Computer graphics fair kicks off in Seoul

SIGGRAPH Asia 2010, a major trade fair of computer graphics and interactive techniques, kicked off in Seoul on Thursday, featuring thousands of artworks of artists, designers, researchers, scientists, manufacturers and developers from 40 different countries.

Focusing on digital media creations such as gaming and computer-generated animation, the event is also expected to serve as a platform to spark discussions on emerging technologies and techniques in fields of stereoscopic 3-D, augmented reality and scientific visualization. The event is sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

“This is the third year that we’re putting it on (in Asia) but it is already on the top 5 conferences put on by the Association for Computing Machinery,” said ACM president Alain Chesnais, which is the event’s organizer.

Claiming that Asia is an area of high potential, membership in Asia was increasing at a level never seen before, according to Chesnais.
Visitors watch computer animation at SIGGRAPH Asia 2010 on Thursday. (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)

“This is where it is happening,” he said, adding that next year’s conference ― SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 ― will be held in Hong Kong.

The conference has been taking place in Asia for the third year, however, it has already been organized in North America since 1974 under a slightly different name ― ACM SIGGRAPH, said SIGGRAPH Asia 2010 president Scott Owen.

The event, which will continue until Saturday, intends to put game development center stage and unmask the magic in movies.

The Entertainment Center of Carnegie Mellon showcased a number of their students’ game works, enabling people to experience what they could do and also look for potential game and entertainment developers.

Lucasfilm Singapore, which has its headquarters in the U.S., presented some of its digital animated content for film and television as well as games. The company has recently worked on the digital contents for “Iron Man 2” and “Transformers 3,” one of its officials said.

“You could think that we work on anything that is not real in the movies,” she said, adding that they are currently working on a feature that may take as long as two years.

Other firms, such as Blizzard Entertainment, Capcom Entertainment, Digic Pictures, NCSoft and Square Enix Co., also participated in the digital contents and animation festival.

In addition, prominent companies like Disney Animation Studios, OLM Digital and Pixar Animation Studios are also present at the event to share their experiences and latest successes involving their most recent productions.

“(The event) also seeks to bring audiences closer to tomorrow’s technologies through transitional concepts and ideas that have the potential to impact the future of movie-making,” said its organizers.

A computer animation festival, which received a total of 761 artworks from 47 countries, will also be in place with the event.

Twenty-six clips from 10 nations were selected for screening at the Electronic Theater and 82 clips will be displayed at the Animation Theater.

“The quality of work selected for this year’s festival represent the moist creative sparks and freshest ideas from around the world that is set to inspire the artists, designers, researchers and scientists attending the festival,” said Jinny Choo, chair of the Computer Animation Festival.

Source: Korean Herald