Visiting the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts, the World Building Media Lab, and the USC IMGD department was one of the highlights of this semester for me. I genuinely became excited about all the incredible opportunities I’m about to have during my time here at USC. I actually got so excited that I created my own USC student organization to generate more interest around the topic: The USC ACM SIGGRAPH Student Chapter (which actually just got officially recognized by ACM SIGGRAPH today!) Link is here: https://www.facebook.com/usc.acm.siggraph

I think that these visits really emphasized the importance of how technology is making all sorts of things possible for storytellers today—things that people literally could have only dreamed about just decades ago. We have so many resources here at USC, and I think we should all take advantage of them by training ourselves to become proficient in technology-based fields. Without knowledge of the technology that drives the Leviathan, for example, it would be extremely difficult to be a leader on that project because you would only have knowledge of the theoretical aspects. The visits to the lab reinforced my idea that it is essential to know how to use technology to materialize the visions you have.

My favorite part about the visits was seeing the motion capture stage. I remember one of the biggest reasons I first wanted to come to USC was because I heard they had state-of-the-art motion capture stages, and I finally got to see them during our visit to the Zemeckis Center. I hope there is some way that the USC ACM SIGGRAPH Student Chapter (my new club) can gain access to visiting those stages as well, because I think it’s an insanely valuable resource for students like us to have. I think that, whether or not people like it, the industry is shifting towards becoming heavy in CGI and VFX, and that we would be ignorant if we pretended like the only thing that made these incredibly visual movies happen was the story. The VFX artists deserve to have their art recognized as well—and, in my opinion, their art is breathtakingly impressive because it represents the melding of technology and artistry, which is something that I believe to be the future of art itself.

Overall, being able to visit these labs was a great experience, and it inspired me to take the next step towards realizing my creative career.

Photo Credit: “Vicon Technologies Give USC Students Hands-On Motion Capture Experience:” http://www.cgarena.com/newsworld/vicon-usc-motion-capture.php