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Forget about the usual rituals of the season such as sun-drenched visits to the beach or family barbeques in the backyard. For those of us who

get excited about the art and science of CG anima-tion, midsummer means it’s time for the annual SIG-GRAPH expo, which comes back to Los Angeles a bit earlier this year (July 25-29). We had a chance to talk to Isaac Kerlow, the brilliant director of the 2010 Computer Animation Festival, so that he could walk us through some of the highlights of the event.

“I remember my fi rst SIGGRAPH, which took place in De-troit in 1983, and I have to say that it changed my life,” says Kerlow, who is the author of the highly regarded book The

Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effectsand was recently artist-in-residence at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing. “Back then, I was freelancing for video produc-tion companies in New York City and had

learned about computers at school just as they were being introduced. I came from a traditional arts and animation

background, so SIGGRAPH was really an eye-opening expe-rience for me.”

Kerlow says he and conference chair Terrence Masson be-gan talking about his role at this year’s event about two years ago. “I always wanted to program the Electronic Theater as a way of giving back to the community and providing a simi-lar revelatory experience to audiences.” One of the biggest challenges for Kerlow was the fact that the animation festival director job is a volunteer position, so he had to juggle it with all his other duties—which included working on the upcoming Spanish animated feature, Dygra

Films’ Holy Night!. “This is an event that all my peers are looking forward to, so I know that my team and I are expected to deliver an event of the highest qual-ity,” he notes. “It’s a massive undertaking, but on a positive note, every second has been worth it.” When asked about noticeable trends and patterns, Kerlow says out of the 750 projects submitted to the festival, 290 were student fi lms. “This points out the fact that SIGGRAPH continues to be an infl uential launch-

ing pad for students,” he notes. “However, I also wanted to bring up the number of professional submissions, so I tried my best to encourage professionals to submit their projects. I think we ended up with an excellent combination of inde-pendent projects and material from the big Hollywood stu-dios.” Another point of satisfaction is the fact that the festival jury was able to judge the shorts in separate categories, so that the student shorts weren’t going against the commercials and cinematics. “It’s important for the jury to compare ap-ples to apples and oranges to oranges,” Kerlow points out. “I think we have a fair number of amazing commercials fea-tured this year, and I personally love the computer animation and visual effects work showcased in this fi eld.” Obviously, we are all witnessing a period in computer ani-

mation where the in-dustry is going through a stage of maturation, and Kerlow believes that the lay person is no longer impressed by the technical wiz-ardry they see on the movie screen these days. “You really need to have a certain level of professional exper-tise to appreciate the quality work that is done by the anima-tors and visual effects artists,” he says. “That’s why programs like SIG-GRAPH’s Computer

Full Digital Immersion AheadSIGGRAPH 2010 promises to deliver fi ve days of fantastic CG-animated shorts,

inspiring vfx panels and the chance to see the latest innovations in the world of tech imagery and design.

Isaac Kerlow

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Animation Festi-val are so impor-tant, because they allow a jury of professionals to examine what’s really innovative and noteworthy out there.” According to Kerlow, Roland Emmerich’s fea-ture 2012 is a

perfect example of how visual effects are in-corporated as a prime component of story-telling in features today. “On one hand, you can say it’s just a vfx disaster movie,” notes Kerlow, “But if you look closely, it’s clear that the visual effects were crafted very carefully to tell the story … it’s not the same approach to visual effects—it’s not just a couple of ex-plosions, but the intensity and style of the ef-fects played an important role in the story and the layout of every scene.” In addition to the top prize-winning proj-ects selected by the jury, Kerlow says SIG-GRAPH attendees can look forward to spe-cial screenings of work by Chinese students. “While Chinese animation is still in its growing stages, there’s a huge amount of creative talent in the region,” he states. “While the level of polish may not be quite comparable to the work we see from some of the other places, there’s a huge amount of inertia building up over there. Some of the work is traditional and some is just crazy!” Kerlow also mentions that there are some fantastic behind-the-scenes panels and pro-duction sessions planned for the 2010 edi-tion—including programs about the vfx of features such as Avatar, Iron Man 2, The Last Airbender, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderlandand Disney’s widely anticipated sequel, Tron: Legacy—the fi rst time SIGGRAPH is offering a panel on a movie that hasn’t been released yet. “I believe it’s going to be a great festival and that people will be inspired by what they see there.” With all the amazing programs Kerlow and his team have put together, it will be really hard not to be blown away by the rich content and impressive eye candy on display in downtown L.A. this month. �

Kerlow on the Show Prize Winners:

Best in Show Award: Loom directed by Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck and Csaba Letay (Ger-many’s Filmakademie Baden Württemberg)“The interesting trivia about this short is that it took the jury most of one whole day to choose the award winners in this category. I wanted the jury to have a lot of time to discuss this and they used all the time we had given them. I actually challenge the jury mem-

bers to make sure that their choice was as good as all the profes-sional work submitted and we all came to the same conclusion: It was. Some of the student work done today is simply incred-ible. This short tells the story of a moth that is

captured and killed by a spider. It starts very realistically, but once the spider captures the moth and injects its venom, we take this abstract journey inside the prey—and the whole thing becomes a symphony of shapes and rhythms.”

Jury Award: Poppy directed by James Cunningham (New Zealand)“This independent short was funded in part by the New Zealand Film Commission, and it’s always nice to see national and re-gional funding go to computer animation. What I like about this short is that it tells a compelling story in-volving two soldiers who are trapped behind enemy lines and have to decide whether to save the life of a baby found in a muddy ditch. It’s based on the true experiences of the director’s great-grandfather. Stylistically, I was quite impressed by the exqui-site way it combines keyframe animation with motion capture. You have an amazing example of theatrical face acting here, done with subtle expertise.”

Best Student Project Prize: The Wonder Hospital, directed by Beomsik Shimbe Shim (California Institute of the Arts)“The student prize was awarded to a work by a recent gradu-ate from CalArts and it tells the story of a character who goes through plastic sur-gery. What fascinates me about this piece is that it has a very surre-al tone and it borrows several elements from theater of the absurd. You would expect it to be heavy, but it also delivers some hilarious moments, beautiful compositions and an unusual mix of various styles of animation. The combination of all these disparate elements makes it quite unique.” �

For a complete list of events and activi-ties, visit www.siggraph.org/s2010.

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W e can think of at least 50 things you’ll have to do at the much-anticipated SIGGRAPH confab held at the Los An-geles Convention Center this year, but we had to keep it

short and sweet to make room for other features. However, you can fi nd out all the details on www.siggraph.org.

1. How can you have a confab devoted to CG magic and not mention James Cameron’s game-changing 3-D movie, Avatar? Lucky for us, the Oscar-winning blockbuster is the subject of a wonderful session with panelists Joe Letteri and Stephen Rosen-baum of Weta Digital and Light-storm animation supervisor Richard Baneham. Get out your blue body paint and native tails and get ready to take in the wisdom. As they say in Na’vi, F-ay-vrrtep fì-tsenge (which means these demons are forbidden here!). Monday, 2-3 p.m. West Hall B.

2. Put animation professionals Shawn Kelly (ILM), Carlos Baena (Pixar, Animation Mentor), Eric Goldberg (Disney), Michael Makarewicz (Pixar) and Aaron Hartline (Pixar, Animation Mentor) on stage together and watch the sparks fl y and the great anecdotes fl ow. That’s the great idea behind the Animation Block-buster Breakdown session, and we have a feel-ing it’s going to be both eye-opening and en-tertaining. Tuesday, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Room 408.

3. Don’t let Pixar steal all the limelight. Remember how much you loved DreamWorks Anima-tion’s How to Train Your Dragon? (Shouldn’t that spring release be out on DVD soon?) Anyway, you’ll get to hear how directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois rescued the project at the studio, turned it around and put their own creative stamp on it during an enlight-ening session. This informative event will also include Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins, who lent his brilliant eye to the movie as well. Tuesday, 2-3 p.m. West Hall B.

4. If you were lucky enough to see Toy Story 3 in 3-D this summer, then you know how great Pixar’s Day & Night, the fantastic short that pre-ceded the movie, was. We want to be front row and center at a special panel and screening devoted to this elegant work. Yes, you get to hear director Teddy Newton and producer Kevin Reher talk about how they solved all the technical challenges and created a clever, six-minute work of art that pushes the boundaries of the medium. Wednesday, 10:45-12: 15 pm in West Hall B.

5. How can you be reading this list and not be excited about Dis-ney’s upcoming sequel TRON: Legacy, slated for a December release? That’s why you won’t want to miss a cool panel featur-ing director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jef-frey Silver and Digital Domain supervisors Eric Barba and Steve Preeg, in which they will thrill the audience with the vfx secrets

and sneak peek footage from the movie. Thursday, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. West Hall B.

6. Those who are hungry to gain a whole lot of amazing techni-cal knowledge in an incredibly short period of time can check out the SIGGRAPH Dailies featuring authors presenting their work and stories in a rapid-fi re format. Some of the highlights: J.D. Northrup’s report on the making of the red plastic monkeys in Toy Story 3, Ra-mon Montoya-Vozmediano on how rendering virtuosity featured

in Disney’s Tangled, Marc-Andre Gray’s insights into the making of the short Nuit Blanche and Ariel Chisholm of Texas A&M Univ. on how a small shading and lighting project uncovered some hidden

facts about RenderMan’s depth-of-fi eld and bokeh controls. Tues-day and Wednesday 6-7:30 p.m.

7. Let’s say you were an alien visiting our planet and wanted to check out some of the best CG work done by artists and anima-

tors around the world, your best bet would be to hang out at the Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH this month. Among the eye-pop-ping works on display: The Mill’s “The Caterpillar” for AMF, Sony Im-

ageworks’ scenes from Alice in Wonderland, Platige Image’s Ani-mated History of Poland, La Station Animation’s Cours Toujours and Framestore’s clever Pepsi ad “Flight of the Penguin” are only a few of our favorites.

8. We know after three full days of schmoozing, screening and lis-tening to CG animation wizards, you will need some time away

from the convention hall to chill out. Luckily, there are several op-tions available to you. On Tuesday and Thursday you can hear pianist David Fray play Beethoven’s Pia-no Concerto No. 3 at the beautiful Hollywood Bowl at 7:30 p.m. Bra-zilian legend Sergio Mendes and popular band Morcheeba will be

entertaining the masses on Friday and Saturday evening at the same venue. If you’re in the mood for Rock and Roll fl ashbacks, we recommend the Pat Benatar/REO Speedwagon double-bill at the legendary Greek Theater on Saturday at 7 p.m. Hit me with your best shot, indeed! �

Eight Things to Do at (or around) SIGGRAPH

Avatar

How to Train Your Dragon

Nuit Blanche

The Caterpillar

Pat Benatar

Illustrations by Eric Goldberg