Content Includes Work From Baobab Studios, ESPN, Google, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and More; Magic Leap To Release ‘The Last Light’

CHICAGO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — August 18, 2020 — SIGGRAPH 2020 announces its immersive programming and the winner of the second-annual Best in Show – Immersive Experience award. The conference, which kicked off yesterday and runs 17–28 August, will offer virtual participants the chance to learn all about the making of over 30 experiential projects, as well as a few unique opportunities to this year’s event. Conference content will be available online and on-demand through 27 October.

DeepView Immersive Light Field Video © 2020 Google (Graphic: Business Wire)

During the conference, Magic Leap will be releasing its long-awaited “The Last Light” experience — a VR Theater selection — to the Magic Leap World store.

“The VR Theater was met with challenges this year, but we are thrilled to have worked with our contributors to elevate their incredible projects and offer a peek into how they were created,” said SIGGRAPH 2020 VR Theater Director Monica Cappiello, of Cogswell College. “We’re doing this through two ‘making of’ director’s panels as well as some exclusive on-demand content for participants.”

Typically a seated, theatrical space, the VR Theater may not be the same to this year’s virtual visitors, but the team is excited to offer 10 selections, including a VR playbill created exclusively for the conference by a team of students from Savannah College of Art and Design and available for free via the Steam store. (Read about the making of the project here.) Chosen by expert juries from hundreds of submissions, the Immersive Pavilion adds to the content mix with 20 selections of its own. A testament to how technology creates opportunities to think beyond, the immersive content presented spans everything from sports and haptics to immersion in historic events. Participants with appropriate hardware will also be able to experience the following selections: “The Book of Distance”, “Dr. Crumb's School for Disobedient Pets”, and “The Outpost”.

“While a chance to experience, play, and learn about these technological advances across the evolving mediums of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality physically is not in the cards this year, the education and entertainment value is still there,” added SIGGRAPH 2020 Immersive Pavilion Chair Chris Redmann, of Unity Technologies. “The content our creators will share with the community is incredibly inspiring.”

Highlights across all immersive programming include:

BEST IN SHOW – Immersive Experience
DeepView Immersive Light Field Video | Immersive Pavilion
On-demand: 17–28 August; Session: Friday, 28 August, 9 am PDT
Experience 6DOF immersive VR from Google’s system for capturing, reconstructing, compressing, and rendering high quality light fields. The representation is streamable, while allowing for realistic reflections on water surfaces, atmospheric effects such as sparks and fire, and complex thin structures including tree branches. Details.

Battlescar – Punk was invented by girls | VR Theater
On-demand: 17–28 August; Panel: Wednesday, 26 August, 3 pm PDT
“Battlescar” follows a year in the life of Lupe, a Puerto Rican-American living in the late 1970s in New York City. She meets Debbie, a runaway kid who introduces her to the punk scene. Details.

ESPN VR Batting Cage | Immersive Pavilion
On-demand: 17–28 August; Session: Wednesday, 26 August, 8:30 am PDT
The ESPN VR Batting Cage is an interactive, immersive experience that can engage sports fans dynamically with live pitch data. Details.

The Last Light | VR Theater
On-demand: 17–28 August; Panel: Wednesday, 26 August, 3 pm PDT
In this richly imagined story from Magic Leap, a young woman travels home to deal with a difficult family situation, reliving childhood memories throughout her journey. Details.

Baba Yaga: Designing An Interactive Folktale | Talks
On-demand: 17–28 August
Baobab Studios presents experiments in authoring interactive, VR narratives across its two most recent projects: “Baba Yaga” and “Bonfire”. Details.

'Myth: A Frozen Tale' – Stylized Effects for Real-time VR | Talks
On-demand: 17–28 August; Live Q&A: Wednesday, 26 August, 12:30 pm PDT
The first VR short inspired by a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film, “Myth: A Frozen Tale” challenged effects artists to create a highly stylized world and the elemental spirits living within it. Details.

View a sneak peek of all gaming and interactive content on the ACM SIGGRAPH YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/fWp8AoDFdXo. If you’re looking for even more from our 2020 contributors, check out episode 36 of the SIGGRAPH Spotlight podcast in which we cover multiperson immersive experiences, or watch the VR Theater preview trailer here: https://youtu.be/Tm0kmh3bMEs.

Immersive programming is open to Ultimate and Enhanced pass holders. Register now through 11 September for SIGGRAPH 2020, the 47th international conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques, at s2020.SIGGRAPH.org/register.

About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH 2020

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2020, the 47th annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place virtually.

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