LOS ANGELES - New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), the New Zealand Government's trade and economic development agency, will have several of its local companies at this year's SIGGRAPH show in Los Angeles. The Academy Award-winning visual effects facility Weta Digital and software developers Right Hemisphere and Massive are all New Zealand-based companies, and they will all participate in a panel discussion as part of SIGGRAPH's "Tech Talk" series.
Hosted by NZTE, the session, "Middle Earth: Imagination Made More Real" will be moderated by Dr. Steve Upstill, a founding member of Pixar Animation Studios and a recent New Zealand immigrant. The companies will discuss and present each of their respective technologies and productions. Weta Digital, in fact, will give a presentation of its effects work for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
The "Tech Talk" panel will be held on Wednesday, August 11th from 4:00-6:00pm in Hall G, Room 1, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Eleven companies from New Zealand will be represented at this year's SIGGRAPH show. In addition to Weta, Right Hemisphere and Massive, the list includes computer interface research lab Hit Lab NZ; Aranz, a developer of handheld scanning devices; animation software developer CAT; effects studios Oktobor and Albedo; computer arts educator, Media Design School; and visual communications companies Truescape Visual Reality and Urban Voyage.