June 17, 2013 - (Chicago, IL) – SIGGRAPH 2013, 21 -25 July at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, released the final lineup of 15 Production Sessions to be featured at this year’s conference. These Production Sessions are part of the overall Computer Animation Festival, which is open to the public and accessible for as little as $150.

“There’s only one place where the world’s best creative and technical people converge for a week of exchanging industry know-how and ideas that helps everyone push the boundaries of what is possible forward,” says Jerome Solomon, SIGGRAPH 2013 Production Sessions Chair from Cogswell College. “These incredible production sessions are just one example of what is so great about SIGGRAPH and makes it so unique.”

The Computer Animation Festival, chaired this year by Jason R.M. Smith, is recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival. Since 1999, several works originally presented in the Computer Animation Festival have been nominated for or have received a "Best Animated Short" Academy Award. This year’s selections will be featured during the Computer Animation Festival through a series of daily Festival Screenings and the iconic Electronic Theater, allowing attendees to get a glimpse behind the making of computer generated effects, visualizations, and animations

In all there will be 15 Production Sessions. Here is the full lineup:

Warner Brothers Presents the VFX for 'Man of Steel'
Tuesday, 7/23, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

The Visual Effects teams from MPC, Weta Digital, Double Negative, Scanline and LookFX will each provide a unique insight into their work on Man of Steel. This session is designed to highlight signature moments from the film and show how creative contributions came from around the globe to help deliver one of the year's most exciting films.  The final Q&A with all five vfx studios is not to be missed.

Panelists:

• Dan Lemmon - Visual Effects Supervisor, Weta Digital

• Guillaume Rocheron - Visual Effects Supervisor, MPC

• Ged Wright - Visual Effects Supervisor, Double Negative

• Stephan Trojansky, President/Sr. VFX Supervisor, Scanline VFX

• Max Ivins - Visual Effects Supervisor, LOOK Effects

© 2013 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Legendary Pictures Funding, LLC

Blue Sky Studios Presents: The Fantastical World of Epic
Wednesday, 7/24, 3:45 PM - 5:15 PM

At Blue Sky Studios we have always taken inspiration from nature, and that is certainly true of our latest movie, Epic. For example, the armor of the Leafmen was inspired by the multi-segmented exoskeleton of crickets. Their costumes use iris petals instead of muslin fabric, and thistle down instead of tulle. Looking at real-world physics, Leafmen could jump more than twice their height, and their sense of time would be sped up by the change of scale, which was taken into consideration during animation. Along with that, the selective use of a wider-than-usual lens package helped us tell a story about a seemingly distant and fantastical world that feels right at your fingertips. We plan to show this process, along with portions of Epic, which demonstrate these points. We will show some of the reference material that designers and animators used as inspiration and how our cinematography was carefully mapped out in order to better serve our story-telling endeavor.

Panelists:

• Mike Knapp, Art Director

• Galen Chu, Supervising Animator

• Renato Falcão, Cinematographer

TM and © 2013 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Photo Credit: Blue Sky Studios

The Making of Pixar's "The Blue Umbrella"
Sunday, 7/21, 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

A screening of Pixar’s "The Blue Umbrella" will be followed by a "Making-of" presentation with the director Saschka Unseld. He will retrace his journey from discovery of the idea all the way through the Pixar story process and onto the big screen. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the artistry and technology that went into every frame and then re-watch "The Blue Umbrella" with new eyes.

Panelist:

• Saschka Unseld, Director of The Blue Umbrella

© Disney•Pixar. All rights reserved

Industrial Light & Magic Presents: The Visual Effects of "Star Trek Into Darkness"
Tuesday, 7/23, 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett and the team from ILM discuss the visual effects challenges overcome for the intergalactic manhunt portrayed in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek Into Darkness.” From the on-set approach to the effects work to constructing a Starfleet and building and destroying future San Francisco and London, the panelists will cover the creative solutions developed for the film.
 
Panelists:

• Roger Guyett, Visual Effects Supervisor / Second Unit Director

• Paul Kavanagh, Animation Supervisor

Copyright/Image credit: © 2013 Paramount Pictures. Image courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic / Paramount Pictures

Rhythm & Hues Studios presents: How to bake a Pi
Thursday, 7/25, 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

Get a first-hand look at the story behind the stunning, Oscar-winning visuals of Life of Pi as Rhythm & Hues takes you on a journey from script to screen through a world of vast oceans, carnivorous islands, flying fish, bioluminescent jellyfish, whales and tigers. Leaders from the visual effects team will discuss in detail how they attempted to tackle the project, share the hard lessons learned along the way and explain the complex process used to seamlessly combine live-action with extensive digital environments and hand-crafted character animation in a fully-stereo pipeline that required a total rethink of much of the traditional vfx process.
 
Image credit: © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Courtesy Rhythm & Hues Studios.

The Open Source Swimming Hole; C’mon In The Water’s Fine^h^h^h^h Murky
Sunday, 21 July, 2 pm - 3:30 pm

Open Source Software (OSS) has become an integral piece of the ever-expanding Animation and Visual Effects industry. With OSS firmly implemented into many studios’ production and development pipelines, what has been gained? Professionals within these fields will discuss the challenges and benefits of using OSS, reflecting on how the industry has changed as a result. They will look back on their own innovations that have become widespread within the community, in addition to revealing what future developments are in the works.
 
The panelists represent a community of developers and enthusiasts who encourage open collaboration, as they share their thoughts and experiences with the world.
 
Topics Include:

• What are some legality challenges that arise when implementing OSS into a company’s pipeline?

• The benefits and disadvantages between closed source and open source software

• The future of OSS in various studio settings

• Updates and new developments from the panelists