And, the Oscar Goes to….Mark Elendt

And, the Oscar Goes to….Mark Elendt

And, the Oscar Goes to….

Avid moviegoers may not know Mark Elendt by name, but chances are pretty high they’ve seen his movies.

This year, Elendt and SideFX will take home an Oscar for their creation and development of the Houdini visual effects and animation system, the industry standard for bringing realistic visual effects and natural phenomena to the big screen. Elendt’s work on Houdini has contributed to a long list of films—Mad Max, The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, the Dark Knight, Fantastic Beasts, and more—including fantasy hit, The Shape of Water, a frontrunner in this year’s Academy Awards.

Elendt, who received the Academy Award of Merit at its Sci-Tech Awards ceremony on Feb. 10, gets to count this Oscar win as his fourth. In past years—1997, 2002, and 2011—he has received technical achievement awards with his colleagues at SideFX for outstanding work in visual effects. As one can imagine, winning an Oscar doesn’t get old and is nothing short of “jaw-dropping” and “amazing,” says the Toronto-based Elendt.

A pioneer in the space of visual effects and rendering, Elendt joined SideFX and the world of computer graphics in the early 1990s. As a child, Elendt had wanted to be an artist, but knew his limits. “I loved making art, but I really wasn’t that good at it,” he says. “Once I found out I could make a computer do art for me, well, that was the next best thing.”

Elendt has been a longtime developer of Houdini platform’s flexible, procedural approach to animation and visual effects. When a scene calls for explosion effects, an artist can turn to Houdini’s one-button explosion tool. What makes the software program a fan favorite, however, is its extreme flexibility. For instance, artists, utilizing Houdini’s explosion tool are able to rewrite the procedure to suit their needs.

“This flexibility allows artists to experiment and helps them meet their vision,” notes Elendt. “They might change the way gravity works, or alter
temperature propagation, or even change the way time behaves.”

Elendt enjoys working closely with artists in the field to tackle some of their pressing visual effects problems. One recent satisfying instance was work on The Shape of Water, whose central character is an amphibious creature being held in captivity. Artists were grappling with several concerns, including how best to simulate realistic bubbles in the water and accurately depict light properties while the creature and bubbles move, as well as troubleshoot how his skin behaves differently inside the water and out. They collaboratively pull these tricky effects off, contributing to the overall success of the film; The Shape of Water has earned 13 Oscar nods this year, including Best Picture nominee.

While no one can deny that bringing home multiple Academy Awards is pretty outstanding, Elendt also points to another, equally cool career highlight. On the sci-fi film, Interstellar, which explores black holes and time travel, director Christopher Nolan invited esteemed astrophysicist Kip Thorne to serve as technical adviser on the film; Thorne’s mathematical equations for black holes were applied to the film for authenticity. Having a hand at some of the revolutionary time-bending effects on that film was a memorable experience for Elendt, but there was more. Thorne later paid tribute to the work of SideFX in one of his research papers.

“Having a Nobel laureate actually reference us in an academic paper—that was a big deal,” says Elendt.

Elendt has been an ACM SIGGRAPH volunteer for more than 15 years, having first served on a Sketches jury. He has attended more than 25 SIGGRAPH conferences and says it is the best venue for getting exposure to new, emerging technologies in areas outside of his own realm of expertise. Elendt mentioned that one of his most memorable experiences at a SIGGRAPH conference was having his family in attendance, affording him the opportunity to share with them his passion for graphics.

“My kids think what I do is cool, but so do my parents,” he says, with a laugh.

Big explosions, over-the-top, action-packed visual effects are undoubtedly entertaining and thrilling to watch, but for Elendt the quieter, subtle effects are more his speed.

“I appreciate the supporting effects that nobody even notices. They’re the ones that help the audience lose themselves as they watch the movie.”

By Melanie A. Farmer

Recruiting a Chair for the Diversity Committee

Statement for Recruiting a Chair for the Diversity Committee:

ACM SIGGRAPH is recruiting for a Chair for the newly formed Diversity Committee.  This chair will join the ranks of the standing committee chairs who assist the Executive Committee in nurturing and supporting the community of computer graphics researchers and practitioners.   A listing of the current standing chairs and their roles can be found here: https://www.siggraph.org/about/acm-siggraph-committees

The Chair of the Diversity Committee will first form a Diversity Committee of five or more volunteers who are enthusiastic about creating and supporting a diverse community within SIGGRAPH.   The Committee should be comprised of racially, ethnically, and gender diverse researchers and practitioners from a broad range of careers and backgrounds. The committee will focus on activities in support of mentoring, inclusion, recruitment, retention, and professional development and training.

Activities of the committee may include:

  • Lunches and other networking activities at both the main conferences and the specialized conferences
  • Establishment of a year-round Mentoring Network with training for both mentors and mentees and a matchmaking process
  • Assisting the volunteer organizers of SIGGRAPH by suggesting names of people qualified to serve as speakers for panels, members of program committees, and other roles that should represent the diverse community of SIGGRAPH.
  • With EC financial support, administering travel grants and other mechanisms designed to support traditionally under-represented minorities in the field.
  • Ensuring that conference events and the year-round activities of the organization are accessible 

This list of activities is not intended to be complete and we expect that the Diversity Chair and their committee will develop a much longer and more impactful set of activities over time.   We also recognize that no one individual can be expert in best practices in all of these forms of diversity and expect that the chair will rely heavily on their committee to supplement their own expertise.

Each fall, the Diversity Committee should establish measurable goals relating to SIGGRAPH’s diversity initiatives and evaluate the progress over the previous year in achieving the stated objectives.   A report of the activities and outcomes should be presented to the SIGGRAPH Executive Committee in the fall.

Note that there are a number of grass roots activities in this space already and we hope that the chair will be able to work with the current and past organizers of those activities to leverage and support their efforts.

For information and nominations please contact Nominations-chair@siggraph.org

Call for Nominations: Editor-In-Chief ACM Transactions on Graphics

ACM Transactions on Graphics is the foremost peer-reviewed journal in the field of computer graphics. The term of the journal's current editor-in-chief – Prof. Kavita Bala of Cornell University — is ending, and the ACM Publications Board has assembled a nomination committee to aid the board in its selection of Ms. Bala’s successor, whose term will begin approximately June 1, 2018.

Nominations, including self-nominations, are invited for qualified candidates able to commit to a three-year term as TOG EiC. The position is voluntary, with administrative support provided by ACM.

From the ACM TOG Call for Nominations:

The EiC is responsible for maintaining the highest editorial quality, for setting technical direction of the papers published in TOG, and for maintaining a reasonable pipeline of articles for publication. He or she has final say on acceptance of papers and appointment of associate editors. The EiC is expected to adhere to the commitments expressed in the policy on Rights and Responsibilities in ACM Publishing.

Each nomination should include a vita along with a brief statement of why the nominee should be considered. Self-nomination is encouraged, and should include a statement of the candidate's vision for the future development of TOG. The deadline for submitting nominations is April 9, 2018, although nominations will continue to be accepted until the position is filled. Please send nominations to the nominating committee chair: George Drettakis, (George dot Drettakis at inria.fr)

For more information on the position requirements and responsibilities, visit the ACM TOG website and ACM's evaluation criteria for editors-in-chief.

About ACM Transactions on Graphics (from the TOG website):

The purpose of the ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) is to further the development of computer graphics by encouraging high-quality research in the field and disseminating that research rapidly and widely. The term "computer graphics" is interpreted broadly. It includes, but is not limited to, work on animation, computer-aided design, color, computational geometry, computational photography, geometric modeling, graphics hardware, human factors, image synthesis, interaction techniques (both 2D and 3D), lighting models, physical simulation, real-time techniques, and rendering. Computer graphics is more than an academic discipline; it is an eclectic and heterogeneous field with wide-ranging applications. Consequently, TOG accepts papers on novel applications as well as traditional research contributions.

 

The search committee members are:

  • Dr. George Drettakis (Inria), Chair
  • Prof. Tom Funkhouser (Princeton)
  • Prof. Marie-Paule Cani (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris)
  • Prof. John Hughes (Brown)

Call for Participation: Online Exhibition: Origins and Journeys

Online Exhibition: Origins and Journeys CALL FOR PROPOSALS Inspired by the “Original Narratives” exhibition to be curated by Andrés Burbano for the SIGGRAPH 2018 Art Gallery, the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community Committee invites proposals for works to be shown in a new, juried online exhibition on the theme of “Origins + Journeys.” Digital art formats for the web-based, online exhibition might include still images, animations, short time-based media excerpts (with links to longer works), interactions, installation documentation, or other formats suitable for presentation on the web. We are especially interested in art that explores the Origins + Journeys topic thematically and conceptually, through both the medium and content of the work. Work will be juried by the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community Committee members, along with other curators, scholars, and practitioners in the field. As with the other online exhibitions organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community, this exhibition will be presented and promoted primarily online. However, in keeping with our shared theme, we also plan to feature this online exhibition on a single screen or kiosk adjacent to the Art Gallery at the annual SIGGRAPH 2018 conference in Vancouver in 2018. Questions may be directed to the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community Chair at arts AT siggraph.org. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: MARCH 15, 2018

Call for Participation: SGP 2018 in Paris, France

Eurographics Symposium on Geometry Processing (SGP) 2018 – 2nd Call for Papers
 
Telecom ParisTech, Paris
7–11 July, 2018
Conference websitehttp://geometryprocessing.org
 
The Eurographics Symposium on Geometry Processing (SGP) 2018 will be held at Telecom ParisTech in Paris, France on 9–11 July, 2018. Following the success of previous editions, a graduate school will offer tutorials taught by leading experts on the weekend of 7–8 July.
 
SGP is the premier venue for disseminating new research ideas and cutting-edge results in geometry processing. In this research area, concepts from mathematics, computer science, and engineering are studied and applied to offer new insights and to design efficient algorithms for acquisition, modeling, analysis, manipulation, simulation and other types of processing of 3D models and shape collections.
 
The SGP proceedings will appear as a regular electronic issue of Computer Graphics Forum, the International Journal of the EUROGRAPHICS Association. The journal status of the proceedings requires a two-stage review process with conditional acceptance after the first round and final acceptance based on the revised submissions.
 
We are happy to announce Jean-Daniel Boissonnat (Inria), Vladlen Koltun (Intel Labs), Mark Meyer (Pixar Animations), and Olga Sorkine-Hornung (ETH Zurich) as invited speakers.
 
We invite submissions related to, but not limited to, the following topics:
  • Acquisition and reconstruction
  • Analysis and design for fabrication
  • Architectural and industrial geometry
  • Computational geometric design
  • Computer-aided design and manufacturing
  • Discrete differential geometry
  • Exploration of shape collections
  • Geometry and topology representations
  • Geometry compression
  • Geometric data sorting, clustering, and visualization
  • Geometry processing applications
  • Interactive techniques for shape design and editing
  • Isogeometric analysis
  • Machine learning in geometry
  • Mesh editing and deformation
  • Meshing and remeshing
  • Multiresolution modeling and subdivision meshes
  • Multimodal shape processing
  • Procedural geometric modeling
  • Processing of big geometric datasets
  • Shape analysis and synthesis
  • Simulation and animation
  • Smoothing and denoising
  • Surface and volume parameterization
     
Timeline
  • Abstract submissions:  April 6, 2018
  • Full paper submissions:  April 12, 2018
  • Notification of acceptance:  May 23, 2018
  • Revised version due:  June 15, 2018    
  • Camera ready copy due:  June 25, 2018
 
Paper submission is via the Submission and Review Management (SRMv2) system: https://srmv2.eg.org. All deadlines are at 23:59 UTC/GMT.
 
Awards and Recognitions
Following its traditions, SGP 2018 will attribute three best paper awards, a software award recognizing the authors of an open-source software that has greatly influenced the field, and a data set award designed to acknowledge the suppliers of high quality datasets used in geometry processing. In addition, SGP provides papers with the reproducibility stamp to recognize the effort of researchers who, in addition to publishing their paper at SGP 2018, provide a complete open-source implementation of their algorithm.
 
Program Chairs
Tao Ju (Washington University in St. Louis)
Amir Vaxman (Utrecht University)
 
Graduate School Chairs
Alec Jacobson (University of Toronto)
Jean-Marc Thiery (Telecom ParisTech)
 
General Chairs
Pooran Memari (CNRS, École Polytechnique)
Maks Ovsjanikov (École Polytechnique)
Tamy Boubekeur (Telecom ParisTech)
 
SGP Steering Committee
Chair: 
Leif Kobbelt (RWTH Aachen, Germany)
Members:
Marc Alexa (TU Berlin, Germany)
Pierre Alliez (INRIA, France)
Niloy Mitra (UCL, UK)
Daniele Panozzo (NYU, USA)