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Computer Graphics Community Return to Colorado Highlighted by Transformative Technology Talks and Creative Exhibitions

Week-long Conference Also Recognizes “Best of” Industry With Premier Awards

DENVER — SIGGRAPH 2024 was a milestone conference for many reasons. It was the first time the world’s premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques has returned to Colorado since its founding at The University of Colorado in Boulder 51 years ago. The conference — which ran from 28 July through 1 August, 2024, at the Colorado Convention Center — brought together nearly 9,000 industry professionals from around the world and was highlighted by a rare joint public appearance with NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Huang and Zuckerberg didn’t just go viral swapping jackets on stage. The tech giants’ conversation exploring the transformative potential of open source AI and AI assistants and Zuckerberg’s introduction of AI Studio at the top of the talk quickly made international headlines (watch the livestream). The CEOs were two of several world-class visionaries and leaders who gave Keynote Presentations discussing the full scope of the impact of computer graphics and interactive techniques from the cosmos to the microscopic and everything in between. From Dr. Dava Newman with MIT Media Lab exploring the macro discussing the “overview effect” from space that lets us appreciate Earth’s interconnected systems through supercomputer data visualizations to Manu Prakash of Stanford University speaking to the micro end of the spectrum and how the use of frugal science can impact social change.

At the conclusion of this year’s event, SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Chair Andrés Burbano of the Open University of Catalonia said, “SIGGRAPH 2024 was a unique experience marked by rich content and vibrant interactions across the arts, science, and technology. The thought-provoking sessions and dynamic dialogues have truly fostered the idea of a desirable future of computer graphics and interactive techniques in the industry and the conference itself. Our commitment to international participation and engaging industry leaders enhances the discussions and cross-cultural exchange taking place at the conference, ultimately making our industry stronger and more diverse. We are proud to have brought together global perspectives, paving the way for the next 50 years of innovation in the field.”

Image Credit: photo by Vib Soundrarajah © 2024 ACM SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH 2024 played host to the latest innovations in art, science, technology, and more throughout its five-day stay in downtown Denver. It was attended by an international audience hailing from 76 countries including the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, and more. The conference and exhibition also played host to a variety of diverse exhibitors on the show floor, each showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques, products, and services.

Other highlights include the 15th anniversary of Real-Time Live!; the first-ever SIGGRAPH for Peace with humanitarian leader Yves Daccord, former Director General of the International Red Cross; the presentation of more than 250 research papers; the Computer Animation Festival’s Electronic Theater and the return of Animation Theater Daytime Selects; SIGGRAPH’s Educator’s Forum; Production Sessions focusing on film, games, and TV, including a look at the VFX of “Dune: Part Two” and the balance of animation in “Kung Fu Panda 4”; and a Talk with Google sharing its framework for “Project Starline”; Courses like Natalya Tatarchuk’s fan-favorite “Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games”; and virtual reality storytelling in the VR Theater. Attendees also enjoyed digital art installations and emerging and immersive demonstrations within the Experience Hall.

Image Credit: photo by Andreas Psaltis © 2024 ACM SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH 2024 also celebrated this year’s contributors by honoring some “best of” from various programs, including:

Art Gallery
Best in Show — “Rage Against the Archive“
Anshul Roy

Art Papers
Best Art Paper — “Critical Climate Machine: A Visual and Musical Exploration of Climate Misinformation through Machine Learning“
Gaëtan Robillard and Jérôme Nika

Computer Animation Festival: Electronic Theater
Best in Show — “The Art of Weightlessness”
Moshe Mahler

Jury’s Choice — “Patterns”
Alex Glawion

Best Student Project — “After Grandpa”
Juliette Michel, Swann Valenza, Florian Gomes Freitas, Axel Sence, and Victoria Leviaux

Audience Choice — “LUKI & the Lights”
Toby Cochran

Emerging Technologies
Best in Show — “A Live Demo of Single-photon Imaging and Applications”
Sacha Jungerman, Varun Sundar, and Mohit Gupta

Audience Choice — “The Malleable-Self Experience: Transforming Body Image by Integrating Visual and Whole-body Haptic Stimuli”
Tanner Person, Nobuhisa Hanamitsu, Danny Hynds, Sohei Wakisaka, Kota Isobe, Leonard Mochizuki, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and Kouta Minamizawa

Immersive Pavilion
Best in Show — “MOFA: Multiplayer Onsite Fighting Arena“
Botao Amber Hu, Yuchen Zhang, Sizheng Hao, and Yilan Tao

Real-Time Live!
Best in Show and Audience Choice — “Mesh Mortal Combat: Real-Time Voxelized Soft-Body Destruction”
Tim McGraw

Technical Papers
Best Paper Awards
”From Microfacets to Participating Media: A Unified Theory of Light Transport With Stochastic Geometry”
Dario Seyb, Eugene d’Eon, Benedikt Bitterli, and Wojciech Jarosz
“Walkin’ Robin: Walk on Stars With Robin Boundary Conditions”
Bailey Miller, Rohan Sawhney, Keenan Crane, Ioannis Gkioulekas

“Repulsive Shells”
Josua Sassen, Henrik Schumacher, Martin Rumpf, Keenan Crane

“Lightning-Fast Method of Fundamental Solutions”
Jiong Chen, Florian Schäfer, and Mathieu Desbrun

“Robust Containment Queries Over Collections of Rational Parametric Curves via Generalized Winding Numbers”
Jacob Spainhour, David Gunderman, and Kenneth Weiss

VR Theater
Best in Show — “Emperor“
Oriane Hurard with Atlas V

SIGGRAPH 2024 Mobile and Virtual Access is available until 1 September 2024. To learn more and register for access to on-demand conference content, visit a href=”../../../index.html” target=”_blank”>s2024.SIGGRAPH.org

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

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Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg to Explore the Future of AI and Virtual Worlds at SIGGRAPH 2024

The Founders and CEOs of NVIDIA and Meta will delve into the possibilities of AI and simulation in a rare joint public appearance at the 51st annual conference

DENVER — SIGGRAPH 2024, the premier conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques, announces a rare joint public appearance of NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the 51st annual conference on Monday, 29 July, at 4 pm MDT. This fireside chat will be one of several prominent Keynote Presentations coming to the conference at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver from Sunday, 28 July to Thursday, 1 August, 2024.

Image credits from left to right: Headshots Courtesy of NVIDIA; Meta

“It is truly unique to have two noteworthy technology leaders, Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg, come together to discuss fundamental research in AI and virtual worlds. These complex topics not only shape our world but also pose challenges to our industry, and these leaders can influence forward momentum to drive change for the better,” SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Chair Andrés Burbano of the Open University of Catalonia said.

Huang and Zuckerberg will discuss the future of AI and simulation and the pivotal role of research at SIGGRAPH, which focuses on the intersection of graphics and technology. The two leaders will consider how fundamental research is enabling AI breakthroughs, and how generative AI and open source will empower developers and creators. They’ll also reflect on the role of generative AI in building virtual worlds, and virtual worlds for building the next wave of AI and robots.

Before the Fireside Chat with Zuckerberg, Huang will also headline a Fireside Chat with WIRED Senior Writer Lauren Goode to discuss AI and graphics for the new computing revolution on Monday, 29 July, at 2:30 pm MDT.

In addition to Huang and Zuckerberg, notable presenters at the conference include Dr. Dava Newman of MIT Media Lab, Dr. Mark Sagar from Soul Machines, and Manu Prakash with Stanford University. From the Microscopic to the Body, Built Environment, City, World, Cosmos, and even unmeasurable concepts like Imagination, the esteemed SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Speakers will share their perspectives for building our most desirable technological future on all scales and advancing computer graphics and interactive techniques into the next half century. See the full schedule.

Since its inception in 1974 in Boulder, Colorado, SIGGRAPH has been at the forefront of innovation in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The conference has introduced the world to revolutionary demonstrations, such as the “Aspen Movie Map,” a precursor to Google Street View, and one of the first screenings of Pixar’s “Luxo Jr.”, which redefined the art of animation.

SIGGRAPH remains the leading venue for groundbreaking research in computer graphics. Influential publications that have shaped modern visual culture first debuted at this conference, including Ed Catmull’s 1974 paper on texture mapping, Turner Whitted’s 1980 paper on ray-tracing techniques, and James T. Kajiya’s 1986 paper, “The Rendering Equation.” Innovations first showcased at SIGGRAPH are now transforming industries worldwide.

The ACM SIGGRAPH Blog, including an interview with Huang, highlights additional details of the world-renowned conference. It’s not too late to register to attend SIGGRAPH 2024 in person or online, learn more at s2024.SIGGRAPH.org/register.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

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SIGGRAPH 2024 Cultivates the Minds of Tomorrow as the Educator’s Forum Welcomes a Global Community of Educators

The Educator’s Forum aims to inspire those who teach, from K–12 through undergraduate and graduate programs, at the 51st annual conference

DENVER — SIGGRAPH 2024 will bring educators from across the world and all teaching levels together to explore innovative ideas to foster the future of computer graphics and interactive techniques from Sunday, 28 July, to Thursday, 1 August 2024 at the 51st annual conference held at the Colorado Convention Center. The Educator’s Forum will allow those who teach, from K–12 through undergraduate and graduate programs, to engage with a diverse, welcoming, and dedicated global community of educators on a mission to cultivate the minds of tomorrow.

“The idea of the Educator’s Forum was to recognize that education was an important factor in the SIGGRAPH universe and needed to have its own track,” William Joel, SIGGRAPH 2024 Education Chair, said. “The Educator’s Forum started more than five years ago and continues to provide an important avenue where educators and businesses can present material that is specifically relevant to other educators.”

The goal of the Educator’s Forum is to allow teaching professionals to connect with a diverse, welcoming, and dedicated global community of educators to elevate their professional development and discover innovative approaches to education in order to teach for tomorrow. Educators across all levels will be enlightened by imaginative outcomes while engaging in the exchange of new ideas.

SIGGRAPH 2023 ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee Dome. Photo by John Fujii

This year, the Educator’s Forum requested submissions that serve a unique way of teaching complicated subjects or prove groundbreaking curriculums. Those interested in submitting were requested to submit Engaging Education Techniques and Assignments (EETA), peer-reviewed course assignments focusing on computer graphics and interactive techniques. Educators, researchers, and industry professionals were all welcome to submit entries, all of which are designed and tested for classes at any level. After the conference, the accepted submissions will be available for educators to easily search, download, and use in their own classrooms.

An example of panels and sessions in the Educator’s Forum this year includes:

• “Inclusive Community: Accessibility and Neurodiversity in Classroom, Industry, and Academia” — Neurodiversity, accessibility, and inclusive classrooms and workplaces are essential for the success of the individuals affected by various challenges and the entire SIGGRAPH community. This panel will discuss the current state of the issue, different types of accommodations, and helpful ideas to make the learning and working environment more inclusive.
• “Student / Futures: Creative Careers in Animation, Computer Graphics, and Interactive Techniques” — Industry panelists share perspectives and insights for students, educators, and creative professionals who are considering careers in animation, computer graphics, creative technologies, and interactive techniques. Represented industry segments include animation and VFX, computer graphics and information systems, themed entertainment, and interactive educational technologies.
• “Empowering Creativity With Generative AI in Digital Art Education” — Given the significant impact of artificial intelligence on creative processes across various art disciplines, we are dedicated to exploring AI as a creative tool within educational environments. Beyond mere experimentation, our objective is to delve into the outcomes of this integration and its implications for both education and creativity.
• “CG Animation, Neurodiversity, and Autistic College Students” — With 40% of our Animation + VFX students registered with the Office of Disability and Accessibility Services, it is often challenging for students to meet the course requirements in the 3D animation courses. How can we as CG artists and educators do a better job of supporting this large population?

“Educators are not just interested in the latest bells and whistles of the software technology. They want to know, ‘How can I use it in the classroom? How can I work with students with these products? What can it do for me as an educator? What can it do for my students in the classroom? Not in their careers later on, but right now in the classroom,’” Joel noted.

This is where the Educator’s Day comes in. Introduced at SIGGRAPH two years ago, this is a day of sessions that serves as an opportunity for companies to present to educators and features talks geared specifically for educators, going beyond what attendees would find on the exhibit floor. This year, Educator’s Day will be held on Monday, 29 July and includes eight sessions featuring companies from Adobe, NVIDIA, Epic Games, Epic ArtStation, PixelLightEffects, Foundry, SideFX, and Electronic Arts. Click here to see the session schedule.

This year will also feature an Educator’s Day Q&A on Tuesday, 30 July at 2 pm MDT, where companies will sit with the educators and answer any questions about the industry. This will serve as a deep-dive session where topics in the sessions can be explored in further detail. After four days of education focused presentations, attendees are invited to join an invigorating, open discussion on such hot topics as generative AI and neurodiversity in an Educator’s Forum Town Hall on Thursday, 1 August at 2 pm MDT.

“Educators get to meet other educators worldwide who are doing the things they’re doing or, better yet, doing what they would like to do in their courses. Educators come and really get immersed in the world of SIGGRAPH as a whole. I say the world of SIGGRAPH because, for me, people would say the industry. SIGGRAPH is way beyond the industry because there’s a huge portion of what SIGGRAPH does that’s all about education and undergraduate-level research. The world is much larger than just industry, but it opens up the eyes for educators to see what is possible,” Joel added.

Learn more about how SIGGRAPH 2024 is cultivating the minds of tomorrow here and view the full Educator’s Forum program here. ACM SIGGRAPH’s In Good Company series features speakers from various organizations having conversations or giving presentations with and specifically for educators.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

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SIGGRAPH 2024 Shapes the Future of Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques With Games, Immersive Technologies, and Cutting-Edge Technology Demos

The 51st annual conference sets the stage for attendees to tap into their imaginations, pursue creative engagement, and get a glimpse into the immersive future of gaming

DENVER — SIGGRAPH 2024 has pinpointed trends in the computer graphics industry for more than 50 years. From Sunday, 28 July to Thursday, 1 August 2024, the future of computer graphics and interactive techniques driving the multibillion-dollar gaming industry will be front and center at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The 51st annual conference embodies the goals of gaming, as both aim to build new worlds with the minds behind real-time graphics, art, and systems that foster human interactions and spectator experiences.

Few industries have captivated the hearts and minds of people worldwide as much as the video game industry, which boasts 3.32 billion gamers, in the ever-evolving world of technology. Game creators continue to make strides with the latest advancements in graphics and visual technologies to related technologies for interactivity, augmented and mixed realities, and generative artificial intelligence (AI). These innovations will be showcased throughout SIGGRAPH 2024 with many programs that weave gaming into the mix including Talks; Courses like Natalya Tatarchuk’s fan-favorite “Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games Part 1” and “Part 2” which returns with a demonstration of state-of-the-art and production-proven rendering techniques for fast, interactive rendering of complex and engaging virtual worlds of video games; Panels, Appy Hour, the Immersive Pavilion, and Real-Time Live!.

SIGGRAPH2023 Real-Time Live!. Photo by Andreas Psaltis © 2023 ACM SIGGRAPH

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Real-Time Live!, which invites SIGGRAPH 2024 attendees to experience the connectivity and accessibility of real-time applications across industries in a spectacular live showcase. “With Real-Time Live! this year, we branched out and are incorporating a lot of different industries and applications,” Emily Hsu, Real-Time Live! Chair, said. “Our goal is to showcase transformative technology in a variety of forms including game technology, real-time visualization, artist tools, live performances, or as real-world mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR) applications.”

Hsu also commented on the event’s uniqueness, “Real-Time Live! is an incredibly unique and anxiety-inducing showcase specific to SIGGRAPH. There are no slides and no pre-recorded videos. Whatever you are doing has to be run in real time in front of a live audience in six minutes or less. It crosses the whole spectrum of different industries that are doing real-time work. While gaming applications are definitely represented, there are a variety of showcases from universities, well-known companies, and small start-ups.”

A few Real-Time Live! presentations focused on gaming include:

• “MOVIN TRACIN’ : Move Outside the Box” — MOVIN will unveil an innovative, AI-driven, real-time, free-body motion capture technology, utilizing a single LiDAR sensor for accurate 3D movement tracking. This demonstration redefines multiplayer gaming, showcasing seamless integration of dynamic, precise motion capture with a mere 0.1 second latency and automatic calibration, all compacted within MOVIN’s advanced system.
• “Enhancing Narratives with SayMotion’s text-to-3D animation and LLMs” — Deep Motion will make this presentation showcasing SayMotion, a generative AI text-to-3D animation platform that utilizes Large Motion Models and physics simulation to transform text descriptions into realistic 3D human motions for gaming, XR, and interactive media, addressing animation creation challenges with AI Inpainting and prompt optimization using a Large Language Model fine-tuned to motion data.
• “Revolutionizing VFX Production with Real-Time Volumetric Effects” — Zibra AI will present its ZibraVDB compression technology and Zibra Effects real-time simulation tools to demonstrate the capabilities of creating high-end volumetric visual effects in real-time scenarios on standard hardware to enhance game realism and streamline film production workflows.

In a SIGGRAPH Spotlight Podcast, Hsu commented, “We are world builders. We make and create stories, and there’s always going to be a natural part that has to do with storytelling, and sometimes that also means transporting into new worlds. What’s happening in the last several years and into the future is that it’s becoming a little easier, more efficient, and more accessible so we can tell different kinds of stories that haven’t been told before, and that people from anywhere can take technology and mold it and use it to build new worlds.”

As for Real-Time Live!, Hsu noted that it’s a showcase to help provide the audience with a sense of what’s possible. Real-Time Live! was often thought of as the future — SIGGRAPH 2024 proves that real time is now, and it’s everywhere.

With SIGGRAPH 2024 honing in on immersive storytelling, the Immersive Pavilion is another element the conference features. The team behind SIGGRAPH 2024 knows that immersive technologies and interactive techniques enhance how we interact and solve pragmatic needs for everyday life at work and at play. Those who step foot in the Immersive Pavilion experience the evolution of gaming, AR, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), interactive projection mapping, multi-sensory technologies, and more.

“SIGGRAPH prides itself on being on the cutting edge. We always guarantee that everything attendees see, especially anything immersive, has elements they’ve never done and had no experience with before. So, it has that special novelty aspect,” Derek Ham, SIGGRAPH 2024 Immersive Pavilion Chair, said.

“I’m very excited about the creators that are thinking about the future of playing from the audience’s perspective to the players’ perspective. When you look at gaming, you now have this platform where people can watch esports or gamers go at it person versus person, or team versus team. We haven’t seen the immersive nature of that for a long time; it’s usually looking at a laptop or screen. The immersive action of the activities and the content, that’s the next level,” Ham added.

The SIGGRAPH 2024 Immersive Pavilion serves as a place for contributors and participants to engage in critical discourse on the latest interactive breakthroughs and support for hybrid environments. This includes social experiences, games, and artistic expression. The Immersive Pavilion has sought work that reflects the exciting evolution of AR, VR, and MR, particularly in terms of interaction, showing unique features and how they are shaping the future. Eighty submissions came from academic, professional, and independent fronts, and 20 were selected.

A few installations focused on gaming include:

• “MOFA: Multiplayer Onsite Fighting Arena” — Reality Design will present a game framework that uses HoloKit X headsets, exploring the design space of synchronous asymmetric bodily interplay in spontaneous collocated mixed reality. MOFA game prototypes like “The Ghost,” “The Dragon,” and “The Duel,” inspired by fantastic fiction scenarios, demonstrate that the strategic involvement of non-headset-wearers significantly enhances social engagement.
• “Metapunch X: Combing Multidisplay and Exertion Interaction for Watching and Playing E-sports in Multiverse” — The National Taipei University of Technology will present Metapunch X, an encountered-type haptic feedback esports game that integrates exertion interaction in XR with multi display spectating. The game is designed as an asymmetric competition, utilizing an XR head-mounted display and a substitutional reality robot to create an immersive experience to the players and audiences.
• “Reframe: Recording and Editing Character Motion in Virtual Reality” — Autodesk Research will present a live demo of creating lifelike 3D character animations in VR. Attendees will use a novel VR animation authoring interface to record and edit motion. The system utilizes advanced VR tracking to capture full-body motion, facial expressions, and hand gestures, coupled with an approachable intuitive editing interface.

“SIGGRAPH might be the only unique one in this space; it’s like this bubble where it starts here, and then you see where these things go. And if you are the early adopter, you come to SIGGRAPH and follow this content to the more polished form. That’s what I love about the rawness you see at SIGGRAPH,” Ham added.

Learn more about how SIGGRAPH 2024 is shaping the future, building worlds, and pinpointing the trends of gaming with its games-focused programs by checking out the full program.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

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A collection of 3D assets generated by CLAY, showcasing its capabilities in turning human imaginations into their digital forms. Image credit: “CLAY: A Controllable Large-scale Generative Model for Creating High-quality 3D Assets” © 2024 L. Zhang, Wang, Q. Zhang, Qiu, Jiang, ShanghaiTech and Deemos; Pang, Xu, Yu, ShanghaiTech; Yang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Creativity and Innovation at the Intersection of AI, Computer Graphics, and Design

At SIGGRAPH 2024, multi-institutional research teams to showcase their novel work bringing digital characters and environments to life.

DENVER — In the expansive field of computer graphics and interactive techniques, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a major impact, bringing unprecedented realism and efficiency in the digital world. AI has significantly enhanced the capabilities of graphic rendering and animation. Today we are in a new era where generative AI and neural rendering are transforming 2D images into immersive 3D landscapes, and real-time simulations are achieving unprecedented visuals.

At SIGGRAPH 2024, which will be held 28 July–1 August in Denver, novel research — as part of the Technical Papers program — will demonstrate key advances that enable detailed and lifelike animations, once considered the realm of science fiction. This relationship between AI and computer graphics continues to evolve, signaling a future where the digital and real worlds seamlessly converge.

“The impact of generative AI on 3D graphics and interactive techniques is profound, poised to democratize content creation and lower barriers to entry in creative industries. Generative AI can facilitate real-time, personalized experiences in gaming, architecture, and industrial design, revolutionizing fields through procedural content generation and rapid prototyping,” Qixuan (QX) Zhang, project lead of research that will debut at SIGGRAPH 2024, says. QX and his collaborators will present CLAY, a large-scale 3D native generative model that accurately captures complex geometric features and generates realistic textures in a variety of objects. 

“We anticipate a future where generative AI enhances productivity and creativity across professional domains, making advanced 3D content creation and interaction a part of everyday life for a global audience,” QX adds.

Following SIGGRAPH’s 50th conference milestone in 2023, the conference this year will showcase exciting new research fueling the future — advances developed from a core place of imagination and creativity.

As a preview of the Technical Papers program, here is a sampling of three novel methods and their unique approaches incorporating generative AI to the vast field.

Dreaming Up High-Quality, Realistic Images via Text Prompts

Creating high-quality appearances of objects is a critical task in computer graphics because they can significantly improve the realism of rendering in a variety of applications — movies, games, and AR/VR. An international team of researchers from Zhejiang University, Tencent Games-China, and Texas A&M University, have developed DreamMat, a novel text-to-appearance method that generates images consistent with their geometry and environment light. Central to the team’s framework is the geometry- and light-aware diffusion model that can avoid common problems of “baking in” shading effects that create unrealistic looking objects in a virtual environment.

The researchers set out to make this specific artistic task easier and faster with a tool for efficiently creating object appearances such that even novice users can do so with just simple text prompts. In this work, they fine tuned a new light-aware 2D diffusion model to condition on a given lighting environment and generate the shading results on this specific lighting condition. Then, by applying the same environment lighting in the material distillation, DreamMat can generate high-quality PBR (physically based rendering) materials that are not only consistent with the given geometry but also free from any unwanted and unrealistic shading effects.

“DreamMat has significantly lowered the barrier to creating PBR materials for untextured meshes (only using text prompts), enabling the generation of high-quality appearance that can be seamlessly integrated into games and films — a feat previously unattainable with earlier generative techniques,” Xiaogang Jin, lead author and a professor at the State Key Lab of CAD & CG at Zhejiang University, China, says. “The most exciting thing is witnessing the potential for genuine application of AI-generated 3D assets beyond mere display.”

DreamMat’s automatic creation of PBR materials can be imported directly into modern graphics engines such as Blender, GameMaker, or Unity for efficient rendering. In addition to Jin, the team comprises Yuqing Zhang and Zhiyu Xie at Zhejiang University; Yuan Liu from the University of Hong Kong and Tencent Games; Lei Yang, Zhongyuan Liu, Mengzhou Yang, Runze Zhang, Qilong Kou, and Cheng Lin at Tencent Games; and Wenping Wang at Texas A&M University, and they are slated to showcase their work at SIGGRAPH 2024. For more about DreamMat and a video, visit their page.

The team’s geometry- and light-aware diffusion model uses an object’s normal and depth maps as geometry conditions and six predefined materials with a given environment light as lighting conditions. Their model generates images that align with the given geometry and environment light. Image credit: “DreamMat: High-quality PBR Material Generation With Geometry- and Light-aware Diffusion Models” © 2024 Y. Zhang, Xie, Jin, Zhejiang University; Y. Liu, University of Hong Kong and Tencent Games; L. Yang, Z. Liu, M. Yang, R. Zhang, Kou, Lin, Tencent Games; Wang, Texas A&M University

Transforming Realistic 3D Assets, Quickly and Efficiently

In just recent years, the world has witnessed rapid advancements in generative AI across various modalities — text, images, audio, and video. With the public release of ChatGPT and the like, a much wider audience now has a direct connection and firsthand experience with how AI works. But despite significant research achievements in the 3D computer graphics field, industrial adoption has lagged.

In a collaboration between ShanghaiTech University and Deemos Tech-China, researchers set out to better understand the limitations game developers and CG teams are facing with existing 3D generation approaches. What they learned is that the traditional “reconstruction” methods fall short of industry needs. True 3D generative AI “must go beyond mere reconstruction; it must comprehend user requirements, support multitasking, and offer customization options akin to the vibrant 2D generative AI community,” QX, a member of the ShanghaiTech-Deemos team that will be presenting their research at SIGGRAPH 2024, says.

The researchers have developed CLAY, a native 3D generative model with 1.5 billion parameters that accurately captures complex geometric features and generative realistic textures. Trained on a comprehensive 3D dataset, CLAY’s uniqueness, say the researchers, lies in its alignment with the specific needs of the 3D industry — usability being its primary focus and design ability to cater directly to practical applications.

Within a minute, CLAY can generate detailed 3D assets with PBR materials adaptable to various conditions, from text, image to 3D. Their approach denoises 3D data, and the researchers say that when compared to previous similar methods, CLAY generates detailed geometries in seconds while preserving essential geometric features, such as flat surfaces and structural integrity, of multiple objects.

“Looking ahead, we envision generative AI technologies in the 3D field liberating artists from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on creativity and innovation,” QX adds. “We aim to extend 3D generation technologies to everyday applications such as virtual try-ons for online shopping, enhanced creative in the metaverse, and novel gameplay experiences in gaming.”

Working with QX on the CLAY development are collaborators Longwen Zhang, Ziyu Wang, Qiwei Qiu, and Haoran Jiang from ShanghaiTech and Deemos; Anqi Pang, Lan Xu, and Jingyi Yu at ShanghaiTech; and Wei Yang at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The team’s paper and video can be accessed here.

Effortless Character Control and Real-Time Diverse Movement

Real-time character control is the holy grail in computer animation, playing a pivotal role in creating immersive and interactive experiences. Despite significant advances in this area, real-time character control continues to present several key challenges. These include generating visually realistic motions of high quality and diversity, ensuring controllability of the generation, and attaining a delicate balance between computational efficiency and visual realism.

In gaming, for example, consider the non-player characters (NPCs) and how they have been limited to exhibiting monotonous movements due to their pre-programmed reliance on a limited set of animations. These characters often repeat the same motions, lacking individuality and realism.

Indeed, to achieve more dynamic characters carrying out realistic motions in the virtual world, a global team of computer scientists has created a novel computational framework that overcomes these key obstacles. The team, comprising researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the University of Hong Kong, and Tencent AI Lab-China, will present a new character control framework that effectively utilizes motion diffusion probabilistic models to generate high-quality and diverse character animations, responding in real-time to a variety of dynamic user-supplied control signals.

At the core of their method, say the researchers, is a transformer-based Conditional Autoregressive Motion Diffusion Model (CAMDM), which takes as input the character’s historical motion and can generate a range of diverse potential future motions, in real time. Their method can generate seamless transitions between different styles, even in cases where the transition data is absent from the dataset.

Real-time character control powered by CAMDM. Top: Our method produces diverse outputs for character animation even given identical input control signals. Bottom: Our method can generate seamless transitions between different styles, even in cases where the transition data is absent from the motion capture dataset. All are achieved with a single unified model, in real-time. Image credit: “Taming Diffusion Probabilistic Models for Character Control” © 2024 R. Chen, Tan, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Shi, Komura, University of Hong Kong; Huang, X. Chen, Tencent AI Lab

“With this new technique, we’re on the verge of witnessing a more realistic digital world. This world will be populated with thousands of digital humans empowered by our technique, each exhibiting unique features and diverse movements,” Xuelin Chen, project lead of the research and senior researcher at Tencent AI Lab, says. “In this immersive digital world, every digital human is an individual with distinct characteristics, and we can control our own unique virtual characters to navigate and interact with them.”

The team is currently working with industry to incorporate their technique into a video game product, with an expected launch date in late 2024. In future work, they intend to expand their method to be applied to a few key areas, including animation and film and to enhance virtual reality user experiences. At SIGGRAPH this year, Chen will be joined with co-authors and collaborators Rui Chen and Ping Tan from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Mingyi Shi and Taku Komura at University of Hong Kong; and Shaoli Huang, who is also with Tencent AI Lab. For the full paper and video, visit the team’s page.

This research is a small preview of the vast Technical Papers research to be shared at SIGGRAPH 2024. Visit the Technical Papers listing on the full program to discover more generative AI content and beyond.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

The post Creativity and Innovation at the Intersection of AI, Computer Graphics, and Design appeared first on SIGGRAPH 2024.

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Jensen Huang, Dr. Dava Newman, Manu Prakash, and Dr. Mark Sagar Headline the SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Presentations

Keynote speakers will share their perspectives for building our most desirable technological future on all scales and advancing computer graphics and interactive techniques into the next half century.

DENVER — SIGGRAPH 2024, the premier conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques, announces that Jensen Huang, Dr. Dava Newman, Manu Prakash, and Dr. Mark Sagar will headline the Keynote Presentations. From the Microscopic to the Body, Built Environment, City, Planet, Cosmos, and even unmeasurable concepts like Imagination, the esteemed SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Speakers will share their perspectives for building our most desirable technological future on all scales and advancing computer graphics and interactive techniques into the next half century. The 51st annual conference returns to its Colorado roots — the SIGGRAPH concept came to fruition at The University of Colorado in Boulder — from Sunday, 28 July to Thursday, 1 August, 2024, in person at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, with a companion Virtual Access component.

“As SIGGRAPH emphasizes what the conference is and explores new territories, we are investing a lot of energy in bringing a wide array of world-class visionaries and leaders to be our Keynote Speakers,” SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Chair Andres Burbano of the Open University of Catalonia said. “Jensen Huang will talk about the philosophy behind NVIDIA’s transformation from a company working in graphics to being the worldwide motor of artificial intelligence computing. Dr. Mark Sagar will share his expertise as a bioengineer who developed computational models of his work and changed the film industry, and has now brought them to life to impact how we interact in real time with artificial intelligence. Dr. Dava Newman will talk about the impact of computer graphics and interactive techniques in planning and executing interplanetary trips or missions — emphasizing one of Colorado’s largest industries, aerospace. And finally, Manu Prakash will share findings from some of his scientific experimental work in the microscopic domain developing tools that he is also active in implementing.”

Beyond the Illusion of Life
Presented by: Dr. Mark Sagar
Monday, 29 July 2024
9–10:30 am MDT

The essence of animation is creating the illusion of life, convincing the audience that a character is alive and has its own feelings and thoughts. Is it possible to bring an interactive digital character to “life” who can “think,” “feel,” have experiences, and act with volition? What is it, exactly, to think, to feel, to experience? In his keynote, Dr. Mark Sagar will discuss his team’s biologically based approach, where they are developing a virtual nervous system analogous to our own, combining computational models of sensory, cognitive and emotional processes, language, behavior, and motor systems. These systems activate virtual muscles to animate a virtual face and body, sensing, learning, acting, and reacting in real time. The interoperation of these systems in face-to-face and shared interactions is exemplified in projects like BabyX, a simulated toddler which aims to enhance our comprehension of social learning and behavior — but it can also serve as groundwork for achieving human-like cooperation with future artificial intelligence. Dr. Sagar will elaborate how creating the inner life of a character is strongly linked with the “body,” one of the central thematic focuses of the conference.

Bio:
Double-Academy Award winner Dr. Sagar is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Soul Machines and Director of the Laboratory for Animate Technologies at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute. He and his team are bringing technology to life, pioneering the creation of autonomously animated virtual humans with virtual brains and nervous systems — capable of highly expressive face-to-face interaction and real-time learning and emotional response — to create the next generation of human interaction with biologically inspired artificial intelligence. Dr. Sagar has a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Auckland and was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. He previously worked as the special projects supervisor at Weta Digital and Sony Pictures Imageworks and developed technology for the digital characters in blockbusters such “Avatar”, “King Kong”, and “Spiderman 2”. His pioneering work in computer-generated faces was recognized with two consecutive Scientific and Engineering Oscars in 2010 and 2011. Dr. Sagar was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2019 and was named New Zealand Innovator of the Year in 2022.

NVIDIA CEO Fireside Chat: AI and Graphics for the New Computing Revolution
Presented by: Jensen Huang
Monday, 29 July 2024
2:30–3:30 pm MDT

In this fireside chat, NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang sits down with Lauren Goode, senior writer at WIRED, to discuss how accelerated computing and generative AI are transforming industries such as manufacturing and creating new opportunities for innovation and growth. The convergence of AI and advanced computing, from AI PCs to AI factories to digital twins, is driving this transformation. It’s the beginning of a new industrial revolution.

Jensen will speak with Lauren about the impact of robotics and AI in industrial digitization, illustrating how industry sectors are adopting autonomous operations and building city-scale digital twins to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Jensen will also answer some questions from the SIGGRAPH community.

Bio:
Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has served since its inception as president, chief executive officer, and a member of the board of directors. He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and is a recipient of the Semiconductor Industry Association’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award; IEEE Founder’s Medal; the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award; and honorary doctorate degrees from National Chiao Tung University, National Taiwan University, and Oregon State University. Huang has been named the world’s best CEO by The Economist and Harvard Business Review, as well as Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year and one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people. He holds a BSEE degree from Oregon State University and an MSEE degree from Stanford.

Humanity Becoming Interplanetary: Exploring Space for Earth
Presented by: Dr. Dava Newman
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
9–10:30 am MDT

Dr. Dava Newman’s keynote presentation will cover the theme of “Humanity Becoming Interplanetary: Exploring Space for Earth.” Our amazing Webb Space Telescope discoveries to recent space science missions to Pluto and Jupiter, the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, and orbital missions to monitor Spaceship Earth provide a cosmic perspective. Humanity will become interplanetary and find life elsewhere; however, Mars is not “Plan B”. Spaceship Earth, our pale blue dot, is the most magnificent planet for humanity to thrive. Earth is speaking to us — are we listening? A visual, interactive Earth Mission Control is revealed that will help take actions to regenerate Earth’s oceans, land, and atmosphere subsystems. The “overview effect” from space lets us appreciate Earth’s interconnected systems through supercomputer data visualizations and hyper-local narratives of natural disasters with the goal to accelerate collective actions for a healthier future between humanity and our home planet.

Bio:
Dr. Newman is the director of the MIT Media Lab, holds the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics chair at MIT, and is a Harvard–MIT Health Sciences and Technology faculty member. She served as NASA Deputy Administrator (2015–2017). Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate unanimously in April 2015, Dr. Newman was the third woman and first female engineer and scientist to serve in this role. During her tenure, she made significant impact on NASA’s human exploration, specifically developing and articulating the Human Journey to Mars plan, highlighting scientific missions, advocating for transformative aeronautics capabilities, developing and implementing a strategic innovation framework, and advocating for diversity and inclusion for NASA and the nation’s STEM initiatives. Dr. Newman’s research expertise is in aerospace biomedical engineering investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity and AI/ML for the dual challenge of energy and climate. She is a leader in advanced space suit design, astronaut performance, climate modeling and visualization, leadership development, innovation, and space policy. Dr. Newman was the principal investigator on five spaceflight missions.

The Often Unseen World
Presented by: Manu Prakash
Wednesday, 31 July 2024
9–10 a.m. MDT

In Manu Prakash’s keynote presentation, he will take attendees on a “microscopic” journey of the often unseen world — a delight of creatures most beautiful and marvelous with dazzling graphical feats. Come for the science, and stay for the community-enabled discoveries made around the world.

Bio:
Prakash is an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, a Pew Scholar, and the co-inventor of the Foldscope and co-founder of Foldscope Instruments. At Stanford, he runs a curiosity-driven science lab focused on using highly interdisciplinary approaches to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Prakash’s lab is dedicated to inventing, building, and scaling up “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science, including the discovery of the Foldscope, a foldable microscope made mostly of paper. He has a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Master of Science and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Learn more about the SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Speakers by checking out the full program here. For more information about the conference, other programs, and opportunities to experience at SIGGRAPH 2024, or to register to attend in person or online, go to s2024.SIGGRAPH.org/register.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

The post Jensen Huang, Dr. Dava Newman, Manu Prakash, and Dr. Mark Sagar Headline the SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Presentations appeared first on SIGGRAPH 2024.

Press Room:
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SIGGRAPH 2024 Gathers the International Community to Explore Production, Virtual Reality Immersive Storytelling, and a Prestigious Animation Showcase

The 51st annual conference demonstrates advancements in the computer graphics industry across all avenues while sparking inspiration, starting conversations, and looking toward the trends of tomorrow

DENVER — While celebrating more than 50 years of being the world’s leading education experience in the computer graphics industry, SIGGRAPH 2024 understands the value of sparking conversations about the content of the future. With this, the conference, held from Sunday, 28 July to Thursday, 1 August, 2024, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, will feature several opportunities for attendees to get a closer glimpse at the future of the industry’s trends. There will be Production Sessions dedicated to the future of production, exploration of the new age of immersive experiences in the VR Theater, and spotlights of the ingenuity of diverse creators in the Electronic Theater.

The SIGGRAPH 2024 Production Sessions allow attendees to go behind-the-scenes with an international community of production leaders in films, games, VR/MR/XR, and more to explore the challenges faced and opportunities in modern production pipelines. Within these sessions, SIGGRAPH 2024 sought stories highlighting a macro view of behind-the-scenes innovation, creativity, inclusion, and collaboration demonstrated during recent productions. Through 60-minute presentations, leaders from across the industry will showcase their learnings and developments.

“We’re seeing a wide variety of new tools being developed for all sorts of different aspects of production, whether it’s grooming fur and hair or virtual production tools. It’s across the board different workflow improvements that we’re seeing,” Jonathan Nitiparsong, SIGGRAPH 2024 Production Sessions Chair, noted. “SIGGRAPH showcases some of the most cutting-edge tools and interactive techniques that make things better, and Production Sessions are often the first place where people are able to see some of these new technologies and production skills in use,” he added.

Of the 30 submissions received, 10 were selected for this year’s Production Sessions including “Monkeys, Chimps & Gorillas: Wētā FX’s (r)Evolutionary Work with Primates”; “Oozing Hand Crafted 2D Illustration Into a 3D Ninja Turtle World”; “Visual Data Stories for Climate Action: The Making of NASA’s Earth Information Center Public Exhibits”; “Yin and Yang: The Balance of Animation in Kung Fu Panda 4”; and “Pushing the Limits: Crafting an Immersive Mega-Canvas for Phish’s Music Shows at Sphere”.

In addition to this year’s Production Sessions, SIGGRAPH 2024 will offer immersive VR Theater experiences. The VR Theater is a world-class showcase of exemplary virtual reality storytelling and a staple SIGGRAPH program since 2017. The main program will be experienced in a high-end, seated, multi-viewer immersive space, running approximately one hour from start to finish. New this year, participants will enter a mixed reality SIGGRAPH-branded lobby before each experience. SIGGRAPH 2024 aims to give attendees a fresh perspective on innovative, important, and inspiring virtual reality stories through a curated selection of short-form narratives. The experience will feature a diverse array of stories, from a musical journey aboard a space-train to an immersive empathy documentary about losing and regaining sight. It will highlight various intriguing uses of the VR medium for storytelling, including showcasing technical innovations.

“More than any other year, the pieces we’re involving carry more serious topics. I would say it’s a reflection of the world, as well. Art reflects the pulse of the world. For example, one of the pieces we are showcasing is about femicide in Mexico, a problem they are using VR as a medium to really put you in the seat of a woman in Mexico. When creators make a VR experience, it’s very important to ask yourself, ‘Why am I making this into a VR experience and not, let’s say, in a flat medium?’ So, I think these pieces answer that question very clearly,” SIGGRAPH 2024 VR Theater Director Yangos Hadjiyannis said. “I’m glad to see the medium’s evolution in that way. In the early days, I thought, creators would sometimes make experiences to test out the VR space. Now, it’s more like I’m doing this more purposefully considering the best ways to tell a story spatially. We experience our world in 3D and that is starting to be reflected uniquely in this medium, particularly with an emphasis on presence. I think that’s what really makes it unique,” he added. The VR Theater will also be announcing its Best in Show award for immersive experiences during the conference.

This year’s VR Theater will feature pieces including:

• “Spots of Light”: A piece that puts you in the situation of someone who has lost their sight, regained it, and then lost it again. It’s a personal journey of acceptance and hope.
• “Astra”: This mixed reality experience turns your living room into a life-size spaceship that takes you to explore and understand the composition of different materials on different planets.
• “Draw for Change”: A powerful experience about femicide in Mexico, walking in the shoes of a woman in Mexico who is resisting and raising awareness on the problem through beautiful mural work.
• “Traversing the mist”: A poetic journey of discovery of a gay man that takes you with them to the bathhouse, as you discover a deep sense of loneliness and reflection.
• “Emperor”: A spectacular piece about the condition of Aphasia, told in a bigger-than-life way, with intuitive interactions that move the medium forward.

The SIGGRAPH 2024 experience also features an Electronic Theater, which qualifies for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is widely recognized for its groundbreaking contributions from artists, researchers, and innovators around the world. The Electronic Theater once began as an annual showcase of computer graphics advancements. Today, it celebrates computer graphics as a cornerstone of the mainstream mediums of animation, visual effects, gaming, scientific/data visualization, and storytelling.

“Given how much buzz is going around with generative AI, it’s more enhanced. I think when the audience sees the show, they will hopefully appreciate the aesthetic value in choices made to use those tools beyond what is traditionally known as the process of putting text-prompted imagery into a project,” John Kalaigian, SIGGRAPH 2024 Electronic Theater Director, said. “Sometimes, the results could be jarring and very obvious. So I think the most important thing is the caliber of which SIGGRAPH holds the content that it presents is increasingly getting higher.”

Participants were invited to submit their best work for a chance to be featured in this prestigious showcase. An internationally recognized jury reviewed the work and awarded prizes for Best in Show, Best Student Project, and Jury’s Choice, whereas the Audience Choice prize is awarded after the premieres. Previous Best in Show winners have been nominated for and have received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

SIGGRAPH 2024 Electronic Theater awards were presented to:

• Best in Show: “The Art of Weightlessness”
  Moshe Mahler with Carnegie Mellon University
  An animated short film documentary that chronicles the evolution of Artist and Performer, Bill Shannon. Born with a degenerative hip condition, Bill developed new ways to express himself through dance and skateboarding on crutches.
• Best Student Project: “After Grandpa”
  Juliette Michel, Swann Valenza, Florian Gomes Freitas, Axel Sence, and Victoria Leviaux with Ecole MoPA
  Haunted by the terrifying ghost of his Grandpa, Loup, a little boy obsessed with insects, will have to overcome his fear to discover why it came back.
• Jury’s Choice: “Patterns”
  Alex Glawion
  Struck by a barrage of intrusive encounters on his weekly commute, a perceptive traveler struggles to uphold the positive mindset that wards against the ever-lurking grayness.

“We are on the heels of a monumental year in 2023, celebrating the 50th conference. I think there’s still a little sense of celebration in the air but definitely a homecoming of sorts returning back to Colorado not too far from the first conference site in Boulder. The Computer Animation Festival is excited to bring back additional screening opportunities, which we’re calling the Animation Theater Daytime Selects. These will be two independent show reels that will also accompany the main Electronic Theater show,” Kalaigian added.

Learn more about how SIGGRAPH 2024 is an important element in identifying the trends of tomorrow and what participants can expect here. The ACM SIGGRAPH Blog, including an interview with Paul Story, Phillip Leonhardt, Erik Winquist, Aidan Martin, and Kevin Smith to discuss their SIGGRAPH 2024 Production Session “Monkeys, Chimps & Gorillas: Wētā FX’s (r)Evolutionary Work With Primates,” highlights additional details of the Production Sessions, VR Theater, and Electronic Theater programs.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

The post SIGGRAPH 2024 Gathers the International Community to Explore Production, Virtual Reality Immersive Storytelling, and a Prestigious Animation Showcase appeared first on SIGGRAPH 2024.

Press Room:
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SIGGRAPH 2024 Plays Key Role in the Evolution of How Arts and Language Impact the Next Era of Computer Graphics

The 51st annual conference focuses on contemporary media culture with Art Gallery and Art Papers programs, a platform for artists to showcase how media arts, language, design, and technology impact the industry.

DENVER — As SIGGRAPH 2024 celebrates more than 50 years of bringing the world together annually as the world’s leading education experience showcasing the latest in the computer graphics industry, the conference looks toward the next 50 years while featuring findings with the Art Gallery and Art Papers programs. This is where art meets technology, as the advancements of art, language, and contemporary media art will be displayed.

The Art Gallery invites attendees to closely examine contemporary media art culture with varied practices ranging from craft to design to installation, software, hardware, mixed media, sound, and more. This year’s theme, “Beyond Words: Transcending Language,” invites artists to present projects highlighting innovative approaches to language and technology, along with their unique artistic perspectives. The event will take place at the Colorado Convention Center from Sunday, 28 July, to Thursday, 1 August 2024.

“We wanted to rethink the relationship between art, technology, language, and culture — reconsidering it through the latest developments and AI technology, which is becoming more and more dominant in our everyday lives with large language models. And, of course, language is important because it’s the foundation of our entire culture. It shapes how we think and interact with the world,” Dr. Şölen Kiratli, SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Gallery Co-Chair, said. “It’s allowing us to open new windows and critical discussions while giving opportunities for artists to create new expressions, explorations, and experiences,” she added.

This year’s Art Gallery acknowledges that the essence of language is at the heart of human culture. The Art Gallery takes attendees on a captivating journey through the evolution of language technology in creative expression and the broader societal dialogues. SIGGRAPH 2024 recognizes that the harnessing of human language on an unprecedented scale is epitomized by large language models (LLMs), a technological advancement that signifies not only a significant leap in AI capabilities but also a deeper integration of machines into linguistic, visual, and cultural environments.

“We’re looking at language as a technology, both human and machine technology. We aim to get a different sense of the concept beyond the devices we usually put on the market,” Mohu Moruti, SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Gallery Co-Chair, said. “This means making connections to technology through cultural and philosophical means, inviting artists to bring their perceptions of media arts and unique engagement with technology. In other words, transcending limits and boundaries to achieve a diverse yet cohesive media arts representation.”

The SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Gallery takes a comprehensive approach to language that extends beyond verbal communication alone. Language is defined as any structured and symbolic system used to convey meaning, encompassing words, signs, symbols, images, and other nonverbal cues. With this perspective in mind, SIGGRAPH 2024 invited artists whose work spans the realms of art, design, technology, and research to contribute to this crucial exploration with their creative practices. This year, there were 188 submissions from artists. Of these submissions, 12 projects were selected and will be featured in the exhibit.

“We believe that the Art Gallery has a unique position within the conference, which is much needed within this large industry and community. Since art does not have the mission to be a mass commodity, it is less entangled with capitalistic and market-driven agendas. Many of the artworks the jury carefully picked for the Art Gallery are highly critical, some posing uncomfortable questions about the ramifications of the technologies that we create that ultimately shape humanity,” Dr. Kiratli added.

While the Art Gallery serves as an interactive installation, SIGGRAPH Art Papers is the premier venue to publish critical findings within these diverse fields of art practices where they converge on screen, through interactive methods, and within digital, mechanical, or biological interfaces. Accepted papers are published in The Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (PACMCGIT).

The Art Papers critically explore contemporary media art culture, spanning practices from craft to mixed-media and algorithmically generated content. As we transition from visual to acoustic spaces, new methods and questions are essential to understand the impact of algorithmic advancements on media art. This program serves as the premier venue for publishing insights into how these diverse practices intersect and evolve within digital, mechanical, and biological interfaces, under the constraints of our networked, planetary environment.

Please find more information about SIGGRAPH 2024 here. The ACM SIGGRAPH Blog and SIGGRAPH Spotlight Podcast, including interviews with Dr. Kiratli and Moruti as well as SIGGRAPH 2024 Art Papers Chair August Black, highlight additional details of the Art Gallery and Art Papers programs.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

The post SIGGRAPH 2024 Plays Key Role in the Evolution of How Arts and Language Impact the Next Era of Computer Graphics appeared first on SIGGRAPH 2024.

Press Room:
s2024.siggraph.org/for-the-press  

New Initiative SIGGRAPH for Peace Leads the Global Community in Celebrating Digital Innovation to Build a Better World With Technology

The 51st annual conference places a special emphasis on providing new forms of sustainable impact for society and business across all channels with a special event for attendees on 29 July featuring an amazing lineup of guests and contributors — as well as an International Pavilion.

DENVER —For the past 50 years, SIGGRAPH has brought together the global computer graphics community. This year, the conference, which will take place in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center from Sunday, 28 July, to Thursday, 1 August, 2024, will focus on a new initiative featuring graphics’ global impact.

For the first time since its inception, SIGGRAPH for Peace welcomes an amazing lineup of guests and contributors for a unique, one-hour session to discuss new perspectives, meet with world-leading personalities, and learn from real-life cases. Taking place on Monday, 29 July, this event is dedicated to all SIGGRAPH participants, in addition to the International Pavilion, with the hopes of inspiring attendees to enhance their potential and get involved in new projects to build a better world.

“Computer graphics and interactive techniques reveals major perspectives of impact on citizens, business, and the planet. SIGGRAPH opens a new opportunity to rethink digital innovation frameworks to reach this impact,” Nicolas Henchoz, SIGGRAPH 2024 Global Diplomat and Director of EPFL+ECAL Lab in Switzerland, said. “Overspecialization has led to tech-driven innovation, addressing the identified problems and business opportunities next door. It’s time to think more about the field of application with large and sustainable needs, like environment, health, and peace, and also to include human perception and cultural dimension to foster adoption,” he added.

SIGGRAPH for Peace is a unique event open to all SIGGRAPH participants, including engineers, exhibitors, artists, and visitors. Attendees will discover how the world of computer graphics can foster new solutions for a better future with a panel discussion featuring a wide range of prestigious panelists. These panelists include Yves Daccord, CEO of the International Red Cross (2010-2020) and current chairman of Principles for Peace; Yannis Ioannidis, ACM President and professor of informatics and telecom at University of Athens; Andres Burbano, SIGGRAPH 2024 Conference Chair; and Dr. Béatrice Harlev (Hasler), XR researcher and pioneer in VR-based conflict resolution. In addition to panelists, SIGGRAPH for Peace features exclusive audiovisual contributions from experts, including Moon Ribas, artist and co-founder of the Cyborg.org Foundation, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Columbia University faculty, former Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations, President of the International Crisis Group.

“It’s a new initiative. We hope to create awareness about the amazing potential and induce a movement with new ambassadors and actors. We introduce SIGGRAPH for health, SIGGRAPH for environment, and SIGGRAPH for Peace. We have decided to focus on peace because it’s an urgent need. Also, many people barely imagine what is possible here with our disciplines. Let’s foster business for peace. We will show some very pragmatic examples and actors on the ground to emphasize this potential,” Henchoz said of the hope and impact SIGGRAPH for Peace will instill in attendees, which hailed from 78 countries on six continents in 2023.

In addition to SIGGRAPH for Peace, there is an International Pavilion in the SIGGRAPH 2024 Exhibition, where guests will discover a welcoming environment inclusive of representatives from several countries. At the center of this pavilion, attendees will discover and interact with the Open Books Installation from the EPFL+ECAL Lab, the design research center of the EPFL and the Photo Elysée Museum in Switzerland. They can delve into exceptional photobook collections and jump between books and visual sequences thanks to interaction design research and AI tools. This installation features a special book selection curated specifically for SIGGRAPH 2024 by the museum’s curator, covering peace, conflict, health, and environment — all core topics of the Global Diplomat’s initiative. The project is the result of a two-year research collaboration involving designers, engineers, curators, and psychologists.

“SIGGRAPH has been very effective in the scientific, technological, and artistic dimensions. It’s an international reference. It’s confirmed this year with a spectacular increase in contributions. That said, the overspecialization of science, art, and technology has simultaneously created silos. Some other disciplines, in health or the environment, may not be aware of how SIGGRAPH can help them more easily share their stories and advancements with computer graphics and interactive techniques,” Henchoz noted. “SIGGRAPH has a responsibility to bring its leading expertise and competencies to other domains and simultaneously understand how it can support these domains. When you think about the potential in health, environment, and peace, it’s so exciting! It combines benefits for all of us,” he concluded.

Please find more information about SIGGRAPH 2024 here. The ACM SIGGRAPH Blog highlights additional details of the annual conference.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

The post New Initiative SIGGRAPH for Peace Leads the Global Community in Celebrating Digital Innovation to Build a Better World With Technology appeared first on SIGGRAPH 2024.

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SIGGRAPH 2024 Sets the Stage for the Future of Computer Graphics and Beyond With Its Student Volunteer Program

The 51st annual conference creates opportunities for 350+ diverse, inclusive, motivated students and young professionals.

DENVER — SIGGRAPH 2024, the world’s leading annual educational experience showcasing the latest in the computer graphics industry, will take place in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center from Sunday, 28 July to Thursday, 1 August, 2024. As a leading educational experience, SIGGRAPH takes great pride in the opportunities created each year for students and young professionals through its Student Volunteer program. Student Volunteers are at the core of the SIGGRAPH conference, as it’s recognized they are the key to the next generation of computer graphics and interactive techniques. More than 350 Student Volunteers will participate in this year’s conference.

Student Volunteers gain valuable insight into the world of computer graphics, which includes innovation and technological developments in the fields of animation, visualization, imaging, and art. The Student Volunteer program provides opportunities to meet and learn from professionals, creators, educators, visionaries, and fellow students. Students 18 or older enrolled full-time in high school, undergraduate, or graduate school are encouraged to apply. Many Student Volunteers have progressed to become SIGGRAPH Program and Conference Chairs. They have also secured coveted positions at leading companies in the industry, from Disney/Pixar, Amazon, Microsoft, universities, international research firms, and more.

“There are several different perks and benefits to being a SIGGRAPH volunteer. You get a Full Conference pass and networking opportunities. We partner with companies — from Pixar to Foundry — to host special sessions for our volunteers. We also have the S3 MentorMe Program, which allows students to get resume and portfolio reviews while connecting with a mentor. We can give them training and mentorship, and they can make connections that last for a lifetime,” Gabrielle Robinson, SIGGRAPH 2024 Student Volunteer Chair, said.

Robinson discovered SIGGRAPH’s Student Volunteer program in 2018, as her college had a club for SIGGRAPH. It was there that she learned about the conference and the perks of volunteering during the annual event. She officially became a Student Volunteer in 2019. “It was an amazing experience and it’s eye-opening to be at a conference like this, whether volunteering or attending. It’s life-changing professionally because you can network. I met people in my first year that I still communicate with now and made lifelong friendships,” Robinson said about her experience as a Student Volunteer.

Robinson quickly advanced in her roles at the conference. She was a SIGGRAPH Team Leader the following year, and in 2022, she interviewed for the subcommittee role. She started serving on the board last year. SIGGRAPH Team Leaders are expected to volunteer about 60 hours to provide operational and logistical support for pre-conference shifts or during the main event. Team Leader responsibilities include assigning shifts, addressing on-site questions from participants, and supervising Student Volunteers. Student Volunteers commit to volunteering about 25 hours to provide support. In exchange for their service and enthusiasm, Student Leaders and Team Leaders receive a complete conference registration pass, networking opportunities, and exclusive Student Volunteer-only benefits. All opportunities within SIGGRAPH’s Student Volunteer program allow room to advance and thrive within the community.

With Robinson’s experience with the program, she advises volunteers, “Remember to have fun. Do your research, be prepared, and bring your business cards. I remember that, in my first year, I brought resumes and business cards with me for the SIGGRAPH Job Fair. This is your playground to make friends.”

The SIGGRAPH Job Fair, held each year, takes place 30 July and 31 July from 10 am to 6 pm. It allows attendees to connect with seasoned professionals, discover opportunities, and attend roundtable sessions to learn essential skills, tips, and tricks for developing and navigating their career paths. Robinson’s career path has taken her to secure a role at Steamroller Animation studio based in Mount Dora, Florida, where she serves as the team’s production manager for Fortnite.

Please find more information about the SIGGRAPH 2024 Student Volunteer program here. The ACM SIGGRAPH Blog features in-depth interviews about SIGGRAPH 2024 and past Student Volunteers and their conference experiences.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2024

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2024, the 51st annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 28 July–1 August at the Colorado Convention Center, along with a virtual access option.

The post SIGGRAPH 2024 Sets the Stage for the Future of Computer Graphics and Beyond With Its Student Volunteer Program appeared first on SIGGRAPH 2024.