SIGGRAPH Asia Presents: A Procedural Perspective: FX in Live Action and Featured Animation by Craig Halperin
Supported by the Media Development Authority of Singapore, SIGGRAPH Asia is proud to present an opportunity to get up close and personal with Craig "Xray" Halperin.
Craig Halperin hopes to entertain as much as educate with an opinionated presentation on his personal professional journey. Beginning with an explanation of his background and how he ended up with a career in visual effects through a series of fortunate accidents, he talks about what it's like to live in Los Angeles and work on blockbuster films at major visual effects studios. He presents stories about projects he has worked on and break down some of the techniques used in films such as "Titanic," "X-Men 2," "The Sum of All Fears," "Bee Movie," "Kung-Fu Panda," and the upcoming "A Christmas Carol." He reviews the changes he's seen in the industry, both from the technological and creative side of things.
While some material may be of a technical nature, the talk is meant to be accessible to anyone with an interest in computer graphics. Students of computer graphics, computer graphics professionals, and people interested in a behind-the-scenes look at visual effects for live-action and animated feature films will enjoy this presentation.
Topics include:
Background
· Inspiration
· Chronology
Procedural approaches to FX animation
· "X-Men 2" cyclops optic force blast
· Armageddon meteors
· Cadillac Turbulence commercial
Compositing for visual effects
· Red Corner - rebuilding locations in China
· "What Dreams May Come" - Blurry guy effect
Three techniques for crowd animation
· Sprite-based system as used on "Titanic"
· DreamWorks Mob system used on "Bee Movie" and "Kung-Fu Panda"
· Massive crowd animation software
The talk concludes with a very special look behind the scenes at the motion capture process used by ImageMovers Digital to capture performances for the upcoming Disney animated feature "A Christmas Carol" directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Monday, 22 September: Jakarta
2 - 4 pm
Blitz Megaplex, Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, 8th floor, Jalan M.H. Thamrin No. 1
Registration contacts:
Digital Studio College
Indah: indah (at) digitalstudio.co.id and Fitria: fitria (at) digitalstudio.co.id
Wednesday, 24 September: Singapore
7 - 9 pm
Nanyang Polytechnic, LTM-1, Block M, 180 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, Singapore 569830
Registration contact:
Cecilia Ow: cecilia_ow (at) siggraph.org
Thursday, 25 September: Bangkok
1.30 - 5.30 pm
Thailand Knowledge Park, 8th floor Central World Plaza Zone D, 4 Rajdamri Road, Pathumwan
Registration contacts:
Expolink
Rattikon: rattikon (at) expolink.net or Ratchada: ratchada (at) expolink.net
Paul Debevec
21 July 2008: Paul Debevec in Singapore
22 July 2008: Paul Debevec in Kuala Lumpur
23 July 2008: Paul Debevec in Bangkok
28 July 2008: Paul Debevec in Sydney
29 July 2008: Paul Debevec in Adelaide
30 July 2008: Paul Debevec in Perth
SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 presents a series of provocative, revealing presentations by Paul Debevec, Associate Director of Graphics Research at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies. His talk, "New Techniques for Acquiring, Rendering, and Displaying Human Performances," addresses several important topics in animation and visual effects:
- Acquiring, rendering, and displaying photoreal models of people, objects and dynamic performances (techniques used to create virtual backgrounds for "The Matrix."
- Image-based lighting techniques for photorealistic compositing and reflectance acquisition techniques (which have been used to create realistic digital actors in films such as "Spiderman 2" and "Superman Returns").
- Describing image-based relighting with free-viewpoint video to capture and render full-body performances and new 3D face-scanning processes that capture high-resolution skin detail.
- Investigating new 3D display that leverages 5,000-frames-per-second video projection to show auto-stereoscopic, interactive 3D imagery to any number of viewers simultaneously.
Paul Debevec received ACM SIGGRAPH's Significant New Researcher Award in 2001 and chaired the SIGGRAPH 2007 Computer Animation Festival. He is also a member of the Computer Animation Festival jury for SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 conference.
Vibeke Sorensen
Vibeke Sorensen presents three talks in the Asia-Pacific region. Prof. Sorenson is an artist and teacher working in digital multimedia and animation, interactive architectural installation, and networked visual-music performance. Her work in experimental new media spans three decades, and has been published and exhibited worldwide, including in books, galleries, museums, conferences, performances, film festivals, on cable and broadcast television, and the internet. She was also the Programme Chair for the SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery: Global Eyes.
26 May 2008: Vibeke Sorenson in Singapore
