Panels

Registration Categories

Full Conference

Hours

Sunday, 7 August
Monday, 8 August

3:45 - 5:15 pm
9 - 10:30 am
3:45 - 5:15 pm

Panels are moderated discussions on important topics, with expert panelists chosen by the organizers to provide a wide range of perspectives. Panels have long been an important part of the annual SIGGRAPH conference because they provide a forum for the community to share experiences, opinions, insights, speculation, disagreement, controversy, and audience interaction with the leading experts in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

General Submissions Chair
Mark Elendt
Side Effects Software Inc.

Education Director
Mike Bailey
Oregon State University

Successful Creative Collaboration Across Time and Space

Sunday, 7 August 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm | West Building, Rooms 211-214

Twenty years ago, large projects in computer graphics animation, game development, and visual effects typically involved a half-dozen artists and engineers working together in a single studio space. Ten years later, the size of project teams had grown to include sometimes hundreds of collaborators, but the work remained largely housed within a single campus. In 2011, many projects, large and small, are distributed across multiple locations and time zones. Facilitating creative problem solving among team members remains the key to success, but the tools and behaviors within the creative process are changing dramatically.

This panel discusses issues surrounding globally distributed projects in animation, games, and visual effects. Success in these ventures depends on unique production structures, review processes, universal tool sets, and adaptation of artists and engineers to technology-mediated communication. Topics include speculation on possible future work environments and how the rising generation of artists and engineers will influence the collaboration process. Each panelist brings a specific area of expertise to the general topic and represents an organization recognized for successfully advancing industry capability with distributed projects.

Tim McLaughlin
Texas A&M University

Tim Fields
Certain Affinity, Inc.

Jonathan Gibbs
DreamWorks Animation

David A. Parrish
Reel FX Creative Studios

Steve Sullivan
Industrial Light & Magic

The Need for Standardization Within Global Visual Effects Productions Through Open Source and Open Standards

Monday, 8 August 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm | West Building, Rooms 211-214

This panel highlights some of the open-source projects that are helping visual-effects companies share data worldwide and explore areas for future improvement. In most cases, production companies need to set up a hub to ingest data from sets and/or locations during principal photography, and then send and receive data from the various visual-effects vendors during post production. Because there is not much standardization in this area, a standard framework for information exchange could provide huge efficiencies for both production companies and vendors. The panel explores options for sharing assets such as plates, models, and textures as well as new issues related to stereo conversion.

The panel also explores two open-source initiatives:

• Image Interchange Framework (IIF), which provides improved color management within pipelines and between facilities as well as file-format specifications (a restricted EXR format) and metadata standards.

• Alembic, an open-source exchange format that aims to become the standard for exchanging animated computer graphics scenes between content-creation software packages and facilities.

Moderator
Sam Richards
Sony Pictures ImageworksPanelists
Hannes Ricklefs
The Moving Picture Company

Ray Feeney
RFX Inc.

Rob Bredow
Sony Pictures Imageworks

Steve Cronan
5th Kind

Ryan Mayeda
Digital Domain

Tommy Burnette
Lucasfilm Singapore

Designing Curriculum for 3D Computer Animation: Innovation and Experimentation for an Evolving Discipline

Thursday, 11 August 10:45 am - 12:15 pm | West Building, Rooms 118-120

Visual effects and 3D animation are ever-evolving disciplines, and the fluidity and constant innovation that are at the core of these fields present very specific challenges to educators. In the past 20 years, the volume of computer-animation programs offered by educational institutions has expanded dramatically. Schools around the world are constantly experimenting with new curriculum ideas and educational strategies, trying to provide students with the best opportunities to develop their potential as computer artists and as future players in the computer animation industry.

What makes an undergraduate or graduate program in 3D computer animation successful? Why do some schools seem to be so much better than others? How are they different, in philosophy, educational strategies, proposed projects, curriculum grid, industry relationships, and resources?

This panel brings together leaders and thinkers from some of the top animation schools in the world to present, discuss, and share their specific approaches and educational philosophies. An outreach expert from DreamWorks Animation, and a talent-development director from Walt Disney Animation Studios present the industry point of view.

Moderator
Raquel Coelho
San José State University

Panelists
Eric Riewer
Gobelins, l’école de l’image

Maija Burnett
California Institute of the Arts

Thomas Haegele
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Jim McCampbell
Ringling College of Art + Design