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.

Cory Doctorow is a contributor to The Guardian, The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Wired, and co-editor of the popular blog Boing Boing. He was formerly director of European affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards, and treaties. He is a visiting senior lecturer at Open University (UK) and previously served as the Fulbright chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.

In 2008, his novel, Little Brother, was a New York Times best seller. Tachyon Books published a collection of his essays called Content: Selected Essays in Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future, and IDW published a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction called Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now. Doctorow’s latest works include an adult novel, Maker, published by Tor Books/HarperCollins UK; For the Win, a young adult book about video games, labor politics, and economics; and a short story collection entitled Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present.

He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and he has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and British Science Fiction Awards. He co-founded the open-source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, which was sold to OpenText, Inc. in 2003. He serves on the boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation, Technorati, Inc., the Organization for Transformative Works, Areae, the Annenberg Center for the Study of Online Communities, and Onion Networks, Inc.

Photo: Jonathan Worth

Vancouver has long been a hub for the CG industry. This talk showcases the talent from the vibrant, passionate local community and offers a glimpse into what you can expect at one of our inspiring presentations. Welcome to our city, SIGGRAPH 2011!

Jules Morgan
Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter
jules.m.morgan (at) gmail.com

Representatives from Chinese academic digital media programs discuss how their programs are developing to meet the needs of their exploding economy.Panel Discussion
Patrick Pennefather
Centre For Digital Media, Vancouver

Lu Xin
Communication University of China, Beijing

Fu Zhiyong
Tsinghua University

Bai Xuezhu
Communication University of China

Richard Smith
Centre For Digital Media, Vancouver

Zhang Xiaofu
Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
Electroacoustic Music Association of China

Yang Xiaosong
National Centre for Computer Animation, Bournemouth University

Larry Bafia
Centre For Digital Media, Vancouver

Closing Remarks
Marc J. Barr
Chair, ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee

A discussion of the year-round activities of the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community, including online curated exhibitions, our virtual community, and discussions. Bring announcements and ideas.

Cynthia Beth Rubin
rubin (at) siggraph.org

Members of the SIGGRAPH 2011 Committee present an overview of the conference and highlights of their programs.

Miho Aoki
mihoalaska (at) gmail.com

Founded in the Netherlands in 1990, ISEA International Foundation (formerly Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts) is an international nonprofit organization fostering interdisciplinary academic discourse and exchange among culturally diverse organizations and individuals working with art, science, and technology. The main activity of ISEA International is the annual International Symposium on Electronic Art. Selection of ISEA symposia is made by the ISEA International Foundation Board.

This discussion includes information about the organization, the upcoming ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness, a symposium and series of events exploring the discourse of global proportions on the subject of art, technology, and nature. It also previews ISEA2013, in Sydney, Australia. All interested members of the electronic arts community are invited to learn about the future symposia and share ideas for potential organizational collaborations.

Sue Gollifer
Director, ISEA International Headquarters
info (at) isea-web.org

In recent years, several activities and foundations have generated large improvements in the general graphics community in Austria. This talk presents endeavors that culminated in the internet forum CGForum.at, the international PIXEL conference, and the Interest Group on Computer Graphics.

Christoph Staber
Kris (at) arxanima.com

Ralf Habel
Ralf (at) cg.tuwien.ac.at