Los Angeles is a town where reality is a reinvented on a daily basis. Even so the exhibits, talks and media presented at SIGGRAPH 2008 pushed the limits of perceived reality with a provocative theme exhorting participants to “Evolve.” However the almost 30,000 graphics and robotics researchers, entertainment industry representatives, educators, programmers, artists and students from 87 countries who attended the 35th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques held at the Los Angeles Convention Center August 11-15, 2008 appeared to be mostly human. Other already-evolved types of attendees such as Quasi the Robot were clearly distinguishable, which may not be the case in the future.

This rich atmospheric still image is from “Nature Tzu-jan” by Ari Rubenstein, Curv Studios.

As the field of computer graphics has advanced over the last quarter of a century the simulation of reality has come into its own as an art form. SIGGRAPH 2008 artists and programmers presented computer graphics imagery that embodied inherent aspects of the medium such as exposed wire frame underpinnings and subtle textures, just as the qualities of paint, ink, stone and clay have always been used to express thoughts, feelings and ideas.

The graphic icon that was used on posters and signage throughout SIGGRAPH is a 3D holographic, machine-like image entitled “Animation Mother” by Meats Meier. The being appears human-like and yet is composed of distinctly recognizable computer animation elements.

The SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival featured a sensory cornucopia of screenings representing a wide range of media examples from all over the world. The event was hosted by Pixar Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Lucasfilm in the state-of-the-art NOKIA Theater.

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Ed Catmull, President, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, opened the conference with a look back over his pioneering career in managing work groups who were responsible for creating groundbreaking full-length animated films such as “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo.”

RenderMan® is a Pixar high quality rendering product used for making feature films that was collaboratively developed by engaging a community of digital effects and computer graphics companies. Catmull said, “It has been a standard for 20 years.” He continued, “We set a complexity goal that we thought was impossible and have far exceeded our goals.” The success of the Renderman® development process demonstrated the benefits of open sharing and decision-making.

There is a lot of pressure to ‘get it right the first time’ when making feature films because mistakes are so expensive. Production managers are sometimes seen as a roadblock to artists and programmers who are actively involved in creative processes. Catmull emphasized that communication in a creative environment should happen between anybody at anytime. Catmull believes that balancing this complex work culture was made easier because early animation teams believed that they were making history.

On the heels of Catmull’s talk the Walt Disney Company announced that they will open a research and development lab at Carnegie Mellon University to engage top technology for its theme parks, television networks and animation studios. The Disney Research Pittsburgh Lab is scheduled to open this fall.

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This is a computer rendering of an ancient Roman market area from the Rome 1.0 model that visitors were invited to ‘walk through’ at the Rome Reborn exhibit booth.

Of particular interest to those interested in new ways to interact with complex data was the Rome Reborn multimedia exhibit at SIGGRAPH. The exhibit was the result of an international collaboration led by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia that includes industry partner IBM, and the German Archeological Institute, the Universite de Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, the Universite de Caen, the Politecnico di Milan and UCLA. These rich data sets (Rome 1.0 and Rome 2.0) depict Rome as it might have appeared in A.D. 320. The models includes hills, valleys and water features of the city where over one million people lived and worked in 7,000 located and identified buildings. Significant architectural, political and social structures and monuments are represented in great detail.

The exhibit was divided into several sections where each of the partners demonstrated devices and technology that allowed viewers to participate in the life of ancient Rome in new ways. Comparative hand-held walking tour devices, large scale viewing screens, three dimensional depictions, and interactive displays are all ways that this “data” can be experienced. Creators of Rome Reborn believe that this model is an accurate representation of what a visit to the city would have been like during the time of Constantine the Great.

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Computer and Robotics Professor Takeo Kanade, who is also the Director of the Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center at Carnegie Mellon gave the final keynote of the conference and looked to a balanced future where robots and machines would provide humans with just enough assistance to improve their lives, but not take over. Most SIGGRAPH attendees that I spoke with were overwhelmed by the volume and variety of information that was packed into a few action-packed days, but as they say, that’s entertainment. And as Kanade concluded, this field is fun.