Mind-blowing and Inspiring – Siggraph 2012

What an amazing week!

For years I wanted to attend the Siggraph conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques. However it never worked out and I used to get reminded of my intent when I read the first reviews in the media. But this year is different in many respects. And so I managed to plan ahead, free up the time, get all approvals and book the flight into the worlds capital of movie making.

Salsa dancing on the beach

View from the famous Santa Monica pier

And suddenly you have a old song in your ear…

Since we arrived already on Saturday afternoon while the conference was planned to start on Sunday noon, we decided to use the time for a short trip to the beaches of Santa Monica. Although it was almost evening when we arrived at the beach walk the Californian mood instantly got me. Salsa dancing people, cyclist, skaters… and finally we had a delicious pizza on Main Street.

After having a substantial breakfast we had the cost-free conference shuttle bring us to the Los Angeles Convention Center where the first courses were about to kick-off the Siggraph 2012. Already when arriving in our hotel, I was impressed by the great organisation of the event. What started already with a very handy online scheduler before we left Germany, continued at the front desk where we received some flyers with information about the conference and the schedule for the shuttle busses. Once in the Convention Center, we proceeded to the registration area, where we could easily print out our attendee batches by simply scanning the bar code on our reservation email. Big signs and information posters helped to find your way through the massive amount of meetings, courses and panel discussions.

Are you Science? …

Filled up with big expectations, I have to admit that I have not been dissapointed at all. I have never before attended an event with such a wealth of information and real content about the latest state of science and technologies. Follwing the organisation’s claim to bring together Science and Art all that was enriched with an art exhibition, the Computer Animation Festival and much more food for all your senses.

…or are you Art?

On Tuesday, the accompanying exhibition opened its gates and offered lots of opportunities to meet the big players in the industry. Hardware from the latest graphics cards to panoramic HDR cameras and 3D printers was presented as well the latest Software to create, render, animate and capture actor motions.

As Siggraph 2012 overwhelmed me with much more information than I could write in a short Blog article, take a look at the pictures I shot to get your own impression. The event is definitely worth the trip and I am hoping to be able to attend again next year in Anaheim!

Waiting for the Keynote Presentation

The crowd leaving the course on stereoscopic movie making

Downtown Los Angeles at night – on our way to the desert reception

Foundry presenting how to create high quality renderings from FARO Focus3D laser scans and HDR photography

Thai dinner at the food truck in Santa Monica on Tuesday night

Emerging Technologies – sensual plants giving visual feedback if you touch them

The Studio provided a motion capturing playground for experiments

Emerging Technologies – feedback system to let you feel the surface texture of virtual objects

Emerging Technologies – virtual drum trainer

Emerging Technologies – soap bubbles used to project images

Emerging Technologies – prototype of a tensor diplay. 3D without goggles 2.

Emerging Technologies – holographic projection screen. 3D without goggles 1.

Interactive 3D projection table

Emerging Technologies – prototype of a light field display. 3D without goggles 3.

Actor motion capture without markers 1

Actor motion capture with markers

Actor motion capture without markers 2

Mixed reality by Canon. Virtual car show room.

Power Wall made from an array of 3D TV sets

3D printing in color

Hi-res HDR panoramic camera system for mobile image capturing

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