The Blonde Leading the Blind

I’m back at home after spending a week in Los Angeles at SIGGRAPH 2008, a huge 3D, game development, and animation conference, that I attend every summer to promote (and sell) several of the high-end graphics books that Wiley publishes in the 3D and animation space.  As the marketing manager assigned to SIGGRAPH, I’m responsible for planning our tradeshow booth, selecting the appropriate titles to stock at the show, booking advertising, organizing author events, and creating signage to display in the booth to showcase our books and generate sales.

It’s one of my biggest shows each year, but it’s also one of my favorites.

I get to hang with my West Coast coworkers – Mariann and Alison – that I usually only get to work with via conference calls and email. Here they are at the Wiley booth during this year’s show.

It’s also a chance to meet our rock star authors face-to-face.

Like Eric Keller, author of Introducing ZBrush…

And, Scott Spencer, author of ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting…

Who both made author appearances at the Wiley booth during the show along with Lee Lanier (Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting) and Dariush Derakhshani (Introducing Maya 2008).  Several other authors were at the show and stopped by the booth to chat including: Jason van Gumster (Blender For Dummies), George Maestri (3ds Max at a Glance), and Don Seegmiller (Advanced Painter Techniques).

If you’re looking to learn how to use 3D and animation software or to improve your rigging, rendering, and modeling skills , these are definitely the guys you want helping you out.