SIGGRAPH Asia 2017 wrapped its 10th edition on a high note. This year’s edition in Bangkok, Thailand brought together some of the biggest names and organizations in the computer graphics and interactive techniques industry from 26 – 30 November 2017. The event drew 6,526 computer graphics professionals, researchers, enthusiasts and trade visitors from 58 countries and regions under one roof.
Close to 600 speakers presented at the conference, discussed the latest industry developments and future of the computer graphics and interactive techniques industry. The exciting line-up featured distinguished keynote speakers and panellists such as Albert Yu-Min Lin, Research Scientist & Explorer, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology @ UC San Diego, National Geographic Society; Michael Cohen, Director of the Computational Photography Group, Facebook; Mark Oftedal, Co-Director of “Piggy”, a Google Spotlight Story; Chris Harvey, VFX Supervisor, Oats Studio and Mathieu Muller, Film Engineer, Unity.
The production teams from Pixar (Coco), Industrial Light & Magic (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Disney (Moana), Marvel Studios (Thor: Ragnarok) and Framestore (Blade Runner 2049) also took to the stage to showcase their ground-breaking digital work in these films.
Virtual and augmented reality was also featured strongly at SIGGRAPH Asia 2017. One of the highlights was the featured sessions’ panel, Towards Stronger Human Connections in AR/VR, which included a mixed reality setup with one panellist speaking remotely in VR, a first-time showcase in the region. Industry pioneers, James Fong, CEO, Jaunt China; Ido Banai, CEO and Founder, Plenoptic Cognition and Jake Kahana, Co-Founder, Caveday, discussed the production challenges and lessons from making story-driven VR films. Other well-attended sessions include Artificial Intelligence Meets Virtual And Augmented Realities and Before And After AR/VR: Empowering The Paradigm Shifts In Education, where panellists discussed the synergies between virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and its impact on education.
The VR Showcase Program immersed visitors into virtual and augmented worlds to convey how virtual reality can be applied to fields such as healthcare and entertainment, as well as influence human interactivity and engagement. The content rich program also featured specially curated interactive sections that included live painting sessions with local and regional transmedia artists, as well as a VR Dailies Theater.
SIGGRAPH Asia’s exhibition show-floor showcased the latest hardware, software, technologies and innovations from around the world, including companies such as ArtFX, Epic Games, IKEA Communications, Luxion Inc, NewOlderVFX Co. Ltd, Ringling College of Art and Design, SOFA Framework, Unity Technologies and Yannix (Thailand) Co. Ltd.
Award-winners at SIGGRAPH Asia
Most importantly, SIGGRAPH Asia honoured the people behind the technology and the latest developments at the following four programs:
Symposium on Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications
- Best Paper: ProsumerFX: Mobile Design of Image Stylization Components by Tobias Dürschmid, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam, Maximilian Söchting, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam, Amir Semmo, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam, Matthias Trapp, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam and Jürgen Döllner, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
- Best Paper (Runner-up): Mixed Reality Collaboration through Sharing a Live Panorama by Gun Lee, University of South Australia, Theophilus Teo, University of South Australia Seungwon Kim, University of South Australia and Mark Billinghurst, University of South Australia. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
- Best Demo: Pictory – Neural Style Transfer and Editing with CoreML by Sebastian Pasewaldt, Digital Masterpieces GmbH, Amir Semmo, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam, Mandy Klingbeil, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam and Jürgen Döllner, Hasso Plattner Institute / University of Potsdam. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
- Best Demo (Runner-up): Mobile Augmented Reality Illustrations that Entertain and Inform with the Hololens by Christian Zimmer, Michael Bertram, Fabian Büntig, UDaniel Drochtert and Christian Geiger, University of Applied Sciences Duesseldorf. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
Symposium on Visualization
- Best Paper: Smooth Animation of Structure Evolution in Time-Varying Graphs with Pattern Matching by Yunzhe WANG, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
- Honorable Mention: Winding Angle Assisted Particle Tracing in Distribution-Based Vector Field by Cheng Li and Han-Wei Shen, The Ohio State University. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
- Honorable Mention: Visual Exploration of Ionosphere Disturbances for Earthquake Research by Fan Hong, Peking University, Siming Chen, Peking University, Hanqi Guo, Argonne National Laboratory, Xiaoru Yuan, Peking University, Jian Huang, University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Yongxian Zhang, China Earthquake Networks Center. Click here for more information.[TEAM PHOTO]
Emerging Technologies
- Best Demonstration Voted by Attendees: OptRod: Operating Multiple Various Actuators Simultaneously by Projected Images, by Ryo Shirai, Yuichi Itoh, Taichi Fukamachi, Mayu Yamashita, Takao Onoye from Graduate School Of Information Science And Technology, Osaka University. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
- Best Demonstration Voted by Committee: Mobius Walker: Pitch And Roll Redirected Walking, by Tatsuki Yamamoto, Jumpei Shimatani, Isamu Ohashi, Keigo Matsumoto, Takuji Narumi, Tomohiro Tanikawa, Michitaka Hirose from The University of Tokyo. Click here for more information. [TEAM PHOTO]
The Computer Animation Festival
- Best in Show: “AFTERWORK” (Ecuador), directed by Luis Uson, Uson Studio/Matte CG and Andrés Aguilar, Matte CG
- Best Student Film: “Garden Party” (France), directed by Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon and Lucas Navarro
- Jury Award: “Here’s the Plan” (Chile), directed by Fernanda Frick
- Jury Award: “(OO)” (South Korea), directed and produced by OH Seo-ro, Chungkang College of Cultural Industries
Next year’s edition, SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 will be held at the Tokyo International Forum in Japan from 4 – 7 December 2018.
“Following 10 years of success at SIGGRAPH Asia, I believe that SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 will be a unique event where there will be a huge variety of crossovers between people, cultures, companies, industries, entertainment, art and digital technologies. In this sense, Tokyo is the best city for the attendees to experience and feel the crossovers between anime and 3DCG; digital and traditional cultures; and be at the cutting edge of digital media and new industries,” said Ken Anjyo, Conference Chair of SIGGRAPH Asia 2018.
Visit the SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 website for more details:
