I decided to attend the Softimage Übertage event in Siegen, Germany today.
It would be the last one held in the wake of Autodesk killing Softimage. I thought it would be nice to see off my favourite tool and network with some German VFX people.
After a long and enjoyable day (including a great demo from Eric Mootz), a majority of us went to a nearby restaurant for drinks and burgers. I sat at a table with some wonderful artists from Amsterdam and Brussels and some reps from Side Effects software. We talked about our jobs, our countries and our views on a great number of things. I regaled them with tales of adventure during which I distilled the heart of man's darkness and got a fair few laughs.
Finally, having gorged on my burger like a pig at the trough, I rose and bid them all goodbye. I shook each one by the hand and ran like hell to my train. Once on board, I realized that I had forgotten to pay for my meal.
The German VFX industry now knows me very well because I stiffed a good number of them out of 15 Euros' worth of junk food.
They probably all think I'm Keyser Soze by now.

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