Finally, the Special Session Photomodel and Sequence Light Setup on ‘Iron Man 2’ laid truth to the fact that many special effects enthusiasts are still hooked on the excellent fight sequences in the movie chart-topper. Attendees were amazed by the revelation that some of the “natural sets” were in fact created virtually by photo modeling and lighting sequences.

3-Dimensional Entertainment
2010 was also the year when 3D movies and entertainment dominated box offices across the globe. Mirroring this trend, the technology responsible for this revolution, known as stereoscopic 3D, was extensively discussed at SIGGRAPH Asia 2010, with a good number of sessions looking at the intrinsic details of developing 3D movies, animations and games. Stereoscopy from XY to Z by NVIDIA and Walt Disney Animation Studios discussed rendering techniques and artistic concepts, providing a better understanding of stereoscopy and how to make it work more effectively for viewers. Additionally, a hands-on introduction to 3D displays in the session Build Your Own 3D Display had attendees fully immersed in building their own low-cost stereoscopic displays.

Stereoscopic 3D was also discussed at the Technical Papers session Stereoscopic 3D Copy and Paste, one of the many widely attended Technical Papers sessions at SIGGRAPH Asia 2010. Additionally, the Technical Paper Content-Adaptive Parallax Barrier for Automultiscopic 3D Display introduced a new approach that will allow significant improvements in the resolution and brightness of autostereoscopic displays, also known as ‘glasses-free 3D’.

Where Innovations and Digital Creations Thrive
Over 100 companies displayed the latest in computer graphics hardware, software and services across the trade floor, reinforcing the profile of SIGGRAPH Asia as a networking and collaboration platform for industry and academia. NVIDIA, the world leader in visual computing technologies, promoted its recently launched Quadro professional graphics solutions and 3D Vision Pro technology to the worldwide audience at SIGGRAPH Asia 2010. These new solutions target graphics professionals from a broad range of industries, including engineering, design and video production.

“SIGGRAPH Asia was a perfect venue to feature our latest Quadro line and the industry's newest applications that are GPU accelerated,” said Daniel Shapiro, Director of Marketing, Quadro Line of Professional Graphics Solutions, NVIDIA. “Attendees saw first-hand how the incredible performance and productivity breakthroughs enabled by the NVIDIA Fermi architecture are driving a new era of computational visualization.”

Autodesk saw an overwhelming response to its Mudbox™ competition, where attendees were each given 60 minutes to sculpt and texture a given character. Providing a display of what the future of digital entertainment could look like, Autodesk had a packed schedule of sessions by leading production studios, which have successfully created works using Autodesk products. The list includes DIGITAL IDEA, FXGear, Harmonix and Rising Sun Pictures, covering popular film and games such as the Harry Potter Series, The Lord of the Rings and Rock Band.

Complementing Korea’s Rising Digital Media Scene
As host to SIGGRAPH Asia 2010, Korea’s computer graphics community came out in full force, as evidenced by the extensive presence of Korean companies and universities taking part in the event. Eight films produced in Korea were selected for screening at the Computer Animation Festival, including Memories of the Song by Jin Sung Choi of Brian’s Film and Mom by Wooksang Chang of Chung-Ang University.

In addition to well-known content creators such as NCsoft Art Director Hyung-Tae Kim and satirical caricaturist Professor Jae-Dong Park, Korea was also represented by top research institutions such as Ewha Womans University, Jeju National University, Korea Institute of Science and Technology and Seoul National University.

The Electronics and Communications Research Institute Korea (ETRI) also presented a suite of early research works that have the potential to contribute to digital content creation in the future. These include an interactive 3D digital screen, a real-time previsualization device and a 3-dimensional clone creation method which combined motion capture and modeling.