SIGGRAPH Business Symposium Presents Leaders and Visionaries to Address Industry Direction

Featured Speaker Carl Rosendahl

In its second year, the SIGGRAPH Business Symposium provides an intimate, interactive forum for open, frank conversations among leaders and executives in the visual effects, gaming, and media arena as they explore the present and future of the industry. SIGGRAPH 2012 welcomes visionary leaders and experts from a broad spectrum of the computer graphics industry, including animation, education, motion pictures, gaming, and visual effects, to this year’s Business Symposium in Los Angeles, 5 August 2012.

This full-day event is an exclusive opportunity for attendees to gain high-level, experiential vantage point insight from the producers and executives who have all forged unique paths to their current roles and now design the industry’s direction. The day begins with breakfast and roundtable discussions of the day's agenda. Possible topics include visual-effects production, marketing, international law, education, business development, and other areas related to the industry's current issues. The morning session provides a foundation for the day – an opportunity to hear from leaders on the global stage what they experience from their particular perspective, followed by featured speakers Carl Rosendahl and John Textor, both visionary leaders who influence the direction of our industry in vastly different manners.

Featured Speaker John Textor

Throughout the day attendees will join in-depth discussion and have ample time to interact with their peers before the afternoon session closes. The Symposium provides a look into newer business models from some of the people and companies defining the future.

Registration for the SIGGRAPH Business Symposium is now available. Attendance for this event is intended to accommodate approximately 200 people interested in, and committed to, defining the industry.

The SIGGRAPH Business Symposium sold out in its inaugural year in 2011. For more details, visit the SIGGRAPH 2012 web site.

Planned participants include:

Featured Speakers

• Carl Rosendahl, Founder Pacific Data Images, Venture Capitalist, Co-Director, Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center-Silicon Valley

• John Textor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Digital Domain Media Group

Morning Session: The Business of the Business: The State of the Union in 2011-2012

• Will Cohen, Managing Director/Executive Producer for Mill Film and Mill TV

• Patrick Davenport, Vice President Creative Operations, Method Studios
• Mark Driscoll, President, Executive Producer and Co-Founder, Look Effects Inc.
• Hael Kobayashi, Executive Director, Creative Innovation, University of Technology Sydney
• Lee Berger, President, Rhythm & Hues' Film Division and CEO, East Grand Films
• Habib Zargarpour, Creative Director, Microsoft Studios

Afternoon Session: Show Me the Money!

• Jonathan Garson, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing & Franchise, Pixar Animation Studios
• Shannon Blake Gans, Co-Founder and CEO, New Deal Studios
• Ondraus Jenkins, Head of Strategy and Corporate Development, Bungie, Inc.
• Sara Cardone, Vice President, Global Strategy and Business Development, SDI Media
• Sanford Rosenberg, Managing Director, Discus Ventures
• Gregg Lukomski, CEO and Founder, Slide Rule, Inc.

Round-table Discussions

• Don McGowan, General Counsel, The Pokémon Company International
• Gregg Lukomski, CEO and Founder, SlideRule, Inc
• Shannon Blake Gans, Co-founder and CEO, New Deal Studios
• Hael Kobayashi, Executive Director, Creative Innovation, University of Technology Sydney
• Jonathan Garson, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing & Franchise, Pixar Animation Studios
• Patrick Davenport, Vice President Creative Operations, Method Studios

Moderator for the Day

• Don McGowan, General Counsel, The Pokémon Company International

Real Steel’s Noisy Boy to Appear at SIGGRAPH 2012

Image credit: Copyright DreamWorks II Distribution Co,. LLC, All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Digital Domain

If you ever wanted to have your picture taken with something ridiculously awesome (like a 7-ft tall robot), then mark your calendars for SIGGRAPH 2012 where Noisy Boy from “Real Steel” is scheduled to make an appearance in the Computer Animation Festival Production Session “Making the Steel Real: Moving VFX Into Production”.

Following is the session description:

Click to enlarge photo.

Nominated for a visual effects Academy Award, DreamWorks’ “Real Steel” was recognized not only for its rollicking boxing matches between CG robots, but also for the seamless way the film moves between practical robots and their CG counterparts. In this panel, some of the “Real Steel” filmmakers walk through robot design, explain key techniques and shots, and share the groundbreaking virtual-production process that they packed up and moved to Detroit, which compressed the shooting schedule to 71 days with no second unit.

The session takes place Tuesday (7 August) from 10:45 AM – 12:15 PM in the LA Convention Center’s Hall B.  PLEASE NOTE: After the session, Noisy Boy will be moved to a secure location nearby so that attendees have a few hours for photographs with him.  

To hear directly from Erik Nash, VFX Supervisor with Digital Domain, on how they made the film, click here.

Special thanks to Digital Domain and Legacy Effects for making Noisy Boy’s appearance possible at SIGGRAPH 2012.

More information on Digital Domain:
Digital production company Digital Domain, a subsidiary of Digital Domain Media Group (NYSE: DDMG), was founded in 1993. The company has created visuals for more than 90 movies including Titanic, the Transformers series, TRON: Legacy, Real Steel and hundreds of commercials. Its artists have earned multiple Academy Awards®. Digital Domain recently completed visual effects for “Rock of Ages,” “The Watch,” “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and the virtual likeness of the late rap star Tupac Shakur for Coachella. The company is production on “Jack the Giant Killer,” “47 Ronin,” “Ender’s Game” and other features, and a full slate of commercials. Digital Domain has studios in California, Vancouver, San Francisco, Florida, Mumbai and London.

More information on Legacy Effects:
Since opening its doors in 2008, Legacy Effects has been involved in a wide variety of high profile feature films and commercials. Founded by John Rosengrant, Shane Mahan, Lindsay Macgowan, and Alan Scott, Legacy Effects has had the privilege of creating effects for films such as  “Avatar”, “ “The Avengers”, “The Amazing Spider-Man”, “Iron Man 2”, “Thor”, “The Muppets”, “Snow White and the Huntsman” “Twilight: Breaking Dawn”, and more. Notably, Legacy Effects co-owner John Rosengrant was recently nominated for an Academy Award for the effects on the Hugh Jackman starrer “Real Steel”.

Currently, Legacy Effects has been involved with Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi”, the upcoming “Total Recall” remake, the sci-fi comedy “The Watch”, “The Bourne Legacy”, Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”, the new take on the classic “Robocop”, Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” and the fantasy adaptation of “Seventh Son”.

Exhibitor Tech Talks & Sessions Schedule Announced

The SIGGRAPH 2012 Exhibitor Tech Talks & Sessions showcase the latest advances in the industry, such as new products and upgrades and development initiatives, and future plans and road maps. Exhibitors will give insight into the technology trends driving strategies, and the potential of emerging technologies in their product lines. Benefits include question-and-answer exchanges and one-on-one conversations with the speakers after each presentation. All talks and sessions will be given on the Exhibition Floor in Booth #967. 

Following below is the schedule for conference week.

 

Exhibitor Tech Talks

EMC Isilon
TUESDAY, 7 AUGUST | 9:45-10:45 am
Output- vs. Object-Based Media for Better Performance in File-Based Workflows

Unity Technologies

TUESDAY, 7 AUGUST | 11:15 am-12:15 pm
Unity Art Pipeline, Butterfly Demo

AMD

TUESDAY, 7 AUGUST | 12:45-1:45 pm
AMD FirePro Advanced 3D Graphic and Compute Features

This talk reviews all the features that AMD FirePro solutions provide for 3D graphics and compute through OpenGL, DirectX, and OpenCL. It describes how they apply in specific workflows for digital content creation or video processing.

Next Limit Technologies

TUESDAY, 7 AUGUST | 2:15-3:15 pm
RealFlow 2013 Technology Preview

Next Limit demos the exciting new developments coming up in RealFlow 2013, from the new Hybrido2 solver to the RealFlow Graphs implementation. Examples demonstrate the power and flexibility of the new nodal systems. The session also includes a preview of some of the other great new features coming up in this release: Alembic, Maxwell Render integration, and RealFlow Renderkit3.0

Speakers
Angel Tena
RealFlow Lead Developer

Gustavo Sanchez
Real Flow Product Manager

CentiLeo

TUESDAY, 7 AUGUST | 3:45-4:40 pm
Huge-Scene Interactive Rendering on a Laptop

CentiLeo is a high-performance rendering engine that interactively renders huge scenes composed of hundreds of millions of polygons on a laptop accelerated with a GPU. Using the fastest ray tracing to render photorealistic images, the system supports arbitrarilly dynamic 3D scenes (deformed or exploding) and a huge number of large textures. Scenes can contain dozens or hundreds of gigabytes, and still the frames are interactively updateable on a laptop with a GPU.

Imagination Technologies Limited

TUESDAY, 7 AUGUST | 5:05-6 pm
PowerVR: Getting Great Graphics Performance With the PowerVR Insider SD

Experts from the PowerVR Developer Technology team deliver the low-down on the great new features that have been added to the PowerVR Insider SDK and utilities. Learn how to tame textures, models, and shaders, and incorporate these leading development tools into your workflow to produce smarter, more portable game code. Then take a deep dive into the SDK's performance tools, PVRTune and PVRTrace, and how they are used, and the PVRScope API for extracting maximum performance from today's leading mobile and hand-held gaming platforms.

Qt Commercial, Digia

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 9:45-10:45 am
Learn How to Develop Powerful Advanced Visualization Applications and UIs With Qt Commercial

This session shows how development frameworks can be used to create advanced visualization applications and UIs with fewer lines of code. It introduces the Qt Commercial cross-platform application and UI framework to create stunning graphics and an amazing UX. Qt Commercial is the strategic-development choice for leading production houses looking to shorten time to market, increase efficiency, drive creativity, and extend outreach. Demos show the development tool in action and explain how to quickly develop an easy-to-use UI. The session also covers how Qt Commercial’s cross-platform capabilities protect investments by enabling developers to write the same application once and deploy it on different OS targets.

AMD

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 11:15 am-12:15 pm
AMD FirePro 3D Graphics and Compute Combined on Latest GPU Architecture in Deep Dive

This talk presents demos combining 3D graphics and compute using the latest AMD GPU architecture. It provides deep-dive technical details on the best ways to combine rendering and compute tasks.

Web3D Consortium

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 12:45-1:45 pm
Delivering New Dimensions on the Web

X3D is the only open-standard (ISO), royalty-free file format and run-time player specification for 4D virtual environments. It remains the most robust and versatile open standard for implementation of high- integrity, high-capability 4D multimedia information spaces. With multiple encodings and API bindings, it is compatible with many web and industry technologies. The data-integration capacities and the rich set of componentized features are rapidly expanding X3D’s value across markets from mobile to AR, CAD, and medical. Meet our innovative community of content and application developers, who ensure interoperability, longevity, and ownership of your content. See the latest real-world interactive 3D applications and find out how you can build and protect your content investment in this ever-changing competitive market.

Presenters from: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Bitmanagement Software GmbH, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Naval Postgraduate School, and others

Imagination Technologies Limited

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 2:15-3:15 pm
Accelerating Look Development *with* Rhinoceros Interactive Ray-Traced Viewports

Interactive ray tracing plugins for popular 3D packages (including Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, and McNeel & Associates Rhinoceros) are now bringing final-frame photorealism to even the earliest stages of modeling and lighting, and in doing so creating exciting new creative opportunities for artists and designers. In this session, users of Rhinoceros learn how real-time ray-traced viewports help designers make better-informed creative choices, shorten review cycles, and save time by reducing unnecessary and time-consuming preview renders compared to working with traditional OpenGL or Direct3D viewports.

Isotropix SAS

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 3:45-4:40 pm
Introducing Artistically Correct Rendering

Clarisse is a new breed of high-end 2D/3D animation software derived from years of teamwork between Isotropix R&D engineers and high-end CG artists. Designed as the fusion of a compositing software, a 3D rendering engine, and animation software, Clarisse delivers a fully revised workflow powered by a unified 2D/3D graphics rendering pipeline. It is the world’s first animation software that lets artists work interactively on their final images, with full effects on. This session demonstrates creating and working on feature-film-like visual effects, interactively.

Imagination Technologies Limited

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 5:05-6 pm
Accelerating Look Development *with* Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya Interactive Ray-Traced Viewports

Interactive ray tracing plugins for popular 3D packages (including Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, and McNeel & Associates Rhinoceros) are now bringing final-frame photorealism to even the earliest stages of modeling and lighting, and in doing so creating exciting new creative opportunities for artists and designers. In this session, users of 3ds Max and Maya learn how real-time ray-traced viewports help designers make better-informed creative choices, shorten review cycles, and save time by reducing unnecessary and time-consuming preview renders compared to working with traditional OpenGL or Direct3D viewports.

Optis

THURSDAY, 9 AUGUST | 11:15 am-12:15 pm
Tell it Like it is Rendering for Designers

Exhibitor Sessions

Intel Corporation

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 9 am-5:30 pm | Room 402B
Join Intel experts for a full day of cutting-edge graphics research deep dives, technical discussions, and exciting demos. From open-source ray tracing kernels and next-gen graphics technologies to OpenCL programming on Intel CPUs and GPUs, learn how to take advantage of latest-generation hardware to identify, optimize, and unleash stellar performance for your next graphics and media workloads.

9-10 am
Embree: Photo-Realistic Ray Tracing Kernels

10:45-11:45 am
Efficient Anti-Aliasing on Intel HD graphics

2-3 pm
Optimizing Film and Media with OpenCL and Intel Quick Sync Video

3:15-4:15 pm
The Future of OpenCL for Graphics and Film Applications on Intel Platforms

4:30-5:30 pm
The Future of Visual Computing as Viewed by Intel Visual Computing Research Centers

NVIDIA Corporation

WEDNESDAY, 8 AUGUST | 9 am-6 pm | Room 503
Explore the impact of GPUs on state-of-the-art CG and interactive design. Join NVIDIA for eight engaging talks and technical deep dives covering everything from advanced ray tracing and rendering to tessellation. Get insight into today’s most exciting applications and a glimpse into the next generation of groundbreaking advancements. Don’t miss the unveiling of NVIDIA’s latest groundbreaking developer tools.

9-10:30 am
GPU Programming for High-Performance Graphics Workstation Applications

10:40-11:40 am
Enabling the Next-Generation of Computational Graphics With Nsight Visual Studio Edition

11:50 am-12:50 pm
NVIDIA OpenGL in 2012

1-1:30 pm
What’s New in CUDA 5

1:30-2:30 pm
4 Approaches to GPU Computing

2:40-3:40 pm
GPU-Accelerated 2D and Web Rendering

3:50-4:50 pm
GPU Ray Tracing and OptiX

5-6 pm
NVIDIA GPU Virtualization

SIGGRAPH 2012 Game Industry Content Summary Guide

The following is a roundup of all content at SIGGRAPH 2012 originating from the game industry as compiled by Naty Hoffman, SIGGRAPH 2012 Games Chair and Technical Director for Activision.

Introduction:

This post lists all the content at SIGGRAPH 2012 originating from the game industry; note that in addition to the sessions on this list, SIGGRAPH 2012 also includes many relevant presentations from other industries (animation, VFX people, research, software and hardware vendors, etc.).

 

Summaries:

SIGGRAPH 2012 will feature content from 33 game development studios and industry R&D groups:

• Activision Studio Central
• Avalanche Studios
• Bioware Austin
• Bungie
• CCP
• Crytek
• DICE
• DONTNOD Entertainment
• Double Fine Productions
• EA Canada
• Epic Games
• Firaxis
• Gobo Games
• Guerrilla Games
• High Moon Studios
• Id Software
• Limbic Software
• LucasArts
• Maxis
• Microsoft Studios User Research Lab
• Naughty Dog
• NetherRealm Studios
• Ninja Theory
• Petroglyph Games
• Project Soul/Namco Bandai Games
• Q-Games
• Relic Entertainment
• SCEA R&D
• Square Enix Research
• tri-Ace
• Ubisoft Montreal
• Valve
• Vicarious Visions

This content will cover 20 game titles:

• ADRIFT
• Civilization V
• DmC Devil May Cry
• DOTA 2
• Dust 514
• End of Nations
• Far Cry 3
• Just Cause 2
• Killzone 3
• Mortal Kombat
• Once Upon A Monster
• Pixeljunk 4AM
• Rage
• SimCity
• Soulcalibur 5
• SSX
• Star Wars 1313
• Star Wars: The OId Republic
• Uncharted 3
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
• Plus content will cover game engines and various industry R&D projects

The lists below break out the game industry presentations by conference program.  Each session lists the participating game development studios and any specific games covered.

Courses

• Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games Part I and Part II: Bungie, CCP (Dust 514), Epic Games, Ubisoft Montreal, Firaxis (Civilization V), Vicarious Visions, Gobo Games
• Beyond Programmable Shading: DICE
• Character Rigging, Deformations, and Simulations in Film and Game Production: Bioware Austin (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
• Efficient Real-Time Shadows: Guerrilla Games (Killzone 3)
• Virtual Texturing in Software and Hardware: Id Software (Rage)
• Practical Physically-Based Shading in Film and Game Production: Ubisoft Montreal (Far Cry 3), Activision Studio Central, tri-Ace

 

Talks

• Furry, Floppy, Fuzzy: Once Upon a Monster's Fur Pipeline: Double Fine Productions (Once Upon a Monster)
• What If Earth was Flat - Building Globe UI of SSX: EA Canada (SSX)
• From a Calm Puddle to a Stormy Ocean - Rendering Water in Uncharted: Naughty Dog (Uncharted 3)
• Adaptive Level-of-Detail System for "End of Nations": Petroglyph Games (End of Nations)
• Screen Space Decals in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine: Relic Entertainment (Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine)
• Asking the Impossible on SSX: Creating 300 tracks on a ten-track budget: EA Canada (SSX)
• Fast Generation of Directional Occlusion Volumes: Maxis (SimCity)
• Local Image-based Lighting with Parallax-corrected Cubemaps: DONTNOD Entertainment (ADRIFT)
• Creating Vast Game Worlds - Experiences from Avalanche Studios: Avalanche Studios (Just Cause 2)
• Character Customization of Soulcalibur 5 In-Depth: Project Soul/Namco Bandai Games (Soulcalibur 5)

 

Technical Papers

• Theory, Analysis, and Applications of 2D Global Illumination: Limbic Software

 

Panels

• The Battle for Motion-Controlled Gaming and Beyond: Microsoft Studios User Research Lab, SCEA R&D
• Virtual Production Branches Out: High Moon Studios

 

SIGGRAPH Dailies!

• Mortal Kombat Morphing: NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat)
• Pixeljunk Space Odyssey: Q-Games (Pixeljunk 4AM)

 

Computer Animation Festival

Screenings (Daytime Selects)

• DOTA 2 Teaser: Valve (DOTA 2)

Production Sessions

• Ninja Theory presents DmC Devil May Cry: Breathing Life into Video Games: Ninja Theory (DmC Devil May Cry)

Real-Time Live!

• Luminous Studio Tech Demo: Square Enix Research
• Uncharted 3 Visual Effects: Naughty Dog (Uncharted 3)
• Star Wars 1313: LucasArts (Star Wars 1313)
• Unreal Engine 4 Elemental: Epic Games

 

The Studio

Studio Talks

• Film/Game Convergence: What's Taking So Long?: Crytek
• Creating Vast Game Worlds - Experiences from Avalanche Studios: Avalanche Studios (Just Cause 2)

Studio Workshops

• Python Scripting in Maya: Crytek
• MaxScript for Artists: Crytek
• VFX for Games: Pre-Baked Destruction: Crytek
• Building a Game Level: Crytek
• VFX for Games: Particle Effects: Crytek

Q&A with SIGGRAPH 2012 Games Chair Naty Hoffman

Naty Hoffman - the 2012 Games Chair

Following is a brief conversation with Naty Hoffman, the SIGGRAPH 2012 Games Chair and Technical Director at Activision, regarding games and SIGGRAPH 2012. Please check back later this week for an article summarizing all the game industry content at SIGGRAPH 2012.

How does games content fit into SIGGRAPH and what are the can’t-miss sessions for this year?

Games are a core SIGGRAPH constituency, just like animation, VFX, fine arts, and research. As such, game content can be found in all the SIGGRAPH programs. There is a lot of great games industry content this year - please check out the full list. If I had to pick just one or two key sessions from each program, I would mention the "Advances in Real-TIme Rendering" Course, the "Game Worlds" and "Surf and Turf" Talk sessions, Ninja Theory's Production Session on "DmC Devil May Cry: Breathing Life Into Video Games", the "Battle for Motion-Controlled Gaming and Beyond" Panel, the "Big Game" Studio Talk session, the "VFX for Games: Pre-Baked Destruction" and "Building a Game Level" Studio Workshops and the SIGGRAPH Dailies! and Real-Time Live! sessions. 

Given the increasing convergence between the industries, I also recommend that game industry attendees check out some of the amazing and relevant content from the film industry, such as courses on cinematography and matte painting presented by legends in their respective fields, as well as Talks and Production Sessions by companies such as Dreamworks, ILM, and Pixar.

What are your thoughts on the growth of casual and mobile gaming, particularly as it relates to the new SIGGRAPH Mobile program?
Casual and mobile gaming are an immense growth area and we have been making special efforts (such at the Mobile Symposium) to bring related content to the conference. I hope we will continue to see more content in these areas at future SIGGRAPHs.

What do you think is the next big technology that will be featured in mainstream games? In your opinion, what is the key to next-gen success for console gaming?
While cutting-edge technology will always be a big part of game development, I feel that the next generation will bring a renewed emphasis on the importance of art - supporting talented artists with solid and powerful tools, workflows and best practices will be no less (and probably more) important than having the latest whiz-bang engine feature.

The industry has been buzzing about free-to-play games recently. How do you think this will affect game development? 
I think it's always good to have new ways to reach customers and fund development, though I believe that the traditional models will continue to thrive for a while yet.

SIGGRAPH 2012 Showcasing Advancements in Real-Time Graphics

SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live! is the premiere showcase for the latest trends and techniques for pushing the boundaries of interactive visuals. A series of 10 international jury-selected submissions will be presented in a fast-paced, 90-minute show of cutting-edge, aesthetically stimulating real-time work at SIGGRAPH 2012, 5-9 August at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“As the momentum behind real-time photorealism accelerates, Real-Time Live! 2012 presents multiple projects pushing human character performance alongside physically based lighting and shading techniques,” said Jason RM Smith, Real-Time Live! Director and Digital Production Supervisor at LucasArts. “The show retains a strong breadth of diversity with breakdowns of an  audio-driven procedural graphics engine, an augmented reality gesture-based control solution, proprietary and commercial rendering engines, and a number of unreleased games titles.”

Pulling from a range of industries, this year’s selected submissions showcase the latest advances in real-time graphics; much of the content has never been displayed before and is exclusive to SIGGRAPH 2012.

SIGGRAPH 2012 Real-Time Live! Highlights:

Uncharted 3 Visual Effects
Mohammed Ikram, Naughty Dog


For Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog tackled the challenge of rendering multiple environmental effects, such as fire, water, and sand in the game set pieces. The biggest challenge was delivering high-quality visual effects in real time while keeping the strict cinematographic and artistic style of the game.

Unreal Engine 4 Elemental
Paul Oliver, Epic Games, Inc.


Developed by Epic Games, Elemental is the first real-time demonstration showcasing its next-generation Unreal Engine 4 technology. The demo presents rendering features utilizing DirectX 11 hardware. It takes per-pixel deferred shading to the next level: energy-conserving specular highlights from area lights and shadowed reflections from emissive materials creating area lights with shadowing, dynamic global illumination that affects both opaque and translucent materials, glossy surfaces that feature accurate reflections, subsurface scattering, and deferred decals. All lighting is complemented by the new GPU-accelerated particle simulation and the new post-processing pipeline.

Star Wars 1313
Lutz Latta and Roger Cordes, LucasArts

Star Wars 1313 delivers a cinematic experience by bringing traditional film techniques to real-time. Full-body performance-capture digitizes an actor’s appearance with complete body and facial realization; physically-based materials and lighting are calibrated to match the real world with indirect illumination and soft shadows. Visual effects model light emission, transmission, and scattering, allowing realistic fire, smoke, and particles to provide the gritty feel of the Coruscant underworld.

The compelling cinematic feel is completed with a number of post-process effects that simulate the behavior of real-world cameras. Star Wars 1313 is an integrated development that brings together great artists across the Lucasfilm organization, including LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. and Skywalker Sound.

View the full list of this year’s presentations at Real-Time Live! 2012.

Q&A with SIGGRAPH 2012 Real-Time Live! Chair - Jason RM Smith

Jason RM Smith, SIGGRAPH RTL! Chair

Following below is a brief conversation with Jason RM Smith, SIGGRAPH 2012  Real-Time Live! (RTL!) Chair and Digital Production Supervisor at LucasArts. 

Real-Time Live! is the premiere showcase for the latest trends and techniques for pushing the boundaries of interactive visuals. As part of the Computer Animation Festival, an international jury selected submissions from a diverse array of industries to create a fast-paced show of cutting-edge, aesthetically stimulating real-time work.

Here is the link to this year's content.

Why is SIGGRAPH's Real-Time Live! (RTL!) program relevant?

Real-time graphics is a growth engine of almost all CG-based industries and many other industries that embrace computer graphics anywhere in their process.  We see techniques running in real time now that were only recently being pioneered into a pre-rendered pipeline; the progress is staggering.

Ultimately real-time graphics allow creatives to be creative faster; improving iteration speeds by hundreds, thousands, sometimes tens-of-thousands of times, drastically driving up quality and reducing costs.  Looking at where the show has come—in five short years, it’s clear the pace is picking up; it’s hard to imagine what RTL! will look like in a few years from now, let alone another five.

How has your role changed this year in comparison to last year?

Last year involved outreach across industries, establishing a sub-committee and building recognition around the show.  This year has been more focused on evolving the show to be able to support the most cutting-edge work available.  It’s more of a challenge from a logistical standpoint; we have presentations requiring prototype hardware and complex machine configurations in addition to bleeding edge software builds.  More risk, but considerably more reward; there’s no doubt it’s what SIGGRAPH attendees expect and it makes for a much more exciting show.

Is there content that would appeal to both novice and expert?

One of the strongest and most unique pieces of the show is the format – it really helps ensure every project is accessible.  It’s informal; no slides – just the artists and engineers with their projects breaking down their approach and techniques used in creating the work.  When the presenters get technical, there are relevant and interesting visuals on screen supporting the dialogue; in terms of content delivery, RTL! is  as practical as it gets.

We have 10 pieces showing this year and have doubled the length of presenter time from four to eight minutes each.  It will make a difference to the depth of each talk but still allows us to cover a good number of projects.

Here's the video of highlights from 2011:

Any trends in RTL! content this year?

Yes!  The next generation of rendering engines, both commercial and proprietary, are really making a big play this year – we had so many strong game technology submissions that they could have filled their own show.

Then there are the projects built from the technology; we actually received more entries for unreleased games this year than released titles - another first.  I think it goes to show we’re really at a transitional point in the games industry right now as the hardware and software progression enables a very noticeable jump in visual fidelity.

To complement the heavy games focus, we received a number of real-time movies alongside a wide range of unusual, thought-provoking and entertaining projects like Beauty: Real-Time Visuals and the augmented reality gesture-based project, Arcade.

Switching gears a little, did the selection of Jane McGonigal as keynote speaker surprise you?

Not at all!  Jane’s knowledge, passion, and drive epitomize everything SIGGRAPH represents – she’s the perfect keynote. I’m planning on getting there early, because it’s going to fill up quick.

Do you share her philosophies about the potential for game development/gaming to solve real-world problems?

Absolutely; humans have been using games to solve problems for many years.  It is well proven that learning through an enjoyable experience is significantly more productive, and we achieve more through competition than without it.  There is definitely still work to be done, but Jane makes a very compelling case that it can be done— and it’s more a question of when.  Original thinkers with contagious attitudes, like Jane, are catalysts to make things happen.  The more people are aligned with this way of thinking, the sooner we’ll see previously unimaginable, world-changing results.  I’m on board!

So, to round up… how does the SIGGRAPH RTL! program differ from things like GDC and E3? What more does it have to offer?

There’s a number of differences, the first being the diversity and breadth of content.

RTL! accepts submissions from any area of research or industry.  This means we see incredible, 100-million dollar commercial projects and amazing independent, solo projects from completely different industries side-by-side on stage.  The breadth and quantity of submissions ensures there are always world-exclusive showcases for interesting and groundbreaking projects.

The second reason speaks to SIGGRAPH’s roots around sharing knowledge.

RTL! allows the project creators to present their tricks, techniques, and solutions with peers from all areas of computer graphics, and probably even beyond CG.  Last year we had a line of attendees speaking to the presenters after the show; there was a great buzz.  SIGGRAPH has always felt like a community, and like many other programs, RTL! carries the same vibe with the underlying goal of sharing knowledge.  It’s the cross-over with education, research, and many types of industries, both on-stage and with the attendees, that makes it unique.

Finally, what newsworthy / big announcements are you excited about with this year's content?

World exclusives!  Never-before-seen footage and breakdowns from a number of huge titles and technology projects, including Square-Enix, LucasArts, Epic Games, and Unigine to name a few.

RTL! provides the first opportunity to peek behind the curtain on these new projects – it’s fantastic that these studios and individuals are being so open and forthcoming with new intellectual property, ideas, and techniques. It’s a genuine privilege and very exciting to have them on stage at SIGGRAPH 2012.