CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

ACM SIGGRAPH is a volunteer-driven organization, and the SIGGRAPH conference is a volunteer-driven conference. We welcome motivated and enthusiastic people who enjoy helping others, working with exceptional colleagues, and contributing to the the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques

The 37th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques- in Los Angeles, CA (July 25-29, 2010)

If you are interested in becoming a Student Volunteer, please register here: (deadline: 15 February, 2010)www.siggraph.org/s2010/call_for_volunteers/student_volunteers/index

SIGGRAPH2010: The people behind the pixels

Every year, students from all over the world visit the SIGGRAPH conference.Here’s what one of them had to say about the experience:

“SIGGRAPH was very fun and exciting. This was the very first time I have goneto a convention for computer graphics and I am happy to say that it exceeded myexpectations by far. I loved the exhibitions, galleries, and the sandbox along with all thespecial speakers and talks.

The exhibitions were wonderful. First off there was free stuff and who doesn’tlove free stuff, but it also taught me a lot about some of the companies and what theyhave to offer. In addition, the exhibitions for colleges were good to help me see whatcolleges are good for computer graphics and which ones I like. I also found out thatPixar gives the best free stuff and that they’re an awesome company.

For example, one emerging technology was an easy to make recorder thatplayed, stopped, and turned the volume of music up and down just from the differentsounds of different patterns of scratching on the table. If you scratched a circle on thetable it would recognize the sound and you would be able to assign that sound to play orstop music, so whenever you scratched a circle on the table the music would either stopor play music.

The sandbox was superb. It was a great way for me to actually test out newprograms that I had never experienced or even heard of before. One program that Ithought was very fun was Z-brush, which I had never heard of before. In addition, Ifound an animation program that made the whole taking shot after shot a lot easier. Notonly that but I found out that you can download that very program of the internet for free.

I had a wonderful time at SIGGRAPH, and am glad that I decided to go. Withall the new technologies, speeches, and plain technologies that I had never heard of,SIGGRAPH blew my mind a way. Overall SIGGRAPH was a great experience andwould love to someday maybe go again.”

The gallery I liked the most was probably the emerging technologies. It was great to see brand new technologies that were cool and amazing, yet at the same time simple.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

ACM SIGGRAPH is a volunteer-driven organization, and the SIGGRAPH conference is a volunteer-driven conference. We welcome motivated and enthusiastic people who enjoy helping others, working with exceptional colleagues, and contributing to the the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques

The 37th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques- in Los Angeles, CA (July 25-29, 2010)

If you are interested in becoming a Student Volunteer, please register here: (deadline: 15 February, 2010)www.siggraph.org/s2010/call_for_volunteers/student_volunteers/index

SIGGRAPH2010: The people behind the pixels

Every year, students from all over the world visit the SIGGRAPH conference.Here’s what one of them had to say about the experience:

“Walking through hallways of technology, I was very surprised to find how willingpeople were to help me understand the methods in which everything worked. They reallymade the effort to explain the extremely advanced technologies in a way that made senseto me. I saw virtual reality systems, interactive and 3D holograms, fabrics with animatedink, revolutionary video games, and countless other gadgets of the future. The best partabout this, however, was that not only did I learn about and see this technology, but I wasalso able to have a hands-on experience with it.

I had one particularly good experience with a group who had created a touchbasedsystem of controls for every electronic appliance in a living-room-style set up. The touch controls for this room were all within a coffee table in front of a comfortable couch. To control each device in the room, I was told simply to touch.

... all on this remarkable coffee table. And if some trash lay somewhere in the living room set up, I could touch the image of the vacuum cleaner, drag a path to the site of the trash, and away it would go.

I listened to several speakers introduce their projects and show what they broughtto the table. I found Electronic Arts’ presentation on their new boxing videogame FightNight Round 4 very interesting, as it featured a revolutionary new physics engine thattruly made the in-game action seem real.

The diversity of technology demonstrated at Siggraph made it an incredible eventto be a part of. With big name exhibition booths from companies such as Google, Intel,and Autodesk, motion capture studios and 3D printers open to use by visitors, and digitalartwork created by talented individuals, unbelievable levels of ingenuity filled every hallof the convention center. To think about the mind blowing ways that the developingtechnology I witnessed is revolutionizing the entertainment world and affecting so manylives amazes me. I am so glad to have been a part of the 2009 Siggraph experience, for itwill certainly not be one I will forget.”

I could turn on the TV by tapping it on the table-screen, dim the lights by sliding my finger along them, open a folder of videos and play one on the TV in front of me by dragging one to the TV, and do the same with pictures in the picture frames...

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

ACM SIGGRAPH is a volunteer-driven organization, and the SIGGRAPH conference is a volunteer-driven conference. We welcome motivated and enthusiastic people who enjoy helping others, working with exceptional colleagues, and contributing to the the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques

The 37th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques- in Los Angeles, CA (July 25-29, 2010)

If you are interested in becoming a Student Volunteer, please register here: (deadline: 15 February, 2010)www.siggraph.org/s2010/call_for_volunteers/student_volunteers/index

SIGGRAPH2010: The people behind the pixels

Every year, students from all over the world visit the SIGGRAPH conference.Here’s what one of them had to say about the experience:

“On my first day at the New Orleans Convention Center, I was in awe. I wasshown around by a mentor that said that she had previously worked on many animatedfilms, such as The Hunchback of Notré Dame where she animated the special effects. Shetook me to see the emerging technologies and open studio.

Most of the emerging technologies shown at the conference were pretty amazingsuch as the hologram that you could touch, the vibration feedback umbrella, the table thatyou could program to control the whole room at the touch of your fingertips, theholographic teleconference which projected your face in 3-d and the virtual reality room.However there were some new technologies that I couldn’t help but think to myself,“What in the world could you use it for other than maybe computer games?”

They also had a table set up for me to make stop motion animations, and they had a motion capture set up with people moving the characters in real time.

The keynote speakers’ presentations that I got to listen to at the conference werevery impressive. Will Wright, who is known for creating innovative games like SimCityand Spore, gave a talk about how we see the world and how the entertainment industrycan work with that perception. Another talk I thoroughly enjoyed was a talk by PeterSohn who is a professional animator at Pixar. He directed a short film called PartlyCloudy and spoke about the story behind the idea and some of the techniques used tomake it.

Some of the booths in the exhibition hall that I found interesting were from themotion capture companies, 3-d movie studios, 3-d screen companies and 3-d printingcompanies. At Alias’ booth they talked about the newest version of Maya and at Pixar’sbooth had their fantastic program Renderman on sale which drew a crowd and very longline. If I were to go again, I would set up a personal schedule so that I could stretch thewhole experience of the exhibition hall out over four days.”

The open studio was also pretty neat. I got to try out a Wacom tablet with Photoshop and Z-brush. I also used a 3-d printer to make my 3-d character into a small plastic figure.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

ACM SIGGRAPH is a volunteer-driven organization, and the SIGGRAPH conference is a volunteer-driven conference. We welcome motivated and enthusiastic people who enjoy helping others, working with exceptional colleagues, and contributing to the the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques

The 37th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques- in Los Angeles, CA (July 25-29, 2010)

If you are interested in becoming a Student Volunteer, please register here: (deadline: 15 February, 2010)www.siggraph.org/s2010/call_for_volunteers/student_volunteers/index

SIGGRAPH2010: The people behind the pixels

Every year, students from all over the world visit the SIGGRAPH conference.Here’s what one of them had to say about the experience:

“My first encounter with a fellow Siggraph attendee was on the sidewalk of theconvention center. It was a young man with a red vest drawing a beautiful welcome signin chalk on the sidewalk. His energy as he worked was contagious and soon I could notwait to go inside. Little did I know what strange and wonderful things awaited me. As excite-ment mounted we set off to explore the new and exhilarating universe called Siggraph.

We followed some signs to “emerging technologies” in hopes to top theamazement we had just encountered. We stumbled into room after room with each roomopening new doors into our minds and expanding our definition of the future.

One of my personal favorites as a large interactive floor that the creators explained to me iscurrently being used at a university for teaching purposes. This floor tracks movementwith a wand held in the participant’s hand. With this technology they were able to explainphysics, which I have never taken, to me in visual terms. They explained to me that theyalso work with special education children to help them recognize each other and formsocial relationships with one another. It was a very impressive and highly applicabletechnology.

If the emerging technologies are our future then the generative fabrications are our paralleled universe. One step into any of the rooms and you are in an alien world strange and unknown. There were giant plastic sculptures that responded our movement as we walked through the confusion of plastic fern-like arms and feelers of this tremendous plastic beat. There was a miniature world that responded to your interactions such as blowing to create a windstorm that erased the landscape and covering up the light source to transform the world into a nighttime wonder world. There were also buzzing glass tubes that derive their song from strands of human hair as well as breathing fabric, and I don’t mean cotton.

To sum up my experiences I can say this about Siggraph; it opens up your mindand eyes to a whole new world of possibilities and achievements. I was amazed andenchanted throughout my whole experience and I cannot wait to see that the future holds.”

We played with holographs that we could feel; walked on wooden boards that felt like ice, saw semivitual games that respond to eye-movement, and even robots that fold clothes.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

ACM SIGGRAPH is a volunteer-driven organization, and the SIGGRAPH conference is a volunteer-driven conference. We welcome motivated and enthusiastic people who enjoy helping others, working with exceptional colleagues, and contributing to the the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques

The 37th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques- in Los Angeles, CA (July 25-29, 2010)

If you are interested in becoming a Student Volunteer, please register here: (deadline: 15 February, 2010)www.siggraph.org/s2010/call_for_volunteers/student_volunteers/index

SIGGRAPH2010: The people behind the pixels

Every year, students from all over the world visit the SIGGRAPH conference.Here’s what one of them had to say about the experience:

“When I arrived on Monday morning I was surprised by how many people werethere. I had expected a crowd, but not thousands of people. I immediately noticed avariety of languages being spoken. It had never really occurred to me before thatanimation and computers was such a worldwide phenomenon. I was also surprised thatmost of the people there were actually in the industry, networking and communicating. My first impression of SIGGRAPH was that it was a just a big family, a place where peoplewith the same interests got together to help each other out and to show each other newways to solve industry wide problems.

My first day was mostly spent wandering around and getting a feel of theConvention Center. Even though I’ve lived in New Orleans my entire life I had actuallynever been inside.

Especially the fabric with invisible ink, just think of all the cool fashion ideas that can beaccomplished with that. While I was up there I ran into someone I really admire, JohnnyLee. He revolutionized what could be done with the Wii-mote and it’s capabilities inmotion tracking. He was very nice and we talked for a short while. It was really amazinghow such prominent people in the industry were just nonchalantly walking around thebuilding readily available to talk to.

I was very excited for Tuesday, because that was the day that one of my idols,Will Wright, creator of the Sims, was speaking. I found his talk on how we perceivethings very interesting and it gave me a lot to think about in terms of what work a gamedesigner has to do and how they have to think. Tuesday was also they day that the mainfloor opened. I was happy to see many of my favorite companies there such as, PIXAR, Dream-Works, Anime Studio, Google, and Autodesk. I went to these companies first but I eventually found myself looking at companies that I had no idea existed.

SIGGRAPH was an amazing experience and I would like to thank you andeveryone else that made my attendance possible.”

I went to the 3rd floor to see Emerging Technologies and had my mind ripped apart. I can’t wait for many of those products to come out on the market.