Produced at Carnegie Mellon University, Moshe Mahler’s animated short documentary ‘The Art of Weightlessness’ awarded Best in Show at the Oscar-qualifying Computer Animation Festival.
Winners of the SIGGRAPH 2024 Electronic Theater awards were have been announced, along with a full program of Production Sessions and immersive experiences in the VR Theater. The annual computer graphics conference runs Sunday, July 28 through Thursday, August, 1 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO.
With an internationally recognized jury, the Oscar-qualifying Electronic Theater is widely recognized for its groundbreaking contributions from artists, researchers and innovators around the world. What once began as an annual showcase of computer graphics advancements, today celebrates computer graphics as a cornerstone of the mainstream mediums of animation, visual effects, games, scientific/data visualization and storytelling.
“We are on the heels of a monumental year in 2023, celebrating the 50th conference. I think there’s still a little sense of celebration in the air but definitely a homecoming of sorts returning back to Colorado not too far from the first conference site in Boulder,” Electronic Theater director John Kalaigian stated. “The Computer Animation Festival is excited to bring back additional screening opportunities, which we’re calling the Animation Theater Daytime Selects. These will be two independent show reels that will also accompany the main Electronic Theater show,” he said.
Here is the list of winners of the SIGGRAPH 2024 Electronic Theater Awards:
Best in Show: The Art of Weightlessness
Moshe Mahler with Carnegie Mellon University
An animated short film documentary that chronicles the evolution of Artist and Performer, Bill Shannon. Born with a degenerative hip condition, Bill developed new ways to express himself through dance and skateboarding on crutches.
Best Student Project: After Grandpa
Juliette Michel, Swann Valenza, Florian Gomes Freitas, Axel Sence, and Victoria Leviaux with Ecole MoPA
Haunted by the terrifying ghost of his Grandpa, Loup, a little boy obsessed with insects, will have to overcome his fear to discover why it came back.
Jury’s Choice: Patterns
Alex Glawion
Struck by a barrage of intrusive encounters on his weekly commute, a perceptive traveler struggles to uphold the positive mindset that wards against the ever-lurking grayness.
“Given how much buzz is going around with generative AI, it’s more enhanced. I think when the audience sees the show, they will hopefully appreciate the aesthetic value in choices made to use those tools beyond what is traditionally known as the process of putting text-prompted imagery into a project,” Kalaigian continues. “Sometimes, the results could be jarring and very obvious. So I think the most important thing is the caliber of which SIGGRAPH holds the content that it presents is increasingly getting higher.”
SIGGRAPH also detailed its 2024 Production Sessions, which allow attendees to go behind-the-scenes with an international community of production leaders in films, games, VR/MR/XR, and more to explore the challenges faced and opportunities in modern production pipelines.
“We’re seeing a wide variety of new tools being developed for all sorts of different aspects of production, whether it’s grooming fur and hair or virtual production tools. It’s across the board different workflow improvements that we’re seeing,” SIGGRAPH 2024 Production Sessions Chair Jonathan Nitiparsong noted. “SIGGRAPH showcases some of the most cutting-edge tools and interactive techniques that make things better, and Production Sessions are often the first place where people are able to see some of these new technologies and production skills in use,” he added.
Of the 30 submissions received, 10 were selected for this year’s Production Sessions including “Monkeys, Chimps & Gorillas: Wētā FX’s (r)Evolutionary Work with Primates”; “Oozing Hand Crafted 2D Illustration Into a 3D Ninja Turtle World”; “Visual Data Stories for Climate Action: The Making of NASA’s Earth Information Center Public Exhibits”; “Yin and Yang: The Balance of Animation in Kung Fu Panda 4”; and “Pushing the Limits: Crafting an Immersive Mega-Canvas for Phish’s Music Shows at Sphere.”
In addition to this year’s Production Sessions, SIGGRAPH 2024 will offer immersive VR Theater experiences. The VR Theater is a world-class showcase of exemplary virtual reality storytelling and a staple SIGGRAPH program since 2017.
The main program will be experienced in a high-end, seated, panoramic, multi-viewer immersive space, running approximately one hour from start to finish. New this year, participants will enter a mixed reality SIGGRAPH-branded lobby before each experience. This curated selection of short-form narratives will feature a diverse array of stories, from a musical journey aboard a space-train to an immersive empathy documentary about losing and regaining sight. The VR Theater will also be announcing its Best in Show award for immersive experiences during the conference.
“More than any other year, the pieces we’re involving carry more serious topics. I would say it’s a reflection of the world, as well. Art reflects the pulse of the world. For example, one of the pieces we are showcasing is about femicide in Mexico, a problem they are using VR as a medium to really put you in the seat of a woman in Mexico. When creators make a VR experience, it’s very important to ask yourself, ‘Why am I making this into a VR experience and not, let’s say, in a flat medium?’ So, I think these pieces answer that question very clearly,” said SIGGRAPH 2024 VR Theater Director Yangos Hadjiyannis.
“I’m glad to see the medium’s evolution in that way. In the early days, I thought, creators would sometimes make experiences to test out the VR space. Now, it’s more like I’m doing this more purposefully considering the best ways to tell a story spatially. We experience our world in 3D and that is starting to be reflected uniquely in this medium, particularly with an emphasis on presence. I think that’s what really makes it unique,” he added.
This year’s VR Theater will feature pieces including:
Spots of Light: A piece that puts you in the situation of someone who has lost their sight, regained it, and then lost it again. It’s a personal journey of acceptance and hope.
Astra: This mixed reality experience turns your living room into a life-size spaceship that takes you to explore and understand the composition of different materials on different planets.
Draw for Change: A powerful experience about femicide in Mexico, walking in the shoes of a woman in Mexico who is resisting and raising awareness on the problem through beautiful mural work.
Traversing the mist: A poetic journey of discovery of a gay man that takes you with them to the bathhouse, as you discover a deep sense of loneliness and reflection.
Emperor: A spectacular piece about the condition of Aphasia, told in a bigger-than-life way, with intuitive interactions that move the medium forward.
Source: ACM SIGGRAPH
