Out of 31 films we saw in competition, this one got the biggest laughs by far. Plus, this was in the same theater where we saw Video Games Live last year, and it ain't a small place. Seriously, when we hit the lotto, we're building one of these just for gaming. Anyhow, some of the animation entries were short, some were touching, and others just made you scratch your head. We'd seen the TF2 videos before, but it looked great on that screen in high-def.

Most of our time there was spent roaming the show floor, checking out the different booths (what? Disney's giving out Rubik's cubes?), listening to talks (at LucasArts, we discovered that the Euphoria engine was developed as a digital stuntman replacement), and taking photos of strange things (like this Japanese touchscreen system that uses plain paper to show you two different images from the same screen).

We also attended Sony Pictures Imageworks' "A Tribute To Stan Winston," where they showed reels of everything he'd worked on, and people like James Cameron got up to talk about working with him. It was a brief but touching tribute, and the stage was flanked by two of Stan's creations: Arnie in T2 and the Iron Man Mark III armor. Almost all of the Digital Domain company was there, taking precious rendering time away from Avatar -- they bustled out the door when they cued up a screening of the "HD Blu-ray Master" of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I watched for about 30 minutes, then remembered I had the movie, and a bed, waiting at home.

SIGGRAPH rotates cities every year, and will be in New Orleans next year before returning to Los Angeles in 2010. If you can stop by, we highly recommend it, especially if you're seeking a job in the gaming industry or just enjoy checking out new technology.