SIGGRAPH 2014: Vancouver, BC – August 10-14, Vancouver Convention Center, s2014.siggraph.org
Hey, Big Speakers
Keynote: Elliot Kotek, co-founder of Not Impossible Labs
Kotek’s organization utilizes crowdsourcing to tackle healthcare issues, allowing people in need access to high-tech devices to improve their lives. Projects include Eyewriter eye-tracking glasses, Project Daniel: 3D Printing Prosthetic Arms for Children of War-torn Sudan, and The Brainwriter personal EEG device that can operate a computer mouse or gaming console, allowing users to write and draw as their condition deteriorates. [Monday, Aug 11., 11 a.m. with Awards Presentation]
Guest Speaker, CG Pioneer Reception: Chris Edwards, CEO of The Third Floor, Inc.
As leader of highly regarded previsualization services company The Third Floor, Edwards will demonstrate how more than a decade of computer-aided visualization has enabled to tell stories like never before. [Tuesday, Aug. 12, 6 p.m. | ACM SIGGRAPH Pioneers only]
Panel: State of Animation Tools in the Industry
DreamWorks’ Paul DiLorenzo, Matthew Gong, Fredrik Nilsson; Disney’s Evan Goldberg; Pixar’s Rob Jensen; Autodesks’ Martin de Lasa, Warren Trezevant; Rhythm & Hues’ Cyrus Wilson
The tech whizzes driving proprietary animation tools and tracking the advances of off-the-shelf solutions will explore new tools, key features and future trends. [Wednesday, Aug. 13, 9 a.m.]
Animation Sessions
The LEGO Movie: Animal Logic constructs (and destructs) a stop-motion aesthetic with CG.
CG supervisors Damien Gray & Aidan Sarsfield, head of animation Rob Coleman, R&D lead Daniel Heckenberg
[Monday, Aug. 11, 9 a.m.]
How to Train Your Dragon 2: Behind-the-scenes of DreamWorks’ summer spectacle.
Writer/dir. Dean DeBlois, head of layout Gil Zimmerman, head of character anim. Simon Otto, VFX supe. Dave Walvoord
[Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2 p.m.]
Rio 2: Creating the Amazon Jungle in CG.
Lead set designer Tom Humber, sr. camera & staging artist/technical lead Karyn Monschein, assembly tech. dir. John Kalaigian, lead fur tech. dir. David Barksdale, lead effects tech. dir. Alen Lai
[Tuesday, Aug. 12, 3:45 p.m.]
The Boxtrolls: Puppets, printing and compositing – a unique collaboration in LAIKA’s animated features.
Dir, of rapid prototyping Brian McLean, creative supe. or puppet fabrication Georgina Hayns, co-VFX supe. Steve Emerson
[Wednesday, Aug. 13, 3:45 p.m.]
Feast: A look at Walt Disney Animation Studios’ newest short.
Director Patrick Osborne, VFX supervisor Josh Staub
[Thursday, Aug. 14, 10:45 a.m.]
The Dam Keeper: How two first-time directors brought paint to life in their animated short film.
Directors Robert Kondo & Dice Tsutsumi; prod. Megan Bartel, supervising animator Erick Oh
[Thursday, Aug. 14, 9 a.m.]
VFX Sessions
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Leading studios share the secrets of Marvel’s action-packed sequel.
Exec. producer/EVP of visual effects for Marvel Victoria Alonso, VFX supe. Dan DeLeeuw, ILM VFX supe. Russell Earl, Scanline VFX supe. Bryan Grill, Lola VFX supe. Edson Williams
[Monday, Aug. 11, 2 p.m.]
Guardians of the Galaxy: Creating CG space critters for the Marvel space adventure.
Victoria Alonso, assoc. VFX supe. Olivier Dumont, Framestore VFX supe. Kyle McCulloch, Luma VFX supe. Vincent Cirelli, MPC VFX supe. Nicolas Aithadi
[Monday, Aug. 11, 3:45 p.m.]
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For: Creating a graphic-novel world on the big screen with only greenscreen sets.
Prime Focus World chief creative dir. Merzin Tavaria, VFX supe. Stefen Fangmeier
[Tuesday, Aug. 12, 9 a.m.]
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Weta Digital’s CG monkey business utilized the latest in motion-capture technology.
Dave Gouge, Weta Digital
[Tuesday, Aug. 12, 10:45 a.m.]
Maleficent: Key VFX supervisors discuss the range of challenges and their digital solutions for the dark sided fairytale.
Sr. VFX supe. Carey Villegas, MPC CG supe. David Seager, Digital Domain VFX supe. Kelly Port
[Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2 p.m.]
Godzilla: How to bring to life the King of Monsters, from animation through compositing.
MPC animation supe. Ferran Domenech, MPC 2D supe. Axel Bonami, Dneg Singapore CG supe. Stuart Farley, Dneg London CG supe. Christoph Ammann
[Tuesday, Aug. 12, 3:45 p.m.]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: ILM’s advanced full-body performance capture system IMOCAP brings the Turtles to the big screen.
VFX supe. Pablo Helman, assoc. VFX supe. Robert Weaver, animation supe. Tim Harrington, creature CG supe. Michael Koperwas, R&D lead Kiran Bhat
[Wednesday, Aug. 13, 9 a.m.]
The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Sony Pictures Imageworks dishes on new villains, digital environments and CG animation.
VFX supe. Jerome Chen, animation supe. David Shaub, digital FX supe. David Smith
[Wednesday, Aug. 13, 10:45 a.m.]
Transformers: Age of Extinction: ILM walks through the sequel’s creative and technical challenges.
VFX supe. Scott Farrar, assoc. VFX supe. Patrick Tubach, animation supe. Scott Benza, lead FX tech. dir. Michael Balog
X-Men: Days of Future Past: Top studios teamed up to create past and future Sentinels, major destruction and cool mutant powers.
MPC animation supe. Benoit Dubuc, Digital Domain VFX supe. Lou Pecora, Rhythm & Hues VFX supe. Derek Spears, Rising Sun Pictures digital FX supe. Adam Paschke
Tooned Up Tech Talks
On the Rocks [Sunday, Aug. 10, 2 p.m.]
Chair: Rajesh Sharma, Walt Disney Animation
Highlights: Rendering Frost and Ice on Frozen; Weathering the Black Hole for Mr. Peabody & Sherman; Large-Scale Simulation and Surfacing of Water and Ice Effects in How to Train Your Dragon 2
Everything Is Awesome [Sunday, Aug. 10, 3:45 p.m.]
Chair: Doug Roble, Digital Domain
Highlights: The LEGO Movie: Construction, Animation and Demolition; Assembling Environments with LEGOscape; The LEGO Movie: Bricks, Bricks and More Bricks
Creature Feature [Tuesday, Aug. 12, 9 a.m.]
Chair: Nafees Bin Zafar, DreamWorks Animation
Highlights: RepTile: How to Skin a Dinosaur (Walking with Dinosaurs); Grooming a Lion for Hercules
About Face [Tuesday, Aug. 12, 10:45 a.m.]
Chair: Fred Parke, Texas A&M University
Highlights: Gravity: Motion Control and Face Integration; DreamWorks Animation’s Face System, a Historical Perspective: From Antz and Shrek to Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Show and Tell [Monday, Aug. 11, 2 p.m.]
Chair: Greg Ward, Dolby Laboratories
Highlights: Stina and the Wolf – Feature Film Production in Education (Univ. of Portsmouth); The Making of Owned: A Student-Built Iterative Pipeline (BYU)
Hair Today [Wednesday, Aug. 13, 9 a.m.]
Chair: Cem Yuksei, The University of Utah
Highlight: Simulating Wind Effects on Cloth and Hair in Disney’s Frozen
Capture in Depth [Monday, Aug. 11, 9 a.m.]
Chair: Bill Polson, Pixar Animation
Highlights: Rapid Avatar Capture and Simulation Using Commodity Depth Sensors (USC); Live Real-Time Animated Content-Leveraging Machine Learning and Game Engine Technology (Mixamo, Inc.); Alternative Strategies for Run-Time Facial Motion Capture (Vancouver Inst. of Media Arts)
Don’t Let Go (Gravity) [Thursday, Aug. 14, 9 a.m.]
Chair: Tim McLaughlin, Texas A&M University
Highlights: Gravity: Volumetrics in Space; Gravity: Destruction of the ISS in a Single Shot; Gravity: Simulations as a Multi-Stage Production Tool; Creating the Earth as a Backdrop in Gravity
At Your Leisure
Art Gallery: This year’s show is themed “Acting in Translation” [Sun.-Thurs.]
Computer Animation Festival: The Electronic Theater [Mon.-Tue.] showcases an eclectic mix of fine CG work, while Daytime Selects [Mon.-Wed.] offer a diverse array of compelling CG applications across genres
Dailies: Images and shorts presented by top animation and game studios and Universities [preview Mon. at 3:45 p.m.; Dailies Wed. 6-8 p.m.]
Film and Games Concept Art Lounge: Works from the latest films and games presented as an interactive media installation [Sun.-Thurs.]
Studio: Explore new technology and media in a collaborative working environment under pro guidance, or check the schedule for special courses and talks [Sun.-Thurs.]
Exhibit Floor Shortcuts
There will be tons to check out, but here’s the key animation/VFX tech companies to scope for new product info and session schedules:
3dMD #1239
Markerless 3D and 4D surface capture systems for face and body.
Autodesk #1400
Enjoy a slice of its San Francisco Gallery with two exhibits and videos, plus an art-wall featuring SketchBook artists and live SB7 showcase. Sessions [Tues.-Weds.] will tackle everything from blockbuster movies like X-Men to understanding the gamification of design data.
Blender Foundation #545
Blender is a free, open source 3D suite.
Chaos Group #501
Developers of V-Ray rendering software.
Digimania #707
Launching the new render engine RenderDigimania (RenderDm). Building on their globally utilized Muvizu:Play project, the new program delivers unprecedented rendering times on single PCs.
Dynamixyz #921
Developer of 3D facial analysis/synthesis for games and animation.
FXGear #614
VFX and animation simulation software such as Qualoth, FXHair and FluX.
GOLAEM #921
Developer of artist-friendly digital character animation tools such as Maya-integrated Golaem Crowd, recently used in Prana Studio’s CG feature Foosball. Check out version 3.3, which now offers support of blendshape and a new “additive motion” feature.
Imagineer Systems #871
Academy Award-winning developer of mocha, just released in version 4 of mocha Pro and mocha Plus, which replaces mocha AE and adds professional VFX modules including 3D camera solver, lens correction for After Effects and copy/paste for roto masks into Premiere Pro and supports a multitude of NLE applications. Pro v4 introduces stereoscopic 3-D workflow letting users spot differences between camera streams and apply the solve in tracking, plus 3D camera tracking, object remove module and image stabilization.
Intel Corporation #1001
The ever advancing technology developer is offering product demonstrations and technical presentations in rooms 208-209, as well as prizes for lucky visitors.
Isotropix #701
Announcing the release of Clarisse iFX 2.0, with two special presentations about the role of the software in production at leading VFX studio Double Negative, from studio CTO Graham Jack and CG sequence supervisor Zoe Cranley. Stop by the booth to find out about more event plans and presentations of 2.0’s many new features.
LightRig #644
Creators of a novel solution for illumination editing and artistic control of lighting in physically-based rendering, from still images to movie effects.
MAXON #1422
Developer of modelling, rendering and animation software such as Cinema 4D and BodyPaint 3D. In addition to recently launched C4D contest site WinC4D.com for CG animations, MAXON is planning a major announcement for the show.
NVIDIA #1201
Creator of near universally used Quadro and Tesla GPUs for graphics and parallel processing with Maximus.
PipelineFX #909
Producers of leading renderfarm management solution for digital content creation Qube!
Pixar Animation Studios #1033
The RenderMan team will demonstrate recent advances to core rendering technology RenderMan 19.
Reallusion #539
Developer of real-time 2D/3D cinematic animation tools for consumers, students and professionals featuring easy-to-use avatar animation, facial morphing and lip-sync solutions.
Scanline VFX #1441
Full-service visual effects studio for feature films and commercials with facilities in L.A., Vancouver, Munich and Cologne.
Shotgun Software #741
Creators of production management, review and asset management software, providing a standardized toolset for studio pipelines or the cloud, improving collaboration between studios.
Side Effects Software #901
Developer of Houdini, an advanced 3D animation and visual effects software and three-time Academy Sci-Tech Award winner.
Smith Micro Software #541
Developer of image and data-compression solutions and award-winning software products, with offices in California, Europe and Asia.
SpeedTree #608
Featured in Avatar and many other projects, SpeedTree delivers a combination of procedural and hand modeling options for rapid but precise foliage creation. The company is releasing SpeedTree for UE4 Subscription and will be demoing SpeedTree Cinema and SpeedTree Studio animation products.
The Captury #848
A small German start-up developing markerless performance and motion capture systems.
The Foundry #601
Developer of award-winning computer graphics and VFX software for film, TV, commercials and games as well as CAD, design and architecture.
Thinkbox Software #609
Creators of particle renderer Krakatoa, particle mesher Frost, render management system Deadline and more.
Vicon #733
Delivering precise 3D motion capture and analysis of movement for entertainment, analysis, engineering, virtual reality and more industries around the world.
Wacom Technology #825
Check out the latest versions of artist-driven pen tablet and interactive pen display technologies for animators, designers and artists.
Visit Animation Magazine!
Come by booth 1140 to pick up a free SIGGRAPH edition magazine, renew your subscription, tell us about your latest project, bring us snacks or just say hi! (We’re usually friendly for at least the first two days.)
