet at Lucky’s Bar in downtown Boston. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded people all involved in some way with the graphic design, multimedia and creative industries. We exchanged portfolios, chatted into the wee small hours and Johnny and I even danced along to the Jazz musicians and Sinatra impersonator. Everyone we met were so friendly and they made us feel so welcome and at home. Scott even gave me an interview just as we were leaving and it’s been posted to the SEMAFX website. It was an unforgettable night.

Johhny and I with our new friend Hal Newnan (that’s our friend Scott in the background).

Lucky’s Bar: Downtown Boston. A very exclusive and hard to find bar. That’s us outside.

A very lively party.

The AutoDesk Coach.

>>> Kooji does Boston - Day Four

Kooji does Boston - Day Two

I woke up at about 5am with a feeling of impatient anticipation I can only compare to the feeling you get on Christmas Eve as a small child. Two hours later Johnny woke up and after a hurried shower we sprinted down to our continental breakfast in the hotel bar and restaurant: ‘Spuds’ and proceeded to sample the entire menu. We then spent the day familiarising ourselves with the public transportation by first heading straight to the ’Boston Convention and Exhibition Center,’ which is this years host to SIGGRAPH (after a swift pit-stop at Burger King and several drink ‘re-fills’).

On the Silver Line underground tunnel bus we overheard a group of people say they were going to the convention centre. ‘So are we!’ I squeaked. The man to our left smiled. Johnny noticed as we walked out of the station that two of them were wearing SIGGRAPH t-shirts. I looked over and commented on how similar one of them looked to Stephen Wroble (Coordinator, Interactive Media Category, SIGGRAPH Education Committee Space/Time Competition) who had first emailed me with the news that our pipeline project had been awarded second place. I had found a photo of Steve shaking hands with my tutor Duncan Folley after searching on the net for previous visits by Leeds Met to SIGGRAPH. I dismissed it as too much of a coincidence since so many people would be attending.

We were walking towards the main entrance when the man who’d smiled at me on the bus asked us where we were from (England) and why we were here (because of the award), ‘Oh, you’ll want to speak to Stephen Wroble!’ he said as he shouted after Steve. After introducing ourselves and enthusiastically shaking hands we met several members of the Education Committee including Scott Dunham (founding chair for SEMAFX and CGI Producer for Evox Productions), Jacob Pollak (also with SEMAFX and the Detroit Creative Group), Colleen Case (ACM SIGGRAPH Director for Education and who is also from Schoolcraft College along with Steve Wroble and Michael Mehall). We exchanged business cards, enthused over the week ahead, arranged to meet the following day then they rushed off to prepare the Education Booth.

We stayed to explore the convention centre for a while.

The exhibitors were still setting up when we were looking around.

‘Design, Create and Inspire,’ that’s us!

I’m no stranger to milking cows. I used to work on a farm years ago. Strange breed though, this one.

Watch your step!

Unusual surface texture this…planet Boston.

Heading towards the Seaport Hotel, World Trade Center, Boston.

After a stroll along Boston harbour we headed back to the subway (also known as the ‘T’)

...then on to the hotel, for our evening meal at Spuds. (Cheap shrimp on Saturdays!)

>>> Kooji does Boston - Day Three