6^th International Conference and Expo on Computer Graphics & Animation September 25-26, 2019 | Toronto | Ontario | Canada

Biography:

James Parker is Director of MinkHollow Media and Professor of Art Digital Media Laboratory, University of Calgary, Canada. He has degrees in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science (M.Sc.) and Informatics (Ph.D., Universiteit Ghent with greatest distinction, 1998). He has been a Full Professor of Computer Science, a professor of Drama, and a professor of Art in a 40-year career in academia. He has published over 170 technical articles on simulation, video games, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. He is also the author of 12 books, including the most recent one “Generative Art: Algorithms as Artistic Tool".

Abstract:

Art in general can be thought of as a stochastic process. No two drawings or paintings are exactly alike, and cannot be as long as humans are involved. Generative art, the defining of an artwork using an algorithm, can result in very precise duplications of artworks but this is rarely interesting. Art is a human activity and artworks are a means of communication between humans, even in the generative domain. Adding randomness to a generative work makes it seem more human, and often more interesting. How much randomness should there be? What is the context of the random features? Why is randomness interesting? These things will be discussed, along with some ideas on how to use randomness as a tool in creating artworks.

Biography:

Tyler Ayres is Associate Professor in Animation, School of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University, USA. He is an award winning animator and continues to work professionally. He known for being a finalist in the Nicktoons Animation Festival in 2008, as well as screening in many international children’s film festivals.

Abstract:

Stop-motion animation (SMA) is commonly associated with miniaturizations positioned frame-by-frame to create motion. I propose a new process, synthesizing digital 2D animation, digital 3D animation, and paper Modeling with components of traditional SMA. This technique allows artists to design their animations digitally, yet actualize them physically. A case study was done on an animated pumpkin character.

Using this technique, artwork is drawn and colored digitally in Illustrator. All moving parts of the face are assigned to individual layers, then imported into After Effects, where individual layers are then key-framed to create a cyclical animation of the facial expressions. This series of images is used as an animated texture on a 3D polygon. The animation adds emotion while timing of the cycle allows facial animation to be used as overlapping action on the 3D Polygon.

One key to my experimental process is to achieve optimal form without creating a complex polygon model. Low polygon spherical models are created in Maya and additional extrusions are added for character enhancement. A simple rig is inserted inside the polygon for bend and squash control. Each frame of the animated polygon is then exported from Maya and imported into Pepakura Designer 4 (used to unfold the polygon into a flattened 2D shape).

For my case study, I chose to create a 17-frame looped animation using this rig.
The digital format transitions to physical as pieces of the polygon are laid flat with cut lines, score lines and tabs for gluing added. Each flattened polygon is printed on 160lb card stock using a Mimaki UV Jfx200 flatbed printer. An Epilog Fusion 75-watt laser cutter is used to cut the 2D shapes, which were then folded to create a physical form. The final steps include traditional SMA techniques, creating a final project that was imagined in the digital realm but actualized in the physical realm.

This technique case study has set the stage for a project larger in scale, with more complex polygon arrangements. Plans are in the works for a full-scale humanoid walk cycle.

Biography:

Takahiro Yanagi from OTSL Inc. Japan. In 1991, he joined DENSO research Laboratory, HONDA R&D, YAMAHA Research Center, SILVACO, Mitusi, ANSYS (former ANSOFT), Siemens Wireless module, PI research LABO, LLC, OTSL Inc. Currently, he is working for Highly precision sensor simulator development for Autonomous driving, and his concern is modeling, simulation from semiconductor level to Autonomous System level modeling for Autonomous driving era. His experiences are High Speed Analog/Mixed signal design and simulation, F1 EMS system development, Electric throttle control system development using GA and Neural networks, SDR (software defined Radio) Project for mobile phone and Base station, High Speed Broad casting device, system development using FM modulation, development for the world's first transient noise simulator using Mote Carlo, M2M Automotive project, Power Semiconductor modeling for SiC,  power system design and modeling EV/PHV, and The World's first millimeter-wave radar simulator, and LIDAR simulator, Camera simulator, Far-IR sensor simulator, Ultrasonic simulator which are called by COSMOsim Framework.

Abstract:

Recently Autonomous driving development speed up using various simulation, however there are few dedicated simulator tools for various sensor which detect, measure objects. And most simulators didn’t enable to faithfully reproduce actual Radar, LIDAR and the other sensor. COSMOsim is the only high accuracy sensor simulator, is developed by based on from radar electrical design to system level hardware/software. This presentation describes regarding what is genuine sensor simulation for autonomous driving simulation.

Biography:

Ivan Braun is a founder generated.photos and Icons8. His recent project is a generated library of 100,000 faces. It has recently received coverage from major news publications such as Vice, The Verge, Fast Company, etc. 
 

Abstract:

We are building technology to create on-demand media. https://generated.ph
We have built an original machine learning dataset, and used StyleGAN (an amazing resource by NVIDIA) to construct a realistic set of 100,000 faces. Our dataset has been built by taking 29,000+ photos of 69 different models over the last 2 years in our studio. We took these photos in a controlled environment (similar lighting and post-processing) to make sure that each face had consistent high output quality. After shooting, we underwent labor-intensive tasks such as tagging and categorizing.

Biography:

Siqi Cai is a Reader in Animation, Department of Art and Design at Royal Holloway University of London. He worked professionally with number of Reputed Animation and game development companies. He known for Story FutherProject.

Abstract:

In 1978, a new home video format called the LaserDisc, abbreviated LD was first commercially available for the storage and playback of movies as an alternative to videotape. Compared to other home video formats at the time, LD offered a higher image quality and resolution as well as a random access feature, which allowed the video to jump from one point to another for instant access.

1) Both these advantages allowed the LD technique to be adapted to video games.

2) Therefore, in the 1980s, a series of video games using LD as the game carrier were published, and often called “the interactive movie.”  Interactive movies are essentially video games that use a significant amount of pre-calculated image data as the primary content, focus on the cinematic narrative, and offer comparatively poor gameplay. The poor gameplay is due to infrequent interactivity, which limits players to interaction through only a few buttons to play the game. 

The development process of the interactive movie did not progress smoothly. Despite providing experimental gameplay and cinematic game experiences, the interactive movie eventually ushered in its decline at the end of the 1990s due to a poor reputation.

3) A few critical points for its failure were summarised by scholars who study video games, also known as ludologists, included a shortage of interactivity, limited branch plots, unsatisfied acting, and low video quality compared to a real movie.

4) To make matters worse, the early interactive movies were labelled as “low-interactivity games” by Chris Crawford, a computer game designer and ludologist, who was authoritative in the field of game interactivity research.

5) Most disadvantages that existed pointed to the design of the interactive movie with poor gameplay and massive usage of video clips. While it is true that the interactive movie, to some extent, was responsible for most of its failures,

6) there remain some people who continue to enjoy this type of game, and other interactive movies with related features, such as Heavy Rain (Sony Computer Entertainment, 2010), The Walking Dead (Telltale Games, 2012), and Minecraft: Story Mode (Telltale Games, 2015), which are still being published continuously. As Crawford concluded, most game designers wanted but could not make the most of the gameplay of the interactive movie due to many reasons.

7) On this basis, the reduced gameplay and the broad focus on the animated content of the interactive movies were not the key issues to blame its failures. 

Through further research, this thesis establishes a distinct understanding of the interactive movie, which helps confirm the idea that the interactive movie has the potential to transfer reduced gameplay and other specialities into accessibility, player’s thinking depth, and better overall interactivity quality. This dissertation analyses the interactive movie’s poor gameplay and its essence from a historical perspective. Professional terminologies, such as interactivity, interactivity frequency, process intensity, and data intensity are introduced and used to argue and validate the conclusion to offer a comprehensive understanding of this category of gameplay.

Biography:

Sumit Gupta is Assistant Professor in Graphics & Multimedia, School of Media & Communication at Manipal University, Dubai, UAE. He have master’s degree in Multimedia Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Animation & Multimedia. He previously worked as Senior Lecturer with ISBAT University Uganda, Africa for 07 years & 04 years in India also respectively in Media, Production & Teaching, having a wide knowledge and experience in training & teaching media & multimedia students from more then 21 countries since 11 years.

Abstract:

“Computer Graphics” is commonly associated with media and multimedia applications. This paper provides a complete case study on the application of computer graphics in media production with reference from print, electronic and web media with creative approach of motion graphics. Technological revolution has unified the world & humanity and turned into what is known as a global village. Computer Graphics encapsulates creative media work from scratch to final creation by using digital technologies throughout to streamline the process of productions and enhanced creative artistic expression. The creativity in media finds its new edge in the current scenario of the digital world and virtual reality.
The most proactive role of computer graphics in media is the designing of motion graphics for television and news. In this several sets of shapes are choreographed together using a wide range of effects to produce compelling footage for television & web. The realistic images or video viewed and manipulated in digital media platform and computer simulations could not be created or supported without the enhanced capabilities of modern computer graphics. Graphic communication is the key area of study which bridges the gaps between computer graphics and media production.
One of the prime applications of computer graphics and multimedia is its used for digital entertainment purpose. Computer graphics techniques are used in making motion pictures, music videos and television shows. Sometimes the graphics scenes are displayed by this facility and sometimes the actors and live scenes. Graphics objects can be combined with the live actions and images. Processing techniques can be used to produce a transformation of one person or object into another.

Biography:

Cagri Baris Kasap is an Assistant Professor at Department of Visual Communication Design at Kadir Has University, Istanbul/TURKEY. He is working in the fields of UX/UI and Interaction Design.

Abstract:

While on one level Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series (GTA) is all kitschy, gratuitous violence for entertainment purposes, it is also a masterpiece of interactive design. Arguably, it presents one of the most sophisticated developments in commercial video gaming to render a highly traversable urban space, one in which a player performs actions with a tremendous degree of freedom and unscripted spontaneity. This accounts for its wild popularity in the gaming market. The best-selling video game in America in 2001, GTA Ilfs success was usurped only by the release of the game's next evolution, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which became the year's best seller in 2002. With the October 2004 release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, likely the most anticipated game of the year, Rockstar has once again set the gaming world on fire with its latest sprawling work of twisted genius. Since its first version released in 1997, Grand Theft Auto as a game that fulfills the standards of being an ‘action-adventure’, ‘driving’, ‘role-playing’, ‘stealth’ and ‘racing’  game, all at once, had gone through several (seven) version diversions. In this paper, I will try to map out the similarities and differences between each version.

Biography:

Pejman Mirza-Babaei is an Associate Professor of User Experience (UX) Research and Associate Dean Industry Relations at the Faculty of Business and Information Technology. His research and teaching is focused on the design and evaluation of user experience in interactive entertainment systems. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, and frequently speaks at academic conferences and industry events. He is also a co-editor of "Games User Research" book, a compendium of insights from over 40 experts on UX research in games. His research and professional work is carried out in collaboration with companies spanning the industry. He has worked on pre- and post-release evaluation of more than 25 commercial games including award-winning titles such as Crysis 2, PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist, and Weirdwood Manor. He also served as UX Research Director at Execution Labs (Montréal, Canada) from 2015 - 2017 and was a UX Researcher at Vertical Slice/Player Research (UK) from 2009 to 2013.

Abstract:

Optimizing user experience (UX) in games is a challenging task for developers. With the overwhelming diversity and sheer size of the data that can be collected from both players and games themselves, it can be difficult to know where to start. This talk provides an overview of when, where, and how to collect data during the iterative development process and post-launch. It will examine how this data can be used to improve the game experience, reviewing several case studies of data-driven UX approaches applied to commercial games. Finally, it will investigate how game data collection and analysis might evolve in the next few years, helping equip developers with the knowledge they need to apply state-of-the-art games user research (GUR) methods.

Biography:

Andrew Hogue is an Associate Professor at Ontario Tech University, Canada within the Faculty of Business and Information Technology's Game Development and Entrepreneurship program. His research interests include the development and evaluation of game design techniques for education, stereoscopic visualization and virtual reality. He is currently interested in understanding how environmental, technology and design parameters affect the user experience in virtual reality.  Advances in this area will undoubtedly enable developers to create better stereoscopic 3D video game content. During his Master of Science studies at York University, USA he developed hardware and software for immersive virtual reality displays, as well as a variety of stereoscopic 3D applications to evaluate the effectiveness of head-tracking on user immersion. He has been the driving force behind the design and development of the Game Development Lab at Ontario Tech University, ensuring it has the latest emerging technology for undergraduate and graduate student training/research. Through his past involvement in the Immersive Visual environment project at York University, he has gained interests in psychophysics, stereoscopic 3D, and determining the factors for engagement and immersion in simulation.

He has supervised more than 40 undergraduates as summer research students and fourth-year Capstone projects, and five graduate (MSc/PhD) students. He has also been involved in securing more than $4 million in research funds for a variety of robotics and simulation projects. He has published more than 30 refereed journal and conference articles.

Abstract:

In this talk, I will discuss the current state of artistic tools for VR art creation, limitations and where we should focus our efforts to ensure that future artists can create expressive artifacts that hold up to critical discourse.

Biography:

Alvaro Joffre Uribe Quevedo is an Assistant Professor at the Ontario Tech University, Canada. He received his bachelor's degree in Mechatronics Engineering from Universidad M. Nueva Granada - Colombia, followed by a Master and Doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Brazil. In September 2016, he concluded his Post-Doctoral appointment at the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo, USA researching the effects of games in medical training. His research interests are in virtual reality to develop applications and assessment tools to tailor the immersion and interactions towards effective inclusive and meaningful experiences. He is passionate about gaming technology and an early adopter, currently owning various virtual reality headsets, natural user interfaces, and gaming consoles. His hobbies include drawing, reading (Sci-fi preferably), playing video games and board games, watching anime and collecting figures, and continue learning.

Abstract:

Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality applications are on the rise thanks to the mass production of consumer-level devices and the empowerment produced by affordable development tools. Although mainly marketed for entertainment, such technologies have been found to have a profound effect on in areas associated with training, education, therapy and mindfulness among others. The diversity in applications has been possible due to the various levels of immersion provided by multisensory feedback, ranging from visual immersion using virtual reality head-mounted displays, screen through augmentation of the real world with augmented reality, to holographic projections with mixed reality. Moreover, the computer-generated worlds can be programmed to be driven by simulations to add realism on top of the virtual visualizations presented to the users. In terms of immersion, most advances have taken place in the visual realm, followed by audio feedback, while research and development on haptics, olfactory and gustatory feedback have been recently spiking.
This talk will present the current state of virtual, augmented and mixed reality in training focusing on immersion and interactions as tools for creating engaging experiences. Moreover, it will present challenges and opportunities associated with the development of innovative interactions to better capture natural interactions for more immerse and effective experiences.

Biography:

Saloni Srivatava is a assistant professor in the Sanskriti University, Matura, India.

Abstract:

In this paper, we study overall view about the graphic designing. In this paper history of graphic designing is mentioned and also its role is explained. There are six basic elements, six basic principles and six rules for graphic designing which are explained here for the learner to get the enough knowledge about the graphic designing. The main part for designing the graphic is to know about the color theory, color models and resolution for the images which are also explained in this paper. In the end we explained some of the applications of graphic designing.

Biography:

Nathan Mbambu Kalala is a Researcher and Teacher in the Higher Computer Institutes from 2016 and also Directeur General of ROUGE-GORGE Services at Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2014-15, completed Technical University Degree (TUD), Artificial Intelligence at ESMICOM, Kinshasa. He was coordinator of the National Program for Popularization of New Technologies of Informatics and Communication in Rural Environments.

Abstract:

The 21^st century has opened up to changes that are already difficult to quantify for business as well as for Congolese society as a whole. Information and communication technologies are a factor in accelerating trade. The markets are globalizing, transforming the planet into a small village, at the same time as they are segmenting themselves to retain increasingly mobile and demanding customers. A picture is worth a thousand words as it is said, countless computer graphics innovations have become a new and increasingly important vector of the economic growth of the company because currently, the promotion of the new economy depends on the knowledge and creativity of the human than natural resources. In the past, the Congolese company had difficulties in promoting its activities, there were not enough mechanisms that could help it to get its message of promotion easily to potential customers, it was sometimes necessary to resort to the old methods of raising awareness which consisted of "door to door"; which wastes a lot of time and huge resources to the Congolese company without achieving results expected.
Following all these difficulties listed above, the computer graphics innovation allowed the Congolese company to reach all the layers of the population which is mostly illiterate, through the pictorial and explicit information. The posters played a leading role in this, which we will demonstrate with supporting statistics. With the advent of the web and social networks, the D.R Congolese Company realized that when a user arrives on a web page..., if he finds an infographic, he will be quickly captivated. If the elements are well presented, the statistics, diagrams and other images will attract the eye, will want to know more. In a few minutes, the visitor should understand the principle explained by the image. As fast as he reads, the individual shares it, on his various social network accounts - or possibly on his own blog. This contributes to the large-scale promotion of the company's assets.
The computer graphics innovation allowed to:

• Synthesize and popularize sometimes complex and voluminous information;
• Highlight information through graphics;
• Energize and personalize the image;
• Achieve attractive and viral content.

In conclusion, the D.R Congolese company has realized that on the web, more than one user in two spends just 15 seconds reading the content of a page and that 70% of consumers say that content marketing helps them to appreciate a Mark, it realized that the use of viral computer graphics, fun and rich in information, is essential. It has decidedly turned its back on old and expensive "door to door" methods to focus solely on computer graphics (posters, flyers ...), because it facilitates its promotion and allows it to increase the number of customers, thus promoting its development.