SIGGRAPH 2010 Cheat Sheet

SIGGRAPH promises production sessions, best CG short films, technology, and, of course, product demos galore.

The exhibition floor opens Tuesday morning and runs through Thursday afternoon. Look for announcements from all the major vendors in the days leading up to the show, and get hands-on experience at the show.

As Masson says. You have to go to get the hands-on, face to face experience. If you are short on coins, you can buy a one-day basic pass for only US$45 or a one-day computer animation festival pass for $50. Check the cheat sheet to pick your day/s. Meanwhile, here’s the rest of the 'damage.'

Registration Fees; [All US$]

Full: You get it all for $1220

Members: $1,170; Student Members: $495.

Full One Day: $475 buys it all for one day.

Members: $425; Student Members: $225

Basic Conference: $175; Members: $150

Basic One Day: $45

Exhibition, Art Gallery, Birds of a Feather, Emerging Technologies, Exhibitor Tech Talks, Keynote Speakers, International Resources, Job Fair, Posters, The Studio, The Sandbox, Posters, Research Challenge Results, Technical Papers Fast Forward, and Dailies!

Computer Animation Festival: $200; Members: $175; Student Members: $150

CAF One Day: $50

SIGGRAPH 2010 CHEAT SHEET

On Sunday July 25, 25,000 or so CG artists, scientists, technical wizards, product developers, and lookielous descend on the Los Angeles convention center ready to learn, interact, teach, people watch, play, buy and sell. This amazing digital art and technology circus continues until Thursday, and it’s packed with the most valuable, interesting, and incredible sessions you could wish for.

We cherry picked a few with a decided slant toward production. We didn’t sort through the technical papers – if you can read math, you’re already on the website checking them out. And we separated out most of the courses from everything else, because if you want in, you probably need to sign up . . . right . . . now. OK, here goes!

Geek Out! The Courses

Like all courses, this selection requires Full registration. Note that some are quarter-sessions, so afternoon classes that look like they conflict might not.

Introductory

Sunday afternoon: Build your own 3D display; Image statistics; Perceptually motivated graphics, visualization, and 3D displays; Processing for visual artists and designers.

Tuesday afternoon: 3D spatial interaction with videogame motion controllers.

Intermediate

Sunday: Physically-based shading models (afternoon)

Monday: Biomedical applications (morning); Stylized rendering for games (morning)Advances in real-time collision, proximity computations for games and SIMs (afternoon).

Tuesday: Color enhancement and rendering for film and games (morning); Importance sampling for production rendering (afternoon)

Wednesday: Advances in realtime rendering I (morning) and II (afternoon); Volumetric methods in visual effects (morning); Applications of visual analytics (afternoon); Use eye tracking to control virtual characters (afternoon).

Thursday: Realtime hair rendering and simulation (morning)Advanced.

Sunday: Spectral mesh processing (afternoon).

Thursday: Beyond Programmable Shading I (morning) and II (afternoon); Global illumination across industries (afternoon).

SIGGRAPH 2010 Day-by-Day Cheat Sheet

With an admitted emphasis on content for animation, games, and visual effects studios.

Key: (B = Basic; C = Computer Animation Festival; F = Full)

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Sunday

9:00 to 6:00 – Registration, Store

12:00 – 5:30:

Emerging Technologies (interact with the future). Room 152 (BF)

Geek Bar (comfy chairs, wifi, streaming content): Room 409 (F)

The Sandbox (play games) – outside Room 403AB (BF)

Posters (future CG on cardboard) – West Lobby (BF)

The Studio (make art) – Room 151 (BF)

Art Gallery (interact with sensual, sensory objects) – Room 150(BF)

2:00 – 2:30 – Screening: Commercials and Cinematics. Room 408B (CF)

2:00 – 3:30 – Avatar in Depth: Nine people who worked on the crew at Weta Digital plus two researchers from NVIDIA share their wit and wisdom. Very Techie. Room 515AB (F)

2:00 – 5:15 – Course: Physically-based shading models at Imageworks, ILM, and from game developers. Room 502B (F)

3:45 – 5:15 – Panel: Future directions in graphics research with Jessica Hodgins, James Foley, Pat Hanrahan and Donald P. Greenberg. If they don’t know, who does? Room 408AB (F)

Elemental, my dear CG artist: Fire bending at ILM, fire breathing at DreamWorks Animation, water bending at ILM, and earth-shattering at Double Negative. Room 515AB (F)

*6:00 – 8:00 – Technical Papers Fast Forward: Researchers compress their work down to a one-minute presentation. If you can’t get into the full conference, or you can’t read math, or you just love to see geeks on speed and want to know the most technically cool stuff, this is a don’t miss event.(BCF)

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Monday

8:30 – 6:00 – Registration, store.

9:00 – 5:30 – Emerging Technologies (interact with the future). Room 152 (BF)

Geek Bar (comfy chairs, wifi, streaming content): Room 409 (F)

The Sandbox (play games) – outside Room 403AB (BF)

Posters (future CG on cardboard) – West Lobby (BF)

The Studio (make art) – Room 151 (BF)

Art Gallery (interact with sensual, sensory objects) – Room 150 (BF)

9:00 – 10:30 – Rendering Intangibles: Fanciful filigree in Shrek (DreamWorks), fantasy for Alice in Wonderland (Imageworks), fast fur at Rhythm & Hues, and a photon density estimation for global illumination from UC Santa Cruz. Back to Room 515AB (F)

–  All about Avatar: Lighting, rendering and compositing an alien planet and its blue-skinned inhabitants brought to you by several members of the crew at Weta Digital. West Hall B (F)

9:00 – 12:00 – Course: Stylized rendering in games. Go beyond realism in Room 502A. (F)

10:45 – 12:15 – Detailed Surfaces: Capture high-res skin displacement with Weta, search 3D shapes based on content, mix arbitrary meshes, weave polygonal meshes. Unwind later. Room 501B (F)

*11:00 – 12:45 – Award presentations and Keynote speaker: Don Marinelli, Carnegie Mellon professor of drama and arts management and executive producer of the Entertainment Technology Center, was co-creator of the Master of Arts Management Program, co-creator of the Master of Fine Arts in Acting degree program with the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia, and co-founder (with Randy Pausch) of the Master of Entertainment Technology Degree Program. Take a deep breath and go to West Hall B (BCF)

2:00 - 3:30:

Avatar: The 10,000-foot-overview from Weta’s vfx supes Joe Letteri and Stephen Rosenbaum, and Lightstorm’s Richard Baneham. West Hall B (CF)

Award talks: Learn from the high achievers: Alexei Efros, Jessica Hodgins, Yoichiro Kawaguchi, Kellogg S. Booth. Room 403AB (BF)

Panel: Biomed meets CG. Theater 411 (F)

Split Second Screen Space: Gamers at Black Rock/Disney, LucasArts, INRIA, and Eden push pixels pretty darn fast. Shadowing, lighting, rendering, motion blurring, and indirect illumination all in Room 408AB (F)

Volumes and Precipitation: stereo water in Avatar (Weta), snow in Prep and Landing (Disney), storm clouds in A-Team (R&H), and single scattering in heterogeneous participating media no less by Technicolor and MPC. Room 515AB (F)

3:45 – 5:15:

*Panel: CS 292: The Lost Lectures: Richard Chuang, co-founder of PDI, was a young engineer at Hewlett-Packard when he saw a video of a course taught at UC Berkeley by Jim Blinn, now manager of the CG research group at Microsoft, and Ed Catmull, now president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. Catmull and Chuang use video from the course to reflect on the evolution of computer graphics - from the genesis of Pixar and PDI to where we are today. Not to be missed. Room 515AB(F)

Screening: Long Shorts and Student Animation. Room 406B (CF)

Screening: Long Shorts and Short Shorts. (repeats Wednesday) Room 408B (CF)

*4:30 – 5:15 – Live Real-Time Demos: A juried selection of video games and real-time simulations demonstrated live on their actual platforms. West Hall B. (CF)

*6:00 – 8:00 – Electronic Theater: a juried selection of the best CG animated films, scientific visualizations, and visual effects this year. West Hall (CF)

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Tuesday

8:30 – 6:00 – Registration, store.

9:00 – 5:30:Emerging Technologies (interact with the future). Room 152 (BF)

Geek Bar (comfy chairs, wifi, streaming content): Room 409 (F)

The Sandbox (play games) – outside Room 403AB (BF)

Posters (future CG on cardboard) – West Lobby (BF)

The Studio (make art) – Room 151 (BF)

Art Gallery (interact with sensual, sensory objects) – Room 150 (B)

6:00

Exhibition: The best and newest CG products and services that you can buy. (BCF)

Job Fair: Check the postings, get tips, meet and greet and share your demo reel. (BCF)

9:00 - 10:30:

Iron Man 2: ILM’s Ben Snow, Marc Chu, and Doug Smythe show how to turn digital metal suits into believable superheroes. West Hall B (CF)

Course: Importance sampling for production rendering with technical staff from ImageMovers Digital, and the Moving Picture Company. Room 406AB (F)

Simulation in Production: Pixar talks trash, Disney tangles 70 feet of hair, DreamWorks fractures stuff, and Fido Film uses Houdini and GPUs to do SPH-based fluid sims. Room 515AB (F)

10:45 – 12:15 – Animation Blockbuster Breakdown: ILM’s Shawn Kelly moderates a panel of animators from Pixar, Disney, and Animation Mentor who break down shots from Toy Story 3, Up, Wall-E, Ratatouille, and The Princess and the Frog. Room 408AB (CF)

*11:00 – 12:30 – Keynote Speaker: Jim Morris, Pixar’s general manager/executive vice pesident Production, is currently producing Disney’s "John Carter of Mars." for release in 2012. He is the production executive on Pixar’s films, and produced "WALL•E" Prior to Pixar, he worked for Lucasfilm and its divisions for 17 years, serving as president of Lucas Digital for 11 years. He knows of what he speaks. West Hall B (BCF)

11:15 – 12:15 – AMD tech talk. Back of Hall H (BCF)

1:00 – 2:00 – Syd Mead at the Ballistic/NVArt booth#1101.

2:00 – 3:30:

*How to Train Your Dragon: Award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins and DreamWorks Animation’s creative team chat about live action filmmaking’s influence on this cutting-edge animated feature. West Hall B. (CF)

Reception: Art Gallery – Room 150 (BF)

Animation Clinic: Experienced animators offer expert advice. Room 406AB (CF)

Blowing $h!t Up: ILM bends rigid bodies for Avatar and breaks buildings for Transformers 2. Digital Domain destroys LA for 2012. Take your hard hat to 515AB (F)

Visualization for Art and Design: Bend your mind. That’s all I’m saying. You’ll see. Theater 411.(F)

2:15 – 3:15 – Intel SDK’s and other tech talk. Back of Hall H (BCF)

3:45 – 5:15:

Screening: Commercials and Cinematics. Room 408B (CF)

Pipelines and Asset Management: Weta, MPC, Pixar, and Disney. Nuff said. Room 515AB. (F)

*4:30 – 5:15 – Live Real-Time Demos: A juried selection of video games and real-time simulations demonstrated live on their actual platforms. West Hall B. (CF)

*6:00 – 8:00 – Electronic Theater: a juried selection of the best CG animated films, scientific visualizations, and visual effects this year. West Hall (CF)

*6:00 – 7:30 – Dailies!! A juried selection of 38 images and clips, each showing excellence in modeling, shading, animation, lighting, or effects, and presented by the production artist who created it. Each person has about 45 seconds to tell their story and show the work. J.D. Northrup at Pixar leads off with “Death by [Red] Monkeys.” (BCF)

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Wednesday

8:30 – 6:00 – Registration, store.

9:00 – 5:30: Emerging Technologies (interact with the future). Room 152 (BF)

Geek Bar (comfy chairs, wifi, streaming content): Room 409 (F)

The Sandbox (play games) – outside Room 403AB (BF)

Posters (future CG on cardboard) – West Lobby (BF)

The Studio (make art) – Room 151 (BF)

Art Gallery (interact with sensual, sensory objects) – Room 150 (B)

9:30 – 6:00

Exhibition: The best and newest CG products, services, and books you can buy. (BCF)

Job Fair: Check the postings, get tips, meet and greet and share your demo reel. (BCF)

9:00 – 12:00 – Course: Volumetric methods in visual effects with techies from Rhythm & Hues, Side Effects Software, DreamWorks Animation, Double Negative, and Imageworks. Room 502B (F)

10:30 – The Last Airbender: Pablo Helman, Olivier Maury, and Daniel Pearson show big backgrounds and explain how ILM’s new lightning-fast GPU simulation/rendering engine created art-directed fire and other natural effects. West Hall B. (CF)

9:00 – 12:15 – Game Papers: Biometrics and physical controllers; the player experience. Room 406AB (F)

10:45 – 12:15 – Day & Night: Director Teddy Newton reveals the magic behind Pixar’s latest, extraordinarily imaginative short animated film. West Hall B (CF)

1:00 – 2:00 – Syd Mead at the Ballistic/NVArt booth#1101.

2:00-3:30 – Alice in Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole: Ken Ralston and a crew from Imageworks tumble into Tim Burton’s vision of the classic fairy tale. West Hall B (CF)

Animation Clinic: Experienced animators offer expert advice. Room 406AB (CF)

Research Challenge Results: Who wins? Square Enix’s immersive and dynamically modified haunted house? Hongik University’s "zero failure" physical therapy system? Gdansk University of Technology’s gaze-directed camera? Or, the MIT Media Lab’s datasets rendered as 3D physical shapes augmented with projected graphics? Theater 411. (BF)

3:45 – 5:15

Screening: Long Shorts and Short Shorts. Room 408B (CF)

X3D from the Web3D consortium. Back of Hall H (BCF)

*4:30 – 5:15 – Live Real-Time Demos: A juried selection of video games and real-time simulations demonstrated live on their actual platforms. West Hall B. (CF)

*6:00 – 8:00 – Electronic Theater: a juried selection of the best CG animated films, scientific visualizations, and visual effects this year. West Hall (CF)

*6:00 – 7:30 – Dailies!! A juried selection of 38 images and clips, each showing excellence in modeling, shading, animation, lighting, or effects, and presented by the production artist who created it. Each person has about 45 seconds to tell their story and show the work. J.D. Northrup at Pixar leads off with “Death by [Red] Monkeys.” (BCF)

*8:00 – 10:00 – Party!  Party! The Siggraph Reception. If you don’t have a ticket to the ball, dive into the brewery on the 4th floor pool deck. Someone you want to meet might splash by. Westin Bonaventure Ballroom. (F)

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Thursday – Last Day.

8:30 – 3:30 – Registration, store.

9:00 – 1:00 – Emerging Technologies (interact with the future). Room 152 (BF)

Geek Bar (comfy chairs, wifi, streaming content): Room 409 (F)

The Sandbox (play games) – outside Room 403AB (BF)

The Studio (make art) – Room 151(BF)

Art Gallery (interact with sensual, sensory objects) – Room 150 (B)

9:30 – 3:30

Exhibition: The best and newest CG products and services that you can buy. (BCF)

Job Fair: Check the postings, get tips, meet and greet and share your demo reel. (BCF)

9:00 – 5:30 - Posters (future CG on cardboard) – West Lobby (BF)

9:00 – 5:00 – Lab Work: Researchers from top research labs and universities show technology for motion and emotion at 9:00, interaction at 10:45, and touchy-feely stuff at 3:45 in Room 411. (F)

9:00 – 10:30:

*Panel: Large steps toward open source with Rob Bredow (Imageworks), Andy Hendrickson (Disney), Florian Kainz (ILM), and Bill Polson (Pixar). This is a big deal. Perhaps, even, news-making. (F)

The Making of God of War III: The creative and technical team from SCEA detail the creative process behind the game's ground-breaking visuals. West Hall B. (CF)

Fun in Flatland: a strange collection of fun technology. Or is it a fun collection of strange technology? A dynamic noise primitive for 3D animation, immersive digital painting, GPU-based video up-scaling, image browsing. Room 406AB (F)

10:45 – 12:15 – TRON! Director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jeffrey Silver, vfx supe Eric Barba, and animation supe Steve Preeg tease us with visuals and answer questions from the audience. West Hall B. (CF)

2:00 – 3:30:

Screening: Chinese Student Animation. Room 408B. (CF)

Game Paper: Game design – serious, educational games. Room 406AB (F)

3:45 – 5:15 – Fur, feathers and trees: Tippett Studio’s creepy kitty, MPC’s wolfman and flying feathery mystical characters, and Disney’s animated trees. 408AB (F)

That’s All Folks! See you out there!!

Related links:

SIGGRAPH 2010