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Past Meetings

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2005 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2004 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2003 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2002 Sep Oct Nov Dec

Past Screenings and Special Events

2006 Jan Feb Mar Apr May
2005 Nov
2004 Apr Aug Dec
2003 Sep

March 2004 Meeting

Our March 2004 meeting was at:

7 PM, Tue 30th Mar
eCentral TAFE
140 Royal St
East Perth

Jonathan Knispel, acting chair of SIGGRAPH Perth, opened the meeting, with about 40 attendees present. He announced that we're now formally chartering as an ACM SIGGRAPH professional chapter and gave a brief description of the process. He invited more people to help with running the chapter by standing for the elections that will be held when chartering is completed, hopefully in the next 4-6 weeks.

Jonathan also briefly covered the SIGGRAPH Perth events planned for April. As soon as approval is received from the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) we'll announce the next event in our screenings program: another DVD from the SIGGRAPH 2003 Electronic Theater program on the 20th of April. On the 27th of April at our next meeting, we'll be holding an Interaction Session where people can bring their work and show it to other members of the community.

Pixel Juice

Pixel Juice (formerly MovingColor, RMM Design) presented creative and technical aspects of their iMagic VJ software. MovingColor has been involved in real-time visual production at the Perth Big Day Out since 2000.

The MovingColor team, consisting of Adrian Boeing, Alan Nielsen, Martin Sawtell, Brendan Ragan, took turns to present different aspects of the project.

In the first half of their talk, Brendan and Alan gave an overview and demonstration of VJing, followed by a run down on currently available VJ software. Next they spoke about the iMagic software they've developed, showed what is was capable of and presented some pre-rendered animations, including artist intro animations used at recent Big Day Out events. They also provided insight into the challenges involved in running visuals in live performance environments.

After a short break, the second half of the talk covered how content is created for iMagic plus technical aspects of iMagic's technologies and design. Martin described how the pre-rendered graphics shown in the first half were generated in 3d Studio Max. As well as presenting technical information, he covered the creative process involved. Adrian spoke about the overall design of the software and provided more detailed descriptions of its internal operation.

Pixel Juice also mentioned they are currently creating iMagic 3 (Topaz), which they want to be the "premier tool for real-time visual production". They are looking for enthusiastic artists and developers to join their team and help create what will be a unique and exciting system. It was good to see an interested band of attendees clustered around the speakers making enquiries after the talk.

Following the presentation, light refreshments were available in an informal environment where attendees networked and socialised. As usual Jonathan distributed posters, trinkets, T-shirts and other items to members. Following the meeting a number of those still present headed off to Basil Leaves for very satisfying Thai meals.

Other previous meetings