SIGGRAPH 2005 Announces Computer Animation Festival Program

ACM SIGGRAPH announced the program for the Computer Animation Festival for SIGGRAPH 2005, the 32nd International Conference on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques, being held July 31 to Aug. 4 in Los Angeles, California. The Computer Animation Festival jury chose 68 selections from 560 entries for exemplary use of computer-generated imagery and compelling storytelling. This year marks the first two-time winner (Tomek Baginski) in the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival history. Additionally, there are 38 international selections, 11 scientific and 26 student pieces in the Festival.

"We are thrilled that student submissions continue to exceed our expectations, as evidenced by the fact that two of our three award winners are students, said Samuel Lord Black, a long-time SIGGRAPH volunteer and the 2005 chair of the Computer Animation Festival. International participation also is outstanding, as more than half of the show comes from outside the United States, with France (particularly French students) making an especially strong showing

"In 2005, we made a special outreach to highlight the scientific visualization community. Our industry's roots are in this field and I have long thought that there should be a stronger scientific representation in the Animation Festival. The outreach effort paid off in the form of excellent scientific submissions. In fact, the scientific pieces had the highest acceptance rate of all categories.

Highlights include:

*9 (Best of Show)Shane AckerU.S.

A mechanical beast attacks two rag doll creatures as they scavenge the ruins of their world. After witnessing the death of his mentor 5, the rag doll 9 must call on all its courage and confront this vile creature alone. Only through cunning and the use of his primitive technology can 9 hope to destroy the monster and steal the talisman of trapped souls it carries as a trophy.

*FALLEN ART (Jury Honors)Tomek BaginskiPlatige ImagePoland

The scene is a decaying, forgotten military base in the Pacific where soldiers who have lost their minds due to the hardships of war have gathered to complete one final mission. The main characters include Sergeant Al who cultivates his love for the brave soldiers; Dr. Friedrich who cultivates his talent for photography; and the mentally lost General A, who creates his art not through paper or canvas, but something completely surprising and different.

*LA MIGRATION BIGOUDENN (Jury Honors)Eric Castaing, Alexandre Heboyan, Fafah TogoraGobelins, l'école de l'imageFrance

A gathering of Brittany ladies in traditional dress compete in a contest to cook the Breton specialty of crêpes of an ethereal lightness in a mystifying and enthralling storyline.

*AWKWARDCesar KuriyamaPratt InstituteU.S.

When boredom strikes three friends with nothing to do and brain cells to kill, the answer arrives in the form of delightful beer. Sadly for our trio, a sudden and unwelcome discovery turns their night of fun, games and chummy drunkenness into a humiliating fiasco.

*CUBIC TRAGEDYMing-Yuan ChuanNational Taiwan University of Science and TechnologyTaiwan

A polygonian girl tries to make herself prettier by using her new cosmetic tools (for polygon modeling of course), and by doing so accidentally ruins her own face. This tragedy may have inspired one of the worlds most famous paintings.

*East End ZombiesDamian HookNCCA Bournemouth UniversityU.K.

The scene is Londons East End, where a herd of zombies are invading and creating chaos. The only hope is for our hero to save the day. This animation was created using Maya and Shake under Red Hat ES Linux. The short story is written by Ed Clayton and narrated by Jan Weddup. The short is animated using a quirky caricature style technique while the action takes place in a carefully staged 3D environment.

*GOPHER BROKEJeff FowlerBlur StudioU.S.

Styled in classic cartoon comedy tradition, GOPHER BROKE tells the tale of a cunning rodents smashing encounter with a produce truck on a lonely country road.

*LEARN SELF DEFENSEChris HardingChris Harding Animation ConcernU.S.

After being brutally attacked in an alley, a man named George decides he must learn to protect himself. A cocksure narrator walks him through five practical lessons of self-defense for the individual or nation-state!

*LOVE LETTERSJeff PaulArt Institute of California -San FranciscoU.S.

The creator of the piece, Paul, explains, I produced this animation as a way of proposing to my girlfriend. I assembled a team of 20 animators to assist me, including co-workers and students from my 3D character animation class at the Art Institute of CaliforniaSan Francisco. We created more than four minutes of animation in just three months. When it was completed, I surprised my girlfriend by bringing her to a local theater where they played the animation on the big screen in front of over 100 of our friends and family. The entire event was filmed for the TLC television show PERFECT PROPOSAL. The animation was created in Maya and edited in After Effects.

*MODIS DAILY GLOBAL SNOW COVER AND SEA ICE SURFACE TEMPERATUREDorothy HallNASA Goddard Space Flight CenterU.S.

A highly technical piece showing the Northern Hemisphere portraying data collected via daily MODIS satellite images acquired during the winter of 2002-2003. Darkness increases with the onset of autumn, reaching a maximum at the Winter Solstice on 21 December. Thereafter, the circle of darkness shrinks as the period of daylight increases. Daily changes in sea ice are shown as ice-surface temperature. The snow tracks of several winter storms across the U.S. can be clearly seen. Snow from such storms may melt quickly, or linger for weeks.

*MADAGASCAR Technical ReelPhilippe GluckmanDreamWorks AnimationU.S.

The piece is a three-minute showcase of technical achievement in the making of MADAGASCAR. It includes four key areas of production: extreme character deformations using the latest developments in rigging systems; squash-and-stretch 3D character animation; sand and fire effects; and major effects systems such as the ocean, jungle and integration and variations of furry crowds.

*CHOHONEunju Kim, Jung Sun Choi, Junsang Yoon, Kinam Kim, Youngju Park, Youno ParkChung-Ang UniversitySouth Korea

The scene is Korea in 1940. Hyun, a young man serving his nation in resistance against Japans rule, is injured. A geisha, Hee, helps him and they immediately fall in love. A geisha colleague betrays them and reveals his identity, but Hyun thinks Hee betrayed him and leaves her. Shortly thereafter, Hee is killed by a Japanese policeman. Fortunately, Hyun encounters Hee's ghost and they resolve the tragic misunderstanding.

*SURLY SQUIRRELPeter LepeniotisCanada

A starving park squirrel and a city rat come across a discarded pizza slice. The duo's greed disrupts the natural order of the park. Simultaneously, across the street from the park, a bank heist is taking place in the human world. The two worlds collide in an uproarious escape for both rodents and bank robbers alike. The story culminates in a desperate car chase with police and park animals in hot pursuit. The pigeons save the day, restoring order to both worlds, for now until the sequel!

*THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHTJoshua BeveridgeRingling School of Art and DesignU.S.

What is a childs true deepest fear? A small child worries about what might be bumping in the shadows of night, but nothing he imagined could have prepared him for this.

*VENICE BEACHJung-Ho KimDongseo UniversitySouth Korea

Two crabs are exercising in a gym when a stranger (another crab) appears in front of them. They experience an absurd situation because of the new crab. This is the story of how they resolve the encounter.

*VISUALIZATION OF AN F3 Tornado WITHIN A SIMULATED SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORMRobert Patterson, Donna CoxNational Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignU.S.

The simulation and visualization of tornadogenesis recreates a super-twister similar to one that ripped through Manchester, South Dakota, in 2003. The initial conditions were seeded with recorded pre-storm physical conditions near Manchester. The digital thunderstorm simulates the actual physical eruption and growth of the deadly tornado.

*THE ZITMike BlumPipsqueak FilmsU.S.

Timmy, a young boy preparing for the big school dance, is forced to deal with his first pimple problem and what a problem it is! Every attempt he makes to rid himself of the ever-growing dilemma only succeeds in making the situation worse. Timmy hatches an ingenious plan to rectify his situation, but can't anticipate the surprising consequences of his actions.

The complete list of SIGGRAPH 2005 Computer Animation Festival selections is available at www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=conference&p=caf.

SIGGRAPH 2005 is sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH, a leading professional society for computer graphics and interactive techniques. Information on ACM SIGGRAPH membership and other conferences and activities can be found at www.siggraph.org.