Courses

SIGGRAPH 97 offered 23 full-day Courses and 12 half-day Courses. The Course lectures, demonstrations, and seminars covered the complete range of computer graphics and interactive techniques from fundamentals to emerging research. Courses discussed a full array of topics such as: theory, programming, design, commercialization, and tomorrow's applications.

"Computer graphics has spread over many media, bringing about a diversity that the SIGGRAPH 97 Courses have tried to embrace," said Barbara Helfer, SIGGRAPH 97 Courses chair. "Courses range from scientists and animators addressing issues dealing with massive datasets to designing and implementing interfaces for the Web. To make the SIGGRAPH 97 experience even more beneficial, attendees can find tracks of similar topics across the Technical Program."

 Course Highlights

Introduction to Computer Graphics

Organizer
Mike Bailey
University of California at San Diego/San Diego Supercomputer Center

Lecturers
Mike Bailey
University of California at San Diego/San Diego Supercomputer Center

Andrew Glassner
Microsoft Research

Olin Lathrop
Cognivision, Inc.

Patricia Wenner
Bucknell University

This course covered the fundamental issues in computer graphics including modeling, transformations, rendering, animation, and the use of graphics in various applications -- all designed in an easily understood format to ease first-time attendees into the SIGGRAPH conference experience.

Motion Capture in Practice

Organizer
Scott Dyer
Windlight Studios

Lecturers
Scott Dyer
Windlight Studios

Eric Flaherty
Windlight Studios

Veronique Benquey
Medialab

A close examination of the practical, daily animation production aspects of motion capture, this half-day course explained the production process from both a technical and management prospective.

Multiresolution Surface Modeling

Organizer
Paul Heckbert
Carnegie Mellon University

Lecturers
Paul Heckbert
Carnegie Mellon University

Hugues Hoppe
Microsoft Research

Jarek Rossignac
Georgia Institute of Technology

Will Schroeder
General Electric Corp. R&D Center

Mark Saucy
InnovMetric Software Inc.

Amitabh Varshney
State University of New York at Stony Brook

This course summarized the best current techniques for simplifying complex polygonal surface models to accelerate rendering. Discussion included construction of multiresolution models describing 3D shapes at multiple levels of detail and applications in CAD, Web publishing, cartography, computer vision, and virtual reality.

Principles of Visual Perception and Its Applications in Computer Graphics

Organizers
Victoria L. Interrante
Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering

Penny Rheingans
University of Mississippi

James A. Ferwerda
Cornell University

Lecturers
Tomas Filsinger
Independent Graphic Artist

Victoria L. Interrante
Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering

Penny Rheingans
University of Mississippi

James A. Ferwerda
Cornell University

Rich Gossweiler
Silicon Graphics, Inc.

This introductory course studied virtual perception and its applications in computer graphics. It presented fundamental findings from a visual psychophysics survey on how we perceive light, color, pattern, motion, texture, shape, and depth. These experimental results were presented in the context of how they can be used in real applications in computer graphics including: realistic image synthesis, scientific and information visualization, virtual environments, and graphic design.

Designing Real-Time Graphics for Entertainment

Organizer
Michael Jones
Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Lecturers
John Carmack
ID Software

Mike Goslin
Walt Disney LBE

Michael Jones
Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Shiguru Miyamoto
Nintendo

Tim VanHook
Silicon Graphics, Inc.

New arcade games, videogame consoles, personal computer games, and theme park virtual reality attractions are the most widely experienced applications of real-time computer graphics. This course offered detailed insights from developers at the forefront of this area, covering topics of hardware and software design, game design and programming, rendering tricks and themed attraction development. Attendees learned the best-known practices in contemporary entertainment application development.

Digital Color

Organizer
Charles Poynton
Poynton Vector Corporation

Lecturers
Michael Bourgoin
Adobe Systems, Inc.

Jan De Clippeleer
Agfa-Gevaert NV

Charles Poynton
Poynton Vector Corporation

Maureen Stone
Xerox PARC

Computers have been used to generate synthetic images since the first SIGGRAPH conference and to generate color images for almost as long. But only recently has it become practical to create and reproduce digital images with predictable, accurate color, and only recently has it become reasonably easy to move images from the SIGGRAPH world into video, film, and print. This course explained the science behind color reproduction image digitalization and image reproduction in these media.