George Lucas was the keynote speaker at SIGGRAPH this year. I have to say that I was a little disappointed in that it wasn't really a keynote per se, rather a Q & A with George...not even an audience Q & A, rather a late night show interview format with a host. As the keynote for a major conference, it was rather lame.

That having been said, it was George Lucas, and whatever you have to say about his actual films, the man has been incredibly influential in computer graphics. His films have inspired thousands of little kids to grow up into CG artists (many of them were in the room yesterday...or in the spill-over room...); while the technologies that form the basis of the Avid and Pixar (and even Photoshop!) came out of his shops. So while he may not be personally responsible for the code and the pixels, he has dreamed the dream and provided an environment where some really wonderful things have taken place. Most recently, he has moved Industrial Light and Magic (his special effects company) and his game development company into one digital arts complex at the Presidio in San Francisco, hoping that the physical proximity will cause synergy between the groups. (He really wants a great AI for gaming, so we can get away from "first-hand shoot 'em up games for a more intelligent...er, um...shoot 'em up games!")

So what did George tell us to expect in the next few years? A new 3D animation house located in Singapore and designed to mobilize the massive amount of animation talent in Asia in the 3D animation arena. Probably the first projects will be a Clone Wars TV series. There's also a "Star Wars-like" live action TV series in the planning. And lastly, a new audio/video editing system with a big pre-vis (pre-visualization...a system that uses primitive animation to pre-visualize shots before filming begins) component. So George has new content and new technology up his sleeve! Just cause Star Wars is done doesn't mean George is.