Following four days of trade, conference and exhibition, SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 came to a close today. Conference chair professor Soon Ki Jung thanked all the respective program chairs, the organising teams, the respective Korea Tourism organisation and Daegu Convention visitors Bureau for their unyielding support and commitment to curating a successful event.
Jung said, “We are thrilled that after two years of travel challenges faced by all, we were able to finally meet all our local and international guests face to face in Daegu. It has been my honour to host our esteemed Program Chairs, distinguished keynote speakers and hundreds of industry experts at the event. We thank the city of Daegu and the organising team for curating such an innovative event.”
Here are the highlights of day four SIGGRAPH Asia 2022:
EXHIBITION & EXPERIENCE HALL
Today was the final day for computer graphics enthusiasts and industry trailblazers to showcase their innovative work. At the exhibition, attendees explored the latest technologies in computer graphics and interactive techniques, from experimental solutions to immersive and wearable technology, live demonstrations, workshops and more. The Incubator for the CG start-up scene offered newcomers in the industry plenty of opportunities to get involved and make an impact. The Experience Hall, featuring art gallery, emerging technologies and XR was bustling with visitors who got to experience art pieces and try out immersive technologies that are still in development stages.
COURSES: ‘BECOME A GUARDIAN OF AI WASL’: DEVELOPING PRODUCTIONS FOR THE WORLD’S LARGEST REAL-TIME INTERACTIVE PROJECTION EXPERIENCE
How do you create an intimate experience in a shared space?
Using eight rendering machines and a souvenir system, S1T2 were able to create personalised images and astronaut animations for their World Expo Project. Luna Joy from S1T2 shared her insights, “When designing huge interactive experiences, make it feel personal and let it tell a unique story. Prioritise accessibility and have empathy for your audience to ensure everyone feels engaged at one place”.
The biggest challenge with big interactive spaces is the urgency to troubleshoot problems on the spot. The key is to work around the issue and have a cluster event system – having a backup cluster against an active cluster system ensures that all unforeseen issues are resolved instantly. Redundancy ensured the world’s largest real-time interactive projection works seamlessly.
XR WORKSHOP: METAVERSE/XR EXPERIENCE USING VRCHAT
The experience of building your own metaverse avatar virtual world is empowering. Using HMDs, Center for Immersive Media Innovation Sharing, Keimyung University took attendees into the realms of their unique virtual environment and tested infinite possibilities. Not only could they craft a personalised avatar, but they were able to make all the decisions about the world around them. From the textures and colours of the terrain to adding elements such as waterfalls, volcanoes, or the direction in which the visitors’ creative spirit took them.
AWARDS AT SIGGRAPH ASIA 2022!
XR AWARD
The submissions for this year pushed the boundaries, with a variety of exciting projects leveraging virtual, augmented and mixed-reality prototype systems and innovative content. The team pushed the envelope to the extremes and blurred the lines between off-the-shelf consumer software like Unity or Unreal Engine and their own unique creations. After careful consideration, three submissions were shortlisted. The winner of the XR Award ultimately went to XRAYHEAD by creators; Kento Imai, Haruka Kayano and Kenri Kodaka from Nagoya City University.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AWARD
SIGGRAPH announced the Best Demo Emerging Technologies Award. This year’s Emerging Technologies program received 24 submissions under the theme New Normal, with the collective work of 96 authors from 11 different countries and the mind-bending Extra-Sensory Puck (E.S.P) in Air Hockey using the Projection-Based Illusion was declared the winner. It was designed by Kengo Sato, Yoshihiro Watanabe from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Hiroki Terashima from NTT Communication Science Laboratories and Shin’ya Nishida from Kyoto University. Most research seen in this year’s program features applications and contributions to the design, materials, engineering and R&D fields which welcomes spearheading development and research in these industries.
RTL ‘BEST OF’ AWARD CEREMONY
At the end of the Real-Time Live! session, the audience voted for their favourite team and the award went to Real-Time Technologies for Realistic Digital Humans: Facial Performance and Hair Stimulation, demonstrated by Mark Schoenmagel on Unity Technologies.
The software allows a smoother rendering process which includes the most intricacies of objects – hair and fur. Mark demonstrated in real-time how hair can be constructed on avatars within seconds with Unity’s plugins and how this solution can be used to improve realism for developers’ use.
REAL-TIME LIVE!
Real-Time Live! is one of the most sought-after sessions to sit in throughout SIGGRAPH Asia. This session allows the audience to understand the ‘hows’ of doing all things VR/AR related through live demonstrations! From showcasing how to smoothen hair and fur on Unity to adjusting light intensity and sensitivity on-display in real-time to the infamous Unreal Engine to make avatars and surroundings act as a supplement to the real world in a virtual realm.
Live coding demos were highlighted, where creators shared how they were able to bind GLSL with JavaScript to generate 3D graphics on open-source platforms. Fantastically, there was a live performance dance using VR techniques where players dialled in from Seoul to perform a ballet magnifique. Art and storytelling were combined through this showcase to reach the audience online interactively.
CLOSING CEREMONY OF SA22 & OPENING OF SA23
SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 closed in Daegu, South Korea, following a resoundingly successful four days of trade conference and exhibition. Brilliant minds in the field of computer graphics and immersive technology from 50 exhibiting companies and brands inspired next-generation technological advancement.
Highlights of SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 included highly coveted awards which were handed to students and experts in the fields of computer animation, technical papers, extended reality (XR) and real-time live!.
SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 was also announced at the Closing Ceremony. The 16th edition, themed Connecting Stories will be held at the International Convention & Exhibition Centre (ICC) in Sydney, Australia. Chaired by June Kim, the event will take place from 12 – 15 December 2023.