What to look out for at SIGGRAPH 2017

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The eyes of everyone in the CGI and digital content creation industry will be turned towards Los Angeles this summer, as SIGGRAPH 2017 takes place – the event's 44th outing. 

As one of the biggest shows in the industry, with representatives from Autodesk, Maxon, The Foundry, AMD, and NVIDIA among many others, SIGGRAPH is a must for CG artists.

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Marvel at new research

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SIGGRAPH's Technical Papers presentations let attendees explore the science behind the pixels. These papers have earned the event its reputation as one of the most esteemed and influential forums for research in the world. This year, from 439 submissions, 127 papers will be showcased (scroll down for an overview video).

And there are plenty of new areas of research to get excited about. “In addition to the continuation of research in geometric modelling and animation, rendering and imaging, I was surprised and excited, to see the extension of cinematography techniques to VR videos," says Marie-Paule Cani, chair of the Technical Papers program. 

"I’m also excited about the design of novel devices that capture micro-motion or are able to capture 3D fluid flows, and a printing technique that uses embedded magnetic flakes to create printed pictures that change with the lighting.”

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Dive into machine learning

Machine learning is one of the hot topics in computer science at the moment. Cani has noticed a trend in computer imaging in particular: the use of deep learning to generate new content, be it images, videos, speech or motion. For those interested, there are several sessions dedicated to this area, including Deep image processing and Speech and facial animation.

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Dip into another specialism

The papers at SIGGRAPH offer an incredibly wide range of topics, meaning that attendees can gain some really valuable insights into areas that they may not otherwise discover. 

“Look for inspiration from a diverse set of presentations,” advises Cani. “Attending sessions from a different sub-domain may be a good idea, since our field is advancing thanks to cross-fertilisation – for example, editing or transfer techniques first introduced in imaging later inspiring those who developed in shape modelling."

Plan your trip

For those who are new to SIGGRAPH and want to see as many presentations as they can, the sheer amount of papers on offer can be overwhelming. For an overview of this year's content, take a look at the trailer below:

You might also like to attend the Technical Papers Fast Forwards session on Sunday 30 July. SIGGRAPH 2017 runs from 30 July to 3 August. Visit s2017.siggraph.org for more information.

This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 224. Buy issue 224 here or Subscribe here.

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