World in motion: highlights from SIGGRAPH 2004.(industry news)

If you're in animation or visual effects, SIGGRAPH is the big conference of the year, and if you've got the full conference pass, it's impossible not to feel overwhelmed. Technical directors show how they created animation or effects for blockbuster movies, university professors offer sneak peeks into R&D that will become studio technology in a couple years, and vendors show off the technology available right now. And it's air going on simultaneously.

At the NAB convention in April, Apple stunned everyone--including must of its own employees--with the unexpected announc