Amid much fanfare and buzz SIGGRAPH 2020, which launched online on 17 August, concluded with close to 400,000 streams worldwide. The 47th annual international conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques was held for the first time virtually and it proved to be a roaring, success.
Virtual SIGGRAPH 2020 played host to the latest innovations in art, science, and technology from more than 1600 contributors across 700 presentations during its two-week release, 17–28 August. The conference was welcomed by an international audience from 95 countries. Representation from six out of seven continents included participants from the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, France, Brazil, Israel, China, India and more.
Like last year, this year’s exhibition too, featured more than 80 diverse companies, who showcased the latest in computer graphics hardware, software, and more during custom virtual demonstrations and over 70 curated sessions.
Important highlights from the conference ranged from a definitive keynote from cyber illusionist Marco Tempest, executive director of New York’s magicLab; the presentation of 163 research papers and 69 posters; three world-premiere animated shorts in the Computer Animation Festival Electronic Theatre; the worldwide release of Magic Leap’s “The Last Light”, a VR Theatre selection, and the unveiling of Felix & Paul Studios’ first AR Project, a collaboration with The Jim Henson Company; ACM SIGGRAPH’s two-day Diversity and Inclusion Summit; sneak peek Production Sessions and Talks focusing on not only film and games but prestige TV and advertising; two retrospective panels celebrating pioneers from PDI (Pacific Data Images) and the NYIT Computer Graphics Lab, respectively; and the first-ever Real-Time Live! global broadcast.
SIGGRAPH 2020 conference award winners are:
ACM Student Research Competition
First Place, Graduate – “Bound-constrained Optimized Dynamic Range Compression” by
Dorian Chan, Carnegie Mellon University
First Place, Undergraduate – “Non-photorealistic Radiance Remapping” by
Kohei Doi, Kyushu University
Art Gallery
Best in Show – “Cacophonic Choir” by
Hannah E. Wolfe, Colby College; Sölen Kiratli, Media Arts and Technology Program (MAT), UCSB, University of California Santa Barbara; and Alex John Bundy, Planetarium Music
Art Papers
Best in Show – “Enhanced Family Tree: Evolving Research and Expression” by
Fan Xiang, Shunshan Zhu, Zhigang Wang, Kevin Maher, Yi Liu, and Zhiqiang Liang, Tsinghua University; Yilin Zhu, Stanford University; and Kaixi Chen, Beijing Yuguo Culture and Technology Ltd. Inc.
Computer Animation Festival Electronic Theater
Best in Show – “Loop” by Erica Milsom, Pixar Animation Studios (United States)
Best Student Project – “Gunpowder” by Romane Faure of Supinfocom Rubika (France)
Jury’s Choice – “The Beauty” by Pascal Schelbli of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Animationsinstitut (Germany)
Audience Choice – “To: Gerard” by Taylor Meacham, DreamWorks Animation (United States)
Special Recognition – “Stem Cells: The Heroes in Crohn’s Perianal Fistula Treatment” by Alan Smith, MadMicrobe Studios (United Kingdom)
Immersive (Immersive Pavilion and VR Theater)
Best in Show – “DeepView Immersive Light Field Video” by
Michael Broxton, Daniel Erickson, Jason Dourgarian, Jay Busch, Matthew DuVall, Matt Whalen, John Flynn, Ryan Overbeck, Peter Hedman, and Paul Debevec, Google Inc.
Real-Time Live
Best in Show (Tie) –
“Interactive Style Transfer to Live Video Streams” by
Ondřej Texler, David Futschik, Michal Kučera, Ondřej Jamriška, Šárka Sochorová, and Daniel Sýkora, CTU in Prague, FEE; and Menglei Chai and Sergey Tulyakov, Snap Inc.
“Volumetric Human Teleportation” by
Ruilong Li, Kyle Olszewski, Yuliang Xiu, Shunsuke Saito, and Zeng Huang, University of Southern California; and Hao Li, University of Southern California, Pinscreen
Audience Choice – “DrawmaticAR – Automagical AR Content From Written Words!” by
Yosun Chang, AReality3D, Permute.xyz
We congratulate the winners and hope this paradigm shift on the technology front brings out the best in the content creators across the world.