With SIGGRAPH Asia coming up, we thought I’d highlight some sessions I’ve bookmarked to check out in Hong Hong. If you happen to see me jet lagged and wandering around the show, please stop me to say hello. Publishing on fxguide is kind of a one-way street, so It’s great to meet people who follow our web site.
For those that are attending there is a SIGGRAPH Asia iOS app available in the App Store.
You can also use the SIGGRAPH Asia web site to view the full schedule of sessions and you can save sessions to your personal schedule by clicking on the (+) button on the listing. Note that this schedule isn’t saved between your web browsers, so I’d suggest using the web browser on your phone to add your favorites so you can access them at the show. You can also export your personal schedule to a calendar .ics format for import into your calendar of choice.
If you need a SIM for Hong Kong, I recommend and have used eSIM Hong Kong where you can purchase an eSIM before you travel and activate it when you land. In Hong Kong, you’ll need to also register your full name and address once you land. If you’re going elsewhere in Asia, they also have sites for Japan, China, Korea, and more.
Without further ado, here are just a few of the sessions I’m looking forward to.
Technical Papers Fast Forward
Monday, 15 December 9:00am – 12:00pm
Technical papers form the heartbeat of SIGGRAPH, where research from around the world is presented to attendees. Start off the week first thing with the traditional preview of the research papers being presented during the conference. The authors of every paper have 30 seconds to provide an overview of their research — it’s a great way to start firming up your schedule for the week and deciding which sessions you want to attend. I don’t think I’ve ever missed a fast forward session at SIGGRAPH and its a great way to start feeding your brain for the week.
RenderMan 27 & XPU
Talk #1 – Monday, 15 December 1:15pm – 2:45pm
Talk #2 – Tuesday, 16 December 1:15pm – 2:45pm
Pixar’s Dylan Sisson provides the first public showing of RenderMan 27 since its launch earlier in November. The biggest news with the release is that the XPU architecture now supports final frame rendering, enabling artists to utilize both CPU and GPU resources. It’s a fundamental shift, making XPU the backbone of future RenderMan development. There is also improved and faster interactive denoising, deep data workflows, expanded Solaris support, and support for stylized effects in XPU.
They’ll also be showing the first 72 seconds of the unreleased Toy Story 5 … all rendered in XPU. And of course, there will be a limited supply of walking teapots for attendees so this is one talk you won’t want to miss.
Emerging Technologies
Monday-Thursday 4:00pm – 6:00pm (closes at 5:00pm on Thursday)
The Emerging Technologies exhibition is always a must-see and a great place to visit when you have a bit of time to fill. It’s a curated program that spotlights cutting-edge interactive and experimental technologies from AI, robotics, display and sensing systems, to XR/VR, haptics, human-computer interfaces, and a whole lot more. And don’t be shy — make the effort to get hands on when you can and experience it person…that’s a large part of why it’s great to check out.
Also be aware that there are three Emerging Technology talks during the week where their papers will be presented. So if you’re especially interested in something, you can hear more at the talk.
Technical Papers: Computational Photography & Cameras
Tuesday, 18 December 10:40am – 11:45am
While we mentioned how useful the Technical Papers Fast Forward presentation is to pick your sessions, this is one session we won’t want to miss. I’ve always found the computational photography papers sessions in the past to be well worth the time to attend. You can see the initial research into features you’ll likely see end up sometime in applications like Lightroom, Topaz, and others.
Technical Papers: 4D Gaussian Splatting for Dynamic Scene Reconstruction
Tuesday, 18 December 2:50pm – 3:55pm
Another technical papers session we’re looking forward to. There’s a lot of interesting research (and application) involving gaussian splats, so this is a must-see in our book. There are six papers being presented during the session.
Dynamic Simulations on Ne Zha 2
Tuesday, 18 December 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Base FX Founder & CEO Chris Bremble will be discussing work done for Ne Zha 2, which had some of the most ambitious visual effects work done by the company. Base FX was founded in China almost 20 years ago and he will also be sharing insights into the industry there as well as his thoughts about the future. It should be a nice mix of hearing about creative work as well as what it is like to helm a studio in China…Chris’ presentations are always enjoyable.
Virtual Production: Past, Present, and Future
Wednesday, 17 December 11:15am – 12:15pm
Longtime friend of fxguide Paul Debevec will be covering today’s virtual production techniques as well as past history and how the future might shape up in the field. I always enjoy Paul’s presentations and pick up insights that I wasn’t aware of. Paul is currently Chief Research Officer at Eyeline Studios and the team is also presenting several interesting papers over the week including on gaussian splats (here and here) and volumetric performance capture. Paul is also hosting the papers session on Image Restoration, Editing & Enhancement.
Featured Session: Alien Abduction! The Truth Behind the Making of Pixar’s Elio
- Claudia Chung Sanii – VFX Supervisor
- David Luoh – Sets Supervisor
- Emron Grover – Tailoring & Simulation Supervisor
- Jordan Rempel – Director of Photography, Lighting
- Renee Tam – Global Technology Supervisor
- Sajan Skaria – Character Supervisor
Real-Time Live!
Thursday, 18 December 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Closing out the week, Real-Time Live! returns in Hong Kong, with live demos that push the limits of real-time graphics, interactive techniques, and digital performance. It’s always a fun session to attend with the added pressure of making it all work in front of a live audience.