SIGGRAPH 2014 Prepares for World Record Attempt

Paul Debevec leads the crowd in a test run of the World Record attempt on Saturday.

At 8 pm Sunday, 10 August, hundreds of computer graphics aficiandos will gather in West Building, Ballroom C-D of the Vancouver Convention Centre, open a mobile web app created by Conference Chair Dave Shreiner, and contribute pixels to the biggest mobile-device image in the history of the world (44 meters x 27 meters).

No other attempt has even come close to this audacious plan. In fact, it’s never been done before, but a similar attempt last year in Beijing achieved just 3 meters x 1.5 meters.

Be there! Add your pixel! Help SIGGRAPH 2014 make history and establish a new Guinness World Record! Be sure to bring your phone or tablet. The bigger the screen the better!

SIGGRAPH 2014 Releases Mobile App Game (SMAG)

Go big or go home! The SIGGRAPH Mobile App Game (SMAG)  is a mobile-enhanced persistent game that allows you to collect achievements throughout the SIGGRAPH 2014 Conference. Using your  iOS  or Android  mobile devices to scan QR markers using the SIGGRAPH Mobile App wherever you see them in the Vancouver Convention Center, from your fellow attendees' apps, and in sessions. Have fun and meet people as you make your way towards becoming one of this year's big winners!

Here are  five solid reasons to get everyone (you, attendees, random strangers on the street) excited:

1.  SMAG has 127 (and counting) achievements to complete! This means that you won't run out of things to do, even on the last day of the conference. You can chase a mad scientist, carry secrets passwords, catch a golden snitch(!), or find a wandering Guardian of the Galaxy on the conference floor.

2.  You can earn points just by being involved in the conference! Our goal is to promote great content and projects - attendees will be gaining points just by:

• Participating in the International Center's NoirMaker: Escape from Vancouver;
• Playing SIGGRAPH Caching, a clue-based treasure hunt that will happening concurrently on the conference floor;
• Exploring with RTL's AR App and searching for RTL's Behind-the-Scenes content;

3.  We are also promoting everybody's venues and projects, such as:

• Studio's Drawing Contest;
• The Back-to-Back CAF/How To Train Your Dragon 2 Screening;
• The World Record Attempt;
• And many more! You can even earn points just by registering or buying a cup of coffee!

4.  You can win prizes just by participating! Thanks to the help of friends and sponsors, we have a variety of prizes that be available throughout the week that may be available through a variety of means. 

• You may not be the top scorer, but you can still win an elusive RenderMan teapot, mysterious grab bags, and SIGGRAPH memorabilia just by playing!
• If you are a top scorer, you could win an S2015 Full Conference Registration, a copy of SIGGRAPH Encore, and many more!

5.  You can challenge yourselves intellectually! With our timed trivia challenges, you can earn points from identifying technical papers/concepts, pop culture references, and general geekiness!

Will you be this year's winner? Get a headstart and scan the QR marker above, and check out our documentation page for all the achievements and prizes available.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Welcome Letter from Premier of British Columbia

SIGGRAPH 2014 received the following welcome letter from Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia.

Christy Clark

Dear SIGGRAPH Attendees:

On behalf of the Province of British Columbia, it is my pleasure to welcome everyone attending the 2014 SIGGRAPH conference in Vancouver.

Our vibrant, expanding digital media industry makes B.C. a perfect fit. SIGGRAPH brings together business, art, and science to celebrate and showcase the cutting edge of computer graphics. 

You will have an opportunity to learn, network and cultivate relationships with colleagues from around the world, surrounded by the latest in digital art and technology. 

Thank you to the Association for Computing Machinery for organizing and coordinating this conference. British Columbians take pride in our spectacular home and in being good hosts. 

I encourage you to visit the British Columbia booth on the expo floor to learn more about what we're doing to support digital media and the technology sector here in B.C., and to take the opportunity to enjoy everything Vancouver and the region have to offer.

Sincerely,

Hon. Christy Clark

Q&A with Side Effects Software's Mark Elendt, SIGGRAPH Dailies Chair

What Motivated You to Come Back and Be the Chair Two Years In a Row?

Mark Elendt

Dailies is a very special program to me because it celebrates the artists who create computer graphics. As one of the only forums where artists can share their stories, I think it's very important the program succeeds.  By volunteering to chair the Dailies, I have the opportunity to ensure the program remains interesting and relevant to the community. While every year brings it's own unexpected challenges, chairing the program the second year is always a smoother ride.

I should mention that this is my last year as chair of the program. While I really enjoy the opportunity to chair, it's very important to keep the program fresh and get new ideas. I'm happy that Juan Buhler will be taking over my duties for 2015.  He has years of production experience and he's possibly even more passionate about the ideals behind Dailies program than I am.

Why Do You Think the Program Has Caught On So Quickly? i.e What Makes Dailies Special?

There are more than 40 presentations in fewer than two hours. This means that the event is really fast paced with a huge amount of variety.

Dailies is a unique experience. It's one of the few places where you can see students presenting their work right along side artists from big studios like DreamWorks, Pixar, and Naughty Dog.

The variety of work presented also keeps the event fresh and interesting. There really is something for everyone, including feature film shot break-downs, game art & design, scientific visualization and even jewelry design.

Dailies is always an audience favorite and should not be missed.

How Many Submissions Did You Receive This Year?

It was very difficult for the jury to select the 43 submissions from more than 70 we received this year. The quality of submissions was outstanding.

Geographically, Where Do the Submissions Come From?

Perhaps because SIGGRAPH is in Vancouver, this year's presentations seem to have a much more international feel. We have several submissions from Australia, Canada, Poland, the UK and even one from Syria. I'm looking forward to their presentation about creating a music video  that tries to reflect their cultural heritage while capturing some of the current events in Syria.

Any Surprises or Trends That You Noticed?

Last year there were a significant number of submissions by two large studios and though the presentations were amazing, it did make  the evening feel a touch unbalanced. This year, there was a much broader base of submissions which should add to the variety of pieces presented.

What Can the Audience Expect?

There is such a variety of content that people should come ready to be inspired, entertained, educated, and delighted.

To highlight a few of the presentations:

                 Volume Rendered Global Atmospheric Model

Volume Rendered Global Atmospheric Model
Greg Shira, NASA
How NASA was able to visualize terabytes of data and gain a deeper understanding of weather systems.

The Last of Us - Saving Ellie
Michal Mach, Naughty Dog, Inc.
In  this piece, rag-doll character simulation led to some in-game issues.  This presentation discusses how Michal Mach overcame these challenges.

RIPD: Frozen World 
Jacob Clark & Daniel Elophe, Image Engine Design, Inc.
Effects simulations are always challenging, but Image Engine was faced with further challenges while creating high-quality “frozen” explosions for RIPD.

 Poly's Feast: Snappy Stop-motion Style Achieved by Using CGI

Poly's Feast: Snappy Stop-motion Style Achieved by Using CGI 
Simone Giampaolo & Robert Stratton, BFX/Bournemouth University
How an artist's background in traditional stop-motion animation influenced the look and style of their CGI student project.

What makes these presentations so special is that they are given by the artists who created them.

If Someone Only Has Time to See ½ of the Program, Do You Still Think It Is Worth Attending?

There's always so much to do at SIGGRAPH it's often a challenge to fit everything into your schedule.  At Dailies, there are more than 40 short presentations. So, if you can only see half the program, you still see more than 20 presentations. You may miss some great presentations, but even so, you'll still walk away amazed and entertained.

You should definitely make time to see Dailies, even if you can't watch the entire program.

What Advice Would You Give Someone Who Is Interested In Submitting Content Next Year?

There are two criteria the jury looks at to choose Dailies submissions. The first is obviously the quality of the work – we look for excellence in computer graphics. But the second and more important factor is the story behind the work. The jury is certainly interested in how you made the art, but they are much more interested in why you chose to do things the way you did, or how you were personally affected by the process.

What Personally Motivates You to Continue to Come to SIGGRAPH?

There are innumerable reasons why I continue to attend SIGGRAPH. Personally it's the premiere opportunity to get my fix of new research and technology;  to see what's going on, and keep my finger on the pulse of the industry. More than that though, it's a chance to stay in touch with my graphics family - to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.

SIGGRAPH 2014 Releases Real Time Live! Preview Video

SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live! shows off the latest trends and techniques for pushing the boundaries of interactive visuals. An international jury selects submissions from a diverse array of industries to create a fast-paced, 90-minute show of cutting-edge, aesthetically stimulating real-time work, and maybe a battle between mind-controlled robot monkeys with laser eyes and autonomous penguin drones with shrink-ray bow ties.

Experience Real-Time Live! at SIGGRAPH 2014, which brings together thousands of computer graphics professionals, 10-14 August 2014 in Vancouver, BC. Learn more by clicking here.

Join the conversation on social media using #SIGGRAPH 2014.

Past SIGGRAPH Technical Papers Presenters Recognized by the Academy

Paul Debevec

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its scientific and technical achievements award recipients who will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation this year.  According to Paul Debevec, Vice-President of ACM SIGGRAPH from the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, several of these awards recognize computer graphics innovations originally published or presented at SIGGRAPH conferences.

“It’s wonderful to see some of SIGGRAPH’s brightest researchers being honored for contributions which have impacted the motion picture industry,” says Debevec – who also is a 2010 sci-tech award winner.  “In many cases this recognition follows years of difficult and complex work.”

Here are the details on the SIGGRAPH Technical Paper presenters who will be recognized: 

To Thomas Lokovic and Eric Veach for their influential research and publication of the fundamental concepts of deep shadowing technology.  The technique was first presented at SIGGRAPH 2000. 

Providing a functional and efficient model for the storage of deep opacity information, this technology was widely adopted as the foundation of early deep compositing pipelines.

http://www-graphics.stanford.edu/papers/deepshadows/

To Matt Pharr, Greg Humphreys and Pat Hanrahan for their formalization and reference implementation of the concepts behind physically based rendering, as shared in their book “Physically Based Rendering.”  The book explains, formalizes, synthesizes, and implements over one hundred articles from the SIGGRAPH technical papers program including several articles by the book’s authors.

Physically based rendering has transformed computer graphics lighting by more accurately simulating materials and lights, allowing digital artists to focus on cinematography rather than the intricacies of rendering. First published in 2004, “Physically Based Rendering” is both a textbook and a complete source-code implementation that has provided a widely adopted practical roadmap for most physically based shading and lighting systems used in film production.

http://www.pbrt.org/

                                  

SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING AWARD (ACADEMY PLAQUE)

To Eric Veach for his foundational research on efficient Monte Carlo path tracing for image synthesis.   Key pillars of this work appeared art SIGGRAPH 95, “Optimally combining sampling techniques for Monte Carlo rendering”, and SIGGRAPH 97, “Metropolis light transport” (both co-authored by Leonidas Guibas.). 

Physically based rendering has transformed computer graphics lighting by more accurately simulating materials and lights, allowing digital artists to focus on cinematography rather than the intricacies of rendering. In his 1997 Ph.D. thesis and related publications, Veach formalized the principles of Monte Carlo path tracing and introduced essential optimization techniques, such as multiple importance sampling, which make physically based rendering computationally feasible.

http://www-graphics.stanford.edu/papers/combine/

http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/metro/

For more details on all of these awards, click here.

SIGGRAPH Launches Free Program Offering Educational Videos to Computer Graphics Community

SIGGRAPH University provides a sampling of the content from the annual SIGGRAPH conference. The videos are available to the public at no cost through the ACM SIGGRAPH YouTube channel. All who watch the videos are encouraged to continue the educational experience by attending SIGGRAPH 2014, 10-14 August in Vancouver.

SIGGRAPH University features recorded versions of four popular Courses from SIGGRAPH 2013 in Anaheim, California. Each Course is presented by experts in the field who also happen to be dynamic, energetic speakers. This program provides a resource to the SIGGRAPH community that is available year-round, not just at the annual conferences.

The program will expand in future years to include a series of online educational videos and supplemental materials available in the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

The inaugural SIGGRAPH University program features the following Course videos:

“Introduction to 3D Computer Graphics" covers the basics of 3D computer graphics in a friendly and visual way, without math or programming. The course is introductory level and it’s mostly made up of live demonstrations, because computer graphics is a great way to teach new ideas. Topics include the basic principles and language. The course is presented by Andrew Glassner from The Imaginary Institute.

"The Digital Production Pipeline" explores the operating procedures for studios to produce content. While these studios look to tighten budgets, minimize risk and broaden films’ reach worldwide across platforms, there is no longer a standard operating procedure. Shorter schedules, and globalization are as disruptive to the digital pipeline today as non-liner editing and digital cameras were to their analogue counterparts. This Course examines digital pipelines, exposes a few of the methods that haven’t changed for far too long, and takes a look at trends in production workflows that will allow studios to quickly adapt to these ever changing environments. Instructors include representatives from Sony Pictures Imageworks, PDI/Dreamworks, Method Studios, MPC and How to Make Good Pictures, LLC
   

 “Mobile Game Creation for Everyone" provides an overview of the basics of mobile game development. The Course covers three free-to-use mobile game engines and provides an overall education of possibilities, pipelines, pitfalls and general tips and techniques. The three games/companies featured include:  Project Anarchy From Havok, Unity Game Engine From Unity Technologies, and Corona Game Engine From Corona Labs.

"An Introduction to OpenGL Programming" provides an accelerated introduction to programming OpenGL, emphasizing the most modern methods for using the library. In recent years, OpenGL has undergone numerous updates, which have fundamentally changed how programmers interact with the application programming interface (API) and the skills required for being an effective OpenGL programmer. The most notable of these changes, the introduction of shader-based rendering, has expanded to subsume almost all functionality in OpenGL. This course is presented by Edward Angel of the University of New Mexico and Dave Shreiner of ARM, Inc..

SIGGRAPH Releases Technical Papers Preview Video

The SIGGRAPH Technical Papers program is the premier international forum for disseminating new scholarly work in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Here's the latest preview of the amazing 2013 technical papers content. To review more content, click here.

SIGGRAPH 2013 Technical Papers Preview

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The SIGGRAPH 2013 Technical Papers program is the premier international forum for disseminating new scholarly work in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The 40th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 21-25 July 2013 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, received submissions from around the globe and features high quality and never before seen scholarly work. Submitters are held to extremely high standards in order to qualify.

Marc Alexa

“Computer Graphics is a dynamic and ever-changing field in many ways,” says Marc Alexa, SIGGRAPH 2013 Technical Papers Chair from Technische Universität Berlin. “The range of ground-breaking papers presented at SIGGRAPH is getting broader every year, now also encompassing 3D printing, and fabricating realistic materials as well as generating ever more realistic images of complex phenomena.”

SIGGRAPH accepted 115 technical papers (out of 480 submissions) to showcase this year representing an acceptance rate of 24 percent (one percent higher than 2012). The selected papers were chosen by a distinguished committee of academia and industry experts.

This year's Technical Papers program also includes conference presentations for 37 papers published this year in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG).

Highlights From the SIGGRAPH 2013 Technical Papers Program:

OpenFab: A Programmable Pipeline for Multi-Material Fabrication
Authors: Kiril Vidimce, Szu-Po Wang, Jonathan Ragan-Kelley and Wojciech Matusik, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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This paper proposes a programmable pipeline, inspired by RenderMan, for synthesis of multi-material 3D printed objects. The pipeline introduces user-programmable fablets, a corollary to procedural shaders for 3D printing, and is designed to stream over arbitrary numbers of voxels with a fixed and controllable memory footprint.

Opacity Optimization for 3D Line Fields
Authors: Tobias Günther, Christian Roessl, and Holger Theisel, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

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For visualizing dense line fields, this method selects lines by view-dependent opacity optimizations and applies them to real-time free navigation in flow data, medical imaging, physics, and computer graphics.

AIREAL: Interactive Tactile Experiences in Free Air
Authors: Rajinder Sodhi, University of Illinois; Ivan Poupyrev, Matthew Glisson, Ali Israr, Disney Research, The Walt Disney Company

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AIREAL is a tactile feedback device that delivers effective and expressive tactile sensations in free air, without requiring the user to wear a physical device. Combined with interactive graphics and applications, AIREAL enables users to feel virtual objects, experience free-air textures and receive haptic feedback with free-space gestures.

Bi-Scale Appearance Fabrication
Authors: Yanxiang Lan, Tsinghua University; Yue Dong, Microsoft Research Asia; Fabio Pellacini, Sapienza Universita’ Di Roma, Dartmouth College; Xin Tong, Microsoft Research Asia

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A system for fabricating surfaces with desired spatially varying reflectance, including anisotropic ones, and local shading frames.

Map-Based Exploration of Intrinsic Shape Differences and Variability
Authors: Raif Rustamov, Stanford University; Maks Ovsjanikov, École Polytechnique; Omri Azencot, Mirela Ben-Chen, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Frederic Chazal, INRIA Saclay - Île-de-France; and Leonidas Guibas, Stanford University

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A novel formulation of shape differences, aimed at providing detailed information about the location and nature of the differences or distortions between the shapes being compared. This difference operator is much more informative than a scalar similarity score, so it is useful in applications requiring more refined shape comparisons.

Highly Adaptive Liquid Simulations on Tetrahedral Meshes
Authors: Ryoichi Ando, Kyushu University; Nils Thuerey, ScanlineVFX GmbH; and Chris Wojtan, Institute of Science and Technology Austria

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This new method for efficiently simulating fluid simulations with extreme amounts of spatial adaptivity combines several key components to produce a simulation algorithm that is capable of creating animations at high effective resolutions while avoiding common pitfalls like inaccurate boundary conditions and inefficient computation.

Editor's Note: Preview all the amazing SIGGRAPH 2013 Technical Papers here.