In just a few short days I’ll be getting in the car and driving across the country to LA where I’ll be joined by Bobby Miller and Ryan Wilsey for the SIGGRAPH 2010 convention.
If you aren’t familiar with SIGGRAPH, it’s the largest and most well-respected convention for computer graphics hosted by The Association for Computer Machinery (ACM). While the most predominant parts of SIGGRAPH focus on visual effects and 3D animation, one of the things I love most about the convention is that it’s the convergence of just about anything related to computer graphics—and there are always new surprises to explore.
Every year attendees are treated to mix of everything from the largest studios in mainstream Hollywood visual effects and animation to the latest hardware and software, the cutting edge of research, academics and scientific visualization and even multimedia based fine-art.
There are many large segments of industries related to computer graphics that have their own, more focused trade shows such as NAB for video production and broadcasting, CES for consumer technologies and GDC for game production. In contrast, SIGGRAPH includes a little bit of everything and often includes many of the more esoteric topics that don’t fit anywhere else.
SIGGRAPH draws an international audience of students and professionals alike for many different reasons. Some come to network with the peers in their own industry or to talk to recruiters and artists at studios they would love to work for. Others want to see all the latest advancements in the software and hardware they are already using and to find new solutions to help them get their jobs done better and faster. Many come to take classes, attend technical talks, and sit in on the free training sessions put on by vendors across the exhibit floor. Most join in for a little bit of all of those reasons and to join on the awesome parties and launch events put on by some of the largest software developers and studios in the business.
Icrontic has three reporters on the scene: myself, Bobby Miller, and Ryan Wilsey. Each brings to the table their own set of expectations and expertise.
Chris’ Expectations
While Bobby, Ryan and I have appointments with a lot of different companies this year one of the things I’ll be focusing on is the technical papers. In the past I’ve enjoyed the spectacle of the big movie production sessions, taken part in some of the classes, and gotten hyped up about all the upgrades to my favorite tools—don’t get me wrong, I’ll be doing some of that too—but I’m really interested in getting a peek at the cutting edge and future of computer graphics by spending a lot more time with the technical papers. Traditionally, many of the awesome things we use today or get to see used in the next major movie or game began as technical papers submitted to SIGGRAPH. One example of this is the crazy content aware image analysis for scaling and filling images that has made its way not only into Photoshop CS4 & CS5 but also into the open-source photo editor GIMP and even onto an iPhone app.
I believe we’ll continue to see more research and implementation of CPU-heavy processes in rendering and physics calculation moving to the GPU for parallel processing showing up everywhere this year. A lot of these advancements will be made through CUDA and OpenCL as both continue to mature and I will be attending sessions and meeting with many of the leaders in this field, including NVIDIA, AMD and The Khronos Group to see what progress they’ve been making. More and more developers like The Foundry and Eyeon are shipping major effects applications utilizing parallel processing on the GPU this year and I expect we’ll see announcements for many more next week.
There will also be advances in the speed and quality of physically grounded particle and dynamic simulations, stereoscopic production tools, workflows, pipelines and display as well as increasingly sophisticated image capture and processing technologies like high dynamic range imaging (HDRI).
HDRI has played a huge part throughout the history of modern computer graphics; it was one of the major elements that has made films as diverse as Benjamin Button and Iron Man I & II possible. Each year artists and engineers find new ways to use HDRI in the constant drive toward hyper-realism. It’s a fascinating field and I’m looking forward to writing about it more at SIGGRAPH and in the future.
Finally, I am really excited to see what’s new and what will be coming in future updates of some of my favorite 3D & VFX programs like Luxology’s Modo, Autodesk’s Design Suite, Eyeon’s Fusion and Pixelogic’s Zbrush. I’m also really looking forward to seeing The Foundry’s new 3D texturing package MARI, especially now that they’ve announced an agreement to include Walt Disney Animation Studios’ highly respected proprietary 3D painting technology—including support for Disney’s powerful Ptex open-source texture mapping system.
Bobby’s Expectations
The one thing we can be sure to see in excess is GPU computing. As I mentioned in my Mercury Playback Engine piece, GPU computing has become increasingly more relevant at each SIGGRAPH for the last three years. Presenters couldn’t give enough coverage to GPGPU last year in New Orleans, and with the continued focus on the technology, we can be assured that everyone at SIGGRAPH is going to be talking about it.
We know CUDA is well established at this point. It’s being taught at some 300 institutions all across the world, and it is being implemented in various GPU technologies in gaming and film production alike. What I hope to see are more alternatives to CUDA stepping into the limelight. It isn’t that I don’t think CUDA is capable—quite the contrary—it’s just that I would love to see some healthy competition begin to take place, something that would push CUDA and the other technologies to be challenged and continue to innovate. Hopefully, ATI’s Stream, OpenCL, or even DirectCompute will step in and show us some bleeding edge new technology applications.
GPUs are a massive part of computing today, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see new product entries from companies like PNY, NVIDIA, or AMD. We haven’t seen NVIDIA’s answer to AMD’s recent FirePro refresh, so it would be nice to see them roll out their new guns at this year’s show. PNY is also known to pull off some interesting graphics card hybrids, so who knows what they’ll be showing off this year.
I’m really excited to take a look at ZBrush 4, which is being unveiled at Pixologic’s booth on the show floor. Also, Autodesk typically has some interesting product launches and announcements at SIGGRAPH, so who knows what they’ve got up their sleeves this year. And of course, Newtek is going to be showing off their shiny new Lightwave Core, but it remains to be seen if the buzz is worthwhile on that.
Ryan’s Expectations
SIGGRAPH is going to be perfect for me this year. I was highly active at the SIGGRAPH Student Chapter at Purdue University for several years, so I’ve been quite up-to-speed in the computer graphics world. However, after having graduated from college a year ago, I’ve been out of the loop. The SIGGRAPH conference this year is exactly what I need to get me back up to speed. Therefore I don’t really have many expectations as to what will be unveiled, besides some hardcore behind-the-scenes takes on the major accomplishments in Hollywood cinema, such as James Cameron’s Avatar.
There are certainly quite a few things that I’ve enjoyed in previous SIGGRAPH experiences that I will be looking forward to this year as well. Primarily, every year SIGGRAPH puts on what is called the “Electronic Theater”, a couple-hour collection of back-to-back animated shorts. It comprises best-of-the-best videos from all over the world, from comedies to television advertisements. These rarely disappoint and are quite inspirational to me, so I’m super-excited to see what the best of 2009-2010 will bring.
Another thing I look forward to is the “nature” of the conference itself. Everyone there is excited to talk about what they’ve been up to, where they’ve been, and where they’re going. They’re eager to share new techniques and technologies. The “Emerging Technologies” is always fascinating to check out. Many of them seem rather bizarre and don’t seem to have any real-life application, but are nevertheless interesting to see. As strange as they can be, they are still a glimpse of the future of how we can visualize and interact with the world around us.
Finally, perhaps the thing I love the most at SIGGRAPH is the social interactions that go on. From birds-of-a-feather gatherings around a common topic to energetic afterparties, SIGGRAPH is always a great way to expand your web of contacts. Making connections with others in the professional world is paramount to landing a job or other opportunities. In the few short years I’ve been attending SIGGRAPH, I have been able to rub elbows with some fairly influential, successful, or downright interesting individuals. For example, while on shift as a SIGGRAPH student volunteer I just happened to meet and talk to Sean Hannon, voice actor of Nerkon from the 1983 animated movie, Fire and Ice.
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