“Have you guys ever worked with lasers?” are questions commonly asked at SIGGRAPH.
(From Tenacious D’s “Roadie”)
Robot butlers. Gaming platforms powered by harnessed earthquake energy. Lasers that will burn your retinas out.
These are…not the technologies being introduced at SIGGRAPH 2023. Probably.
The SIGGRAPH 2023 event looks more like a massive convention of exhibits, production meetings, tech talks, labs, product spotlights, and an interactive gaming center – all dedicated to innovation in computer graphics and the universe of animation, visual effects, and digital art.
This year SIGGRAPH is celebrating 50 years of innovation, although the first conference was held in Boulder, Colorado in July of 1974 so, hm…the math doesn’t quite add up. But anyway, it’s kind of a big deal for discussing, reflecting, and promoting CG and visual effects tech. SIGGRAPH 2023 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from August 6th to August 10th, with the opportunity to live-stream the conference.
With the scheduling specifics now available, here are a few highlights of the upcoming 2023 SIGGRAPH Conference.
The creation of Elemental’s living vegetation and stylized bark in the “Practical Proceduralism in Production” session
Elemental – photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
I would have immediately ignored the vague program title if I wasn’t scouring the program specifics like a bank vole rummaging the earth for dropped berries. They should have called this “How to create kick-ass textures and body parts for inanimate objects.”
The opening day’s “Practical Proceduralism in Production” session is a 90-minute talk hosted by animators and designers behind the creature textures of four distinct projects. Each presentation is about 22 minutes and the opening talk includes contributors from Walt Disney Studios discussing how they created a lush fur groom for the dog in Disney’s Strange World.
Members of the Dreamworks Animation team will then present how they created the water hair for the 150-tall monster in Dreamworks’ Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken. The lineup of animation studs will continue with contributors from Pixar Animation Studios discussing the living vegetation in Elemental City for Pixar’s upcoming feature film, Elemental.
The final 23-minute segment will continue with the Pixar team, who will discuss how they used in-house geometry tools to create stylized bark patterns and textures for the animated trees of Elemental.
“Crowded House: Advances in Crowd Simulation” on the improvement of crowds
Disney’s Strange World – photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
SIGGRAPH has a branding aspect where it gets talked about each year for its landscape-altering upcoming technologies that we’ve never seen before. On the flip side of this, some of the topics are long-practiced aspects of VFX and animation where everybody is looking to continue their growth.
Like crowds.
The 90-minute “Advances in Crowd Simulation” talk will host three chunked-up presentations about present advancements in crowd control. Contributors from Dimension Studio, Zero VFX, and ReDefine will start with a discussion about “generating authentic crowds” with volumetric video capture. The Pixar Animations team then will present about the amorphous crowd shapes used in Elemental. The talk will conclude with contributors from the Walt Disney Studios team as they discuss the vibrant background elements in Disney’s Strange World.
Unreal Engine gets a two-part spotlight with “A Trip Down the Studio Pipeline”
Unreal Engine 5 continues to grow in its ubiquitous use across the industry and gets some heavy discussion time in the two-part block of real-time production talks. “A Trip Down the Studio Pipeline I” will include deep dives into the following aspects of virtual production:
- Unreal Engine 5 for large-scale live-action VFX presented by members of Framestore
- Virtual cinematography within Unreal Engine
- Lessons learned in workflow enhancements, presented by members of Walt Disney Animation Studios
- “Engine-eering” a procedural pipeline with USD, presented by members of Pixar Animation Studios
The second part of these powerhouse blocks includes a presentation by the DNEG team about xSTUDIO, virtual production color management with Lux Machina, LAIKA’s production timeline web planner, another sitdown with Framestore, finished up with the Jigsaw data management system presented by Double Negative Ltd.
Basically, it sounds like your favorite lineup of 2004 pop-punk bands.
SIGGRAPH 2023 has something for everyone – yes, even the people who want sexy lasers
Okay, no promise that there are any lasers whatsoever at SIGGRAPH 2023. But as a VFX artist or animator, or even just someone who loves new tech, you can explore every facet of the industry from the best minds in the industry.
The week finishes off with some deep-dive talks like “Avatar: The Way of Fluid Dynamics”, as reported by Befores & Afters this week. Those who might want to sit on their ass and eat Doritos from home while attending the live-streamed events – you can do that, too.
General conference information is updated now on the SIGGRAPH 2023 webpage here.
We’ll Fix it in Post is not responsible for any attendees of SIGGRAPH 2023 who get their retinas burned out by cool lasers.
