Features:
ANIMATION, GRAPHICS DRAW THOUSANDS TO LOS ANGELES SHOW
by Tim Curns, Editor
Last week, members of the entertainment, digital effects and gaming industries
convened to showcase new technology at the 31st annual SIGGRAPH trade show in
Los Angeles. Over 230 vendors sought to amaze the 25,000 attendees with
impressive graphics and animation designs, as well as innovative products that
represented the growing importance of graphics in today's world.
Advances in video game graphics and film industry animation dominated the show
floor. Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) was represented at SIGGRAPH 2004 --
with panels, sketches, courses, vendor-related demos, an exhibitor booth and a
piece at the Electronic Theater. Likewise, Pixar demonstrated the latest
advancements to RenderMan Artist tools, Pixar's suite of tools designed to
bring the full power of RenderMan to a production facility.
Big news came from AMD when the company announced that AMD Opteron CPU based
servers and workstations are being used in Star Wars' Episode III: Revenge of
the Sith. AMD also caught attention by showcasing 3D animation tools and
motion capture devices.
Other vendors catered to the individual. Apple released "Motion" - the motion
graphics package with real-time previews, procedural behavior animation and
Final Cut Pro HD integration. And Wacom showcased its newest tablets,
allowing graphic designers to draw and edit images directly on their
computers.
SIGGRAPH also put on an Electronic Theater show, which allowed attendees to
see some of today's top animation at work. 30 short (1-10 minutes) animated
films were shown - some comedic, others more dramatic. The technology involved
in movies like Spiderman 2, Van Helsing, and the Matrix was deconstructed,
while other shorts told mini-stories. Each movie enticed applause from the
excited audience.
Perhaps most interesting of all was SIGGRAPH's "Emerging Technology" hall.
This large, dark room held a variety of technological advancements including a
"Circular Floor" installation. This involved a locomotion interface using a
group of movable floors. The movable floors employ a holonomic mechanism that
achieves omni-directional motion. The moving floors allow users to walk in
random directions in a virtual environment without actual moving from their
spot.
"Swimming Across the Pacific" was also featured in the hall. This involved
strapping a user into an elaborate hanging contraption to simulate free
movement. The user wears a virtual reality headset to simulate a swim across
the ocean.
Most of the data-intensive technology in the hall is hoped to advance
endeavors in entertainment, sports, and/or educational research. Attendees had
a chance to play with some of the installations as well.
Though attendees came from all walks of life, the majority were nonetheless
impressed with the technology unveiled at SIGGRAPH. Gabriel C. Lander, a
computational biology graduate student at Scripps Research Institute in La
Jolla, California, commented on the ways in which graphics are being used to
advance scientific research:
"I am certainly happy to see that many of these computer graphics companies
are looking past Hollywood and into possible applications in biological
science. These graphical tools can be used for much more than the creation of
pretty pictures; they can be incredible facets for use in academic research
and teaching," said Lander. "Most people wouldn't know it, but the manner in
which a T4 Bacteriophage infects E. Coli bacteria is much more violent and
sinister than any alien on the movie screen today."
Paul Marsh, Web developer for the NFL's New York Jets, was equally impressed
with SIGGRAPH. "The gallery was a sight to behold; certainly some of those
projects are enough to remind some of us why we majored in computer science,"
Marsh stated.
SIGGRAPH began as an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
special interest group. The name stands for Special Interest Group on computer
Graphics. It will be held next year in Los Angeles as well.
http://www.siggraph.org/
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