Ryan is the talk of the festival circuit and SIGGRAPH attendees had the chance to catch the craze. © Copper Heart Ent. and the National Film Board of Canada.

Landreth used a variety of digital and pre-digital techniques to create his characters and environment. He brings to the screen mastery of 2D and 3D techniques and combines them with artistic inspirations from the Old Masters from Dali to Zippy the Clown. Unlike many of its counterparts, Ryan stands up to repeated viewing. It should inspire anyone trying to imbue characters with authentic emotions or creating environments that add to the depth of characters.

Depth/Perception
One of the more enchanting offerings was Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. An excerpt from a manga-inspired limited release animated feature film, this Festival selection presents dreamlike retro-futuristic urban canyons as a backdrop for a strange parade. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence reminds us that 2D animation will continue to have a role in epic visual storytelling despite the current rage in the marketplace for 3D animation. This selection also underlines the ongoing influence of Asian art and storytelling on world culture.

Changing Your Viewpoint
Massive Arabesque by Larry Zitnick of Microsoft Research demonstrates a technology called "video view interpolation," which allows a user to change the viewpoint of a live-action video while watching it. The work features a group of real-life virtuoso break dancers doing a dance-off in a nondescript stairwell. Don't let the grainy video throw you. This scene was captured simultaneously by eight cameras and then re-edited with "virtual" scenes interpolated from the original video sources. What this means is that someday, if you don't like the live-action footage you just shot, you just might be able to interpolate brand-new footage without reshooting.

Dr. Paul Debevec exquisitely recreates ancient Greece in his newest film, The Parthenon. © 2004 University of Southern California.

The Greek Way
Paul Debevec's The Parthenon (USC Institute for Creative Technologies) demonstrates advanced techniques for archiving cultural artifacts — or creating virtual locations. Using the latest laser-scanning and photogrammetry techniques and Monte Carlo global illumination rendering, Parthenon brings together the Acropolis temple complex as it once was, before invasion and adventurers scattered these treasures around the globe.

As with his previous groundbreaking work in high dynamic range imaging, Debevec shows us how we can recreate physical locations in incredible detail from tools borrowed from science and defense. The Parthenon is art about art: a document celebrating outstanding efforts of the human intellect past and present.

Debevec's and ICT's work allows storytellers increasing flexibility to accurately recreate worlds that will never again exist in complete physical form. Such efforts underline the valuable work from artists and engineers who toil outside of the breathlessly over-hyped entertainment industry.