FEBRUARY 2015

ACM SIGGRAPH Director Wins Academy Award

On Saturday, February 7, ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee Director James O'Brien was presented with an Academy Award for his work on finite element destruction modeling. This work has been used in over 60 Feature films during the last five years, including Harry Potter, Man of Steel, 300: Rise of an Empire, Godzilla, Life of Pi, Maleficent, and Guardians of the Galaxy. From the official announcement:

To Ben Cole for the design of the Kali Destruction System, to Eric Parker for the development of the Digital Molecular Matter toolkit, and to James O’Brien for his influential research on the finite element methods that served as a foundation for these tools.

Visual Effects: Are Computer Graphics Always the Answer?

In the past 20 years, computer graphics have overtaken practical effects as the medium of choice for big screen visual effects. Now, practical effects are in danger of becoming a lost art. Is that the best thing for the industry? Read the full article on SIGGRAPH.org.

Upcoming Deadlines

February 15: Computer Graphics International '15 full paper submission deadline
February 17: SIGGRAPH 2015 general submissions deadline

February 18: Laval Virtual ReVolution paper submission deadline

February 20: Laval Virtual ReVolution late-breaking demo submission deadline
March 3: SIGGRAPH 2015 Computer Animation Festival submission deadline
March 9: Shape Modeling International 2015 technical paper deadline
March 13: Eurographics 2015 Early Bird registration deadline
March 15: Altered Books Digital Art Show submission deadline

Open Access to SIGGRAPH Asia 2014 Content

ACM SIGGRAPH members always have free access to all SIGGRAPH-sponsored materials in the ACM Digital Library, but did you know that friends and colleagues who aren't members can access SIGGRAPH Asia 2014 content for free until December 2015, exclusively through open access links on SIGGRAPH.org?

Call for Submissions to Online Digital Art Show

The online digital art exhibition "Altered Books: Digital Interventions" will showcase artistic deconstructions and reconstructions of books with the aid of digital techniques. The deadline for submissions is March 15. See the call for submissions for more information.

Upcoming Events

February 12: Paris ACM SIGGRAPH Bring-Your-Own-Animation, Paris, France

February 12: Big Hero Six, The Art of Character Animation, London, UK

February 19: Photoshop, Mastering the Pixel 25 Years Later, Mountain View, CA, USA

February 27-March 1: i3D 2015 conference, San Francisco, CA, USA

February 26-27: PerMIn '15 conference, Kolkata, India

March 10-13: ICSIT 2015 conference, Orlando, Florida, USA

March 11-14: VISIGRAPP 2015 conference, Berlin, Germany

March 17-20: GPU Technology Conference, San Jose, California, USA