Organizers behind annual computer graphics conference SIGGRAPH have announced several highlights for the 2008 event, including an expanded format for the Computer Animation Festival and featured speaker presentations.

The expanded Computer Animation Festival will feature a variety of variety of competition screenings at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre, on-site awards presentations, talks, discussions, panels, and more. In addition, SIGGRAPH 2008 will host the return of FJORG!, the 32-hour international computer graphics "iron-animator" competition.

Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios President (and Pixar co-founder) Ed Catmull has been scheduled as a featured speaker, as has artist and U2 3D film director Catherine Owens. Also, new tech demos for innovative technologies and applications, such as Origami Optics, Rome Reborn, and ZCam, will be available for attendees to interact with.

SIGGRAPH 2008 will take place on August 11 to August 15 in Los Angeles, California and is expected to draw an estimated 30,000 industry professionals from around the globe.