SIGGRAPH 2010

Digital review of projects accepted to the annual SpaceTime competition featuring the state of creative computer-based student work from around the globe.

Contact: Marc Barr, mjbarr (at) mtsu.edu

The work exhibited in the SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery investigates the polysensory nature of human experience in a technologically enhanced environment. The exhibition explores the permeable membrane of the techno-human interface, where we engage an array of tools to materialize and visualize artifacts of creative expression. Integral to the work is human haptic interaction, involving the "viewer" and/or the artist through a unique physical interface.

Test drive current game-development technologies, explore game design, and play the games that are defining the next generation of digital interactivity.

Real-time human networking. Streaming content from the SIGGRAPH 2010 session rooms. Wireless access. Comfy chairs.

An in-depth look at 3D character animation for film and video games. Topics include the process of acting out references, creating customized MEL scripts, hot keys, animation-pipeline tools, blocking pose to pose vs. straight ahead, key framing vs. dynamics, layering animation, animation polishing with tangents, follow through and overlapping actions, adding moving holds, and tricks and shortcuts to make animating fast, efficient, and fun.

This presentation explores the whys and hows of HDR imaging as the digital world's answer to Ansel Adams' Zone System. It shows and illustrates what can be achieved with dynamic-range capture and covers how to shoot and process it, related software applications, and how to simulate it when mutli-exposure image capture is not possible.

Spectral mesh processing was proposed at the beginning of the 1990s to port the “signal processing toolbox” to 3D mesh models. Now, with recent advances in computing power and numerical software, this vision can be fully implemented. In this course, attendees learn how to transfer the underlying concepts to the mesh-model setting, how to implement the “spectral mesh processing” toolbox, and how to use it for real applications, including filtering, shape matching, remeshing, segmentation, and parameterization.

COURSE SCHEDULE

2 pm
Introduction
Levy

2:05 pm
What is so Spectral?
Zhang

2:45 pm
Do Your Own Spectral Mesh Processing at Home?
Levy

3:30 pm
Break

3:45 pm
Applications -- What Can We Do With It ?
Segmentation, Shape Retrieval, Non-Rigid Matching, Symmetry Detection
Zhang

4:35 pm
Applications -- What Can We Do With It ?
Quadrangulation, Parameterization
Levy

5 pm
Conclusion, Q&A
Zhang and Levy

Physically grounded shading models have been known for many years, but they have only recently started to replace the "ad-hoc" models in common use for both film and game production. Compared to "ad-hoc" models, which require laborious tweaking to produce high-quality images, physically-based, energy-conserving shading models easily create materials that hold up under a variety of lighting environments. These advantages apply to both photorealistic and stylized scenes, and to game development as well as production of CG animation and computer VFX. Surprisingly, physically based models are not more difficult to implement or evaluate than the traditional "ad-hoc" ones.

This course begins with a short explanation of the physics of light-matter interaction and how it is expressed in simple shading models. Then several speakers discuss specific examples of how shading models have been used in film and game production. In each case, the advantages of the new models are demonstrated, and drawbacks or issues arising from their usage are discussed. The course also includes descriptions of specific production techniques related to physically based shading.

COURSE SCHEDULE

2 pm
Background: The Physics of Shading
Hoffman

2:30 pm
Practical Implementation of Physically Based Shading Models at tri-Ace
Gotanda

3 pm
Crafting Physically Motivated Shading Models for Game Development
Hoffman

3:30 pm
Break

3:45 pm
Terminators and Iron Men: Image-Based Lighting and Physical Shading at ILM
Snow

4:30 pm
Faster Photorealism in Wonderland: Physically Based Shading and Lighting at Sony Pictures Imageworks
Martinez

5 pm
Conclusion, Q&A
Gotanda, Hoffman, Martinez

How to use Zbrush as a tool for 3D modeling. No previous Zbrush knowledge required. Workshop topics include organic forms and high-poly detailing.

This talk answers two basic questions: What is Rhino? What does it do? Then it demonstrates how to model a salt and pepper shaker.

Natural images exhibit statistical regularities that differentiate them from random collections of pixels, and the human visual system appears to have evolved to exploit such statistical regularities. Because computer graphics is about producing imagery for observation by humans, it is important to understand which statistical regularities occur in nature, so they can be emulated by image-synthesis methods. This course introduces all aspects of natural image statistics, ranging from data collection to analysis and their applications in computer graphics, computational photography, and image processing.

COURSE SCHEDULE

2 pm
Introduction
Reinhard

2:05 pm
Data Collection and Calibration
Pouli

2:15 pm
First Order Statistics
Pouli

2:30 pm
Second Order Statistics
Cunningham

2:55 pm
Higher Order Statistics
Reinhard

3:10 pm
Color Statistics
Reinhard

3:25 pm
Discussion
All

Opening and awards presentation for ACM SIGGRAPH SpaceTime Student Exhibition.

Contact: Marc Barr, mjbarr (at) mtsu.edu