A COMMUNITY OF INNOVATORS
With global innovators in Animation, VFX, Game Development, VR, AR, Mixed Realities and Emerging Tech there is much to see and learn from this convention. A leader in the industry when it comes to new technology you will find SIGGRAPH does not disappoint and has something for everyone from the student to the master.
HISTORY OF SIGGRAPH
Artist and Futurist Syd Meads and Bob Schiffman organized the first annual SIGGRAPH conference in Boulder, Colorado in the summer of 1974, as the 1st Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. Compared to today’s conference the attendance was small at around 600 people. It really wasn’t until around 1977 in San Jose that SIGGRAPH really took off and became a success. The main reason being mostly that commercial exhibits were added that year. So many people think of that conference as the first true SIGGRAPH as it most closely resembles the conference format that we have come to appreciate today.
Some of the main categories that the 1st SIGGRAPH covered were General topics of Computing, Software, Mathematics and Computation, Hardware, and yes, Analog Computers at that time as well as the emerging Digital.
Today’s SIGGRAPH covers those topics and more with Arts & Design, Animation, Gaming & Interactive, Emerging Technologies and Technical Papers; with years of innovations from “Thinking Beyond” and a community sharing resources you will see and experience the future which is happening already.
TECHNICAL PAPERS
Where science and art merge you will find the most amazing advancements in human history. Content that inspires and drives us to new heights. Here you will discover the value behind the beauty of innovation. Technical papers at SIGGRAPH are chosen through a prestigious peer-review process. A committee of scientists and researchers from areas of academia and industry hand select the “most visionary and innovative to present at the conference. The papers, documentation, video, etc. are all submitted for review and once accepted, presented at the conference for the public.
“Each year, the Technical Papers program sets the pace for what’s next in visual computing and the adjacent subfields of computer science. I am excited to be part of presenting the amazing work of researchers who drive the industry and look forward to how this work ignites memorable discussions,” said SIGGRAPH 2019 Technical Papers Chair Olga Sorkine-Hornung. “This is the kind of content you’ll reflect on, and refer to, throughout the year to come.”
Along with new research from various academic labs, Facebook Reality Labs, NVIDIA, and Disney Research, let’s take a look at some of 2019’s innovations and technical papers demos, and videos that made it to this years conference.
Stride Across the Moon: RTX-Powered Apollo 11 Demo at SIGGRAPH 2019
There are a ton of real-time interactive displays at SIGGRAPH 2019 as well as AR/VR/Mixed Reality Experiences. Stride Across the Moon was one of those real-time demos that pervaded this years showroom floor.
Moving Past Stylized Avatars with VR Facial Animation via Multiview Image Translation
Social Interaction in VR has always been one of the key components and one of the promises VR brings to the table when it comes to the future of telecommunication. A connected future where professional and personal interactions need to be and feel authentic is the promise that is becoming a reality with VR Facial Animation via Multiview Image Translation. For more info, you can check out their paper on the Facebook Research.
NEURAL RENDERING IN THE WILD
Using internet photos to recreate a total scene as well as capturing various times of day of that scene from various angles, etc.. For each photo taken of the initial scene, they rendered those “scene points” into a frame buffer, then they train a neural network to learn the mapping of these initial renderings to the actual photos. This neural network does take into account various anomalies such as people walking into the photos.
DIGITAL HUMAN PROJECT
The Scan Truck Demo at SIGGRAPH showing off their work with ICVR and all the cool stuff their “Spaceship on Wheels” has been doing with Photogrammetry and VR Real-time Motion Capture technology.
CGCircuit will be featuring them in an upcoming blog article soon, so stay tuned and check out more of our blog articles, interviews, etc. at blog.cgcircuit.com for the latest tech updates, cool resources and Industry news.
The few examples I show here are just the tip of the Iceberg literally, if you have never been to SIGGRAPH there is so much more Brain Candy and the good thing about this conference is you can find free passes for the general showroom online.
Also, a few of the videos and demos here, you would be able to view yourself for free in the general Demo areas as well as talk with the companies and people behind those innovations!
And while it is true that a large percentage of those that attend SIGGRAPH are a community of innovators from every industry it is also true that it is you; the consumer, the dreamer, the tech guru, the artist, the student, the ordinary man that truly lives with these gadgets, these advancements, this future of technology. It is you that ultimately should attend SIGGRAPH as it is your future that is being created not just on the screen but in the world around you.
Stay informed.
If you would like to know more stay tuned for SIGGRAPH – PART 2 as I leave you with a Robot learning to Animate Puppets.
ACM SIGGRAPH – (ACM) stands for the Association of Computing Machinery
SIGGRAPH stands for Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques it meets once a year in USA or Canada.
There is also SIGGRAPH Asia as well.
If you have any questions or feedback on this blog, we’d love to hear it in the comment section below or email me at lori@cgcircuit.com
About the Author:
Lori Hammond, CG Circuit
Author & Content Producer
Experienced multi-talented Artist/Designer/Blogger with an extensive background in the Arts & Entertainment Industry(Animation, VFX, Game & Product Design)
