Member Profile: Genesis Laboy

2. What was your first job?

My first job was as a lighting technician at my high school’s theatre. I ran the tech booth for the school events (talent shows, guest speakers, award ceremonies, etc) but the bulk of the work was doing the lighting effects for the school plays. My favorite show to work on was Cinderella because it was also our most complex show. The tech team even travelled during our senior year to the Florida State Thespian competitions where we received a perfect score! Although I no longer work in main stage theatre, this experience served as the foundation for my animation career.

3. Where did you complete your formal education?

My formal education is still on-going. I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Character Animation from the University of Central Florida in May 2019 and took a few years to focus on work before returning to UCF for graduate school. As of May 2024, I’m about halfway done with my Animation & VFX Master’s degree.

4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?

I learned about SIGGRAPH around January 2018 when a guest speaker at my university mentioned it when talking about his career journey. I quickly looked it up and found that the volunteer applications were due very soon so I rushed to fill mine in. I spent way too long reading and re-reading the application to make sure it was perfect. Thankfully, I was selected to volunteer, along with a couple of classmates I convinced to apply. We took the leap and traveled to Vancouver for our first SIGGRAPH that doubled as our first time in a different country. Needless to say, the experience was wonderful and I’ve been involved ever since.

5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?

During my first SIGGRAPH I had almost the exact same work schedule as another SV. Every shift just so happened to have us paired up to work on the same tasks so we got to know each other pretty well over the course of the conference. Although I met lots of great people that week, the two of us had become good friends. We kept in touch over the course of the year and finally met up again for SIGGRAPH 2019 in LA. About a month later, we both got hired for the same internship at Laika and we became co-workers, roommates, and a bit of a moral support system for each other since we were both out of our home states with no family or loved ones around. At that time in life I really needed a friend to help me get through it so I’m glad we had each other.

6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.

I’m working on an animated short film for my graduate thesis called Let’s Get Kraken! As the title suggests, the plot is about a little kid who goes to fight a large kraken. I love sea creatures, especially octopuses. I’ve been to a lot of the large aquariums in the USA but my favorite one that I always visit when I’m in town is the Seattle Aquarium. They’re known for their Giant Pacific Octopus exhibit, which in part inspired my film. A lot of my production time is going towards ocean simulation and tentacle rigging which comes with several interesting challenges that I haven’t encountered anywhere else in my career thus far.

7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?

I’d love to have dinner with Freddy Mercury! His music is super inspirational and I’ve listened to it on repeat for years at this point.

8. What is something most people don’t know about you?

I used to be a TaeKwonDo instructor in high school. I started martial arts around 13 and by 18 I had a second degree black belt in the sport and competed in several tournaments (local and international). I won several trophies and medals but ultimately quit to focus on college. Now I prefer to do cardio to stay active, but throughout my teenage years, TaeKwonDo formed a huge part of my upbringing.

9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?

Probably my dad. He taught me how to be a responsible adult and has helped me figure out and understand a lot of life’s “firsts”. First day of high school, first time renting, first time buying a car, first time doing my taxes, first love, etc. He also happens to be one of the smartest people I know. Growing up he would always talk to me about political conflicts, historical events, math problems, and whatever other thing he found fascinating, which at the time I found incredibly boring but now I have random knowledge that comes in handy when I least expect it. It’s very interesting because I’ll sometimes talk to him about programming or XR research projects I’m working on and he will be able to figure it out and have an in depth conversation about it before I can finish explaining, even though he’s an accountant and has never encountered the topic before.

10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?

When I first started to volunteer at SIGGRAPH, the people who influenced me the most were my undergrad professors Darlene Hadrika, Jo Anne Adams, and Cheryl Briggs. They’ve traveled to various conferences over the years and have each had a role in organizing the SIGGRAPH chapter at our university.

11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?

I’m still at the beginning of my career so it’s a bit hard to pinpoint my proudest moment due to the limited experience I have. A few memories that stick out are from a recent work trip I took to Japan. One of my freelance clients is located there and they planned a big benchmark event in November 2023 that I needed to attend. We were able to create a realtime avatar that visualized the biomechanical data of the user. The user’s would be medical doctors and some of the top medical researchers in Japan. I don’t have an engineering background, having gone to art school, but over the years I’ve self taught various programming skills, including AI development. The result was impressive to them and further funding was granted to our group because of it. I also learned a lot about the culture of Japan and got to visit a lot of fun places while I was there.