[Computer Graphics]

Joe Rohde, Executive Designer and Senior Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering, is the 3rd Featured Speaker for SIGGRAPH Asia 2009. Scheduled to speak on the 19th of December, his talk is entitled Story Structure and the Design of Narrative Environments.

Rohdes talk will cover some guidelines and principles for creating spaces that serve both the initial needs of the primary designer or storyteller and the needs of future audiences, who may seek to re-adapt the narrative to their own purposes. The rules of storytelling are well understood when applied to traditional linear forms derived from literature, but spatial environments pose challenges that require special treatment. The principles that inform storytelling in built physical space can apply as well to virtual space.

Rohde is currently an Executive Designer and Senior Vice President at Walt Disney Imagineering. He is the creative lead for Disney's Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, and related new projects. He has led conceptualization, design, and production for Disney's Animal Kingdom since its inception in 1990. He also oversees creative development at Disney's newest luxury resort project in Hawaii, which is scheduled to open in 2011.

He also led development and production of Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. This project took him and other Imagineers to the mountains of Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibetan Sichuan, researching the background details to incorporate into the very authentic environment designed for Expedition Everest. His travels for the research and production work were featured in a series of hour-long programs on the Discovery Network.

He began his career at Walt Disney Imagineering as a model designer and scenic painter in 1980, working on the M鸩co pavilion for Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort. He also worked on numerous attractions for the redesigned Fantasyland at Disneyland in the 1980s, Captain EO, and the Norway pavilion for Epcot, before commencing his responsibilities on Disney's Animal Kingdom.

For more information on SIGGRAPH Asia 2009, please visit www.siggraph.org/asia2009

About SIGGRAPH Asia

The 2nd ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia will take place in Pacifico Yokohama, Japan. Featuring an international conference from 16-19 December 2009, SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 offers works that provoke thoughts, explore ideas in innovative ways, address contemporary issues, interactively engage viewers in discovery, and stimulate their intellect and creativity through art, computer animation, courses, education, new technologies, technical papers, sketches and posters.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 also features a trade exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace. Held from 17-19 December 2009, it is also a recruitment ground for job seekers to meet potential employers. Sponsored by ACM, SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 is expected to to bring together 8,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals and enthusiasts from Asia and beyond. For more information, please visit www.siggraph.org/asia2009.

The inaugural SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 was a resounding success. Artists, researchers, developers, gaming experts, filmmakers, as well as academics from 49 countries gathered in Singapore, spending four exciting days to discover new products, talents, technology and techniques in the digital media industry. In all, a total of 49 countries were represented in an array of thought-provoking works and breakthrough ideas presented at the show. For more information, please visit www.siggraph.org/asia2008.

About ACM

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGGRAPH sponsors SIGGRAPH Asia 2009. ACM is an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.

Stop-motion, like hand-drawn animation, is enjoying a sort of repressed popularity these days, thanks in part to the massive popularity of CG animation and the rise of 3-D. But that doesn't mean that the art form will be relegated to the archives of the film industry anytime soon – stop-motion still has many advocates, such as Henry Selick, the man behind 1996's “A Nightmare Before Christmas.”

The keynote speeches by Prof Don Greenberg and Pixar sage Rob Cook weren't the only central attractions in the first ever SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 in Singapore. Delegates were also treated to some eye- and mind-candy in the Art Gallery, Computer Animation Festival and the Emerging Technologies showcases. While I knew these events were crowd-pleasers in the international SIGGRAPH festivals, my expectations were totally blown away by what I saw.

SIGGRAPH is an event focusing on computer graphics held every year in the United States. Established in 1974, it is managed and run by the organization ACM SIGGRAPH (short for Special Interest Group for GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques), with a lot of active and positive support from its parent the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). This year, ACM SIGGRAPH is bringing SIGGRAPH to Asia by hosting the first ever SIGGRAPH Asia event in Singapore – another sign that the tiny island country is the nucleus of all of Asia's advancement in digital media and interactive techniques.

3-D Cinema is poised to make waves all over the film and entertainment world over the next few years, but faces several hurdles along the way, not the least of which is the worldwide financial crisis. Already, industries all over the world are reeling, but Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberger thinks the film industry will do fine – thanks in no small part to 3-D.

Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg kicked off the 3DX Film and Entertainment Technology Festival in Singapore with a keynote address yesterday, joined by Fox co-chair Jim Gianopulos and director/producer James Cameron. Katzenberg praised the state of 3-D technology in film and entertainment, and forecast exciting uses for the technology in the future. At the rate at which 3-D technology is developing, it'll be difficult to doubt his predictions.

If the world needs a sign that Singapore has made the move into the film and entertainment world stage, this is it.

When George Lucas came up with the idea of 3-D holographic images in the Star Wars movies (who could forget R2-D2 projecting the image of Princess Leia?), he was way ahead of his time. Back then, the percentage of the worldwide population owning a television was rapidly on the rise, but no one really thought of 3-D much.

It just keeps getting better. A few days ago I wrote an article about computer-animated films, wondering just what the next big thing in the film industry was going to be. I just didn't expect the next big thing to happen so quickly – in the form of 3-D films!

It seems like only yesterday when Disney's The Little Mermaid ushered in the Disney Renaissance of 1989-1999. The film was so successful that it won two Academy Awards and a generous helping of praise from viewers worldwide. After everyone eventually grew out of singing Under The Sea, they waited for the next piece of magic Disney would pull out of its sleeve.

And they came and came. From Beauty And The Beast to Aladdin to The Lion King, Disney enjoyed monstrous success with their animated films. But when it looked like nothing could stop animated films from their commercial and critical success, in walked 1995's Toy Story.

I'm convinced that Toy Story is still one of the best computer-animated films ever made, and is responsible for causing the major industry shift from hand-drawn to computer-generated methods in film production. The Renaissance of traditional animated films went on for a few more years, but its fate was sealed – computer-animated films were going to be the status quo.

After Brother Bear marked the end of Disney's Feature Animation studio in Orlando, virtually all successful animated films were computer-generated. Ice Age, Finding Nemo, and Shrek quickly comes to mind. When computer-animated films are so successful, is there any reason to go back to the traditional methods of animation?

Apparently, Oscar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki thinks so.

Enter Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea, Miyazaki's latest brainchild. Ponyo doesn't simply go back to the traditional methods of animation – it goes all the way back to pre-school, where everything was drawn by crayon.

Yep, you read that right – Ponyo is almost entirely drawn by crayon.

Miyazaki says that animation today still needs a pencil and man's drawing hand. Ponyo's art is at once very human and very engaging, and is already making waves in Japan. It has already grossed a decent 11.46 billion yen (US$104 million) since it opened on July 19 this year. It will be released in Europe within the year. Disney will be distributing Ponyo in the United States, although no release dates have been announced as of yet. Basing on my distribution experience I am inclined to predict Ponyo will be swimming to US shores around August/September 2009.

Is this any indication that the novelty of computer-animated films is wearing off? I don't think so, but Ponyo will definitely be a refreshing change of scenery. I think computer animation can feel stiff and formal after a while, lacking the fluid movements and transitions of Tarzan, for instance.

What's more, Miyazaki's novel method of animation may open the doors for more creative expressions in future films. Computer-generated crayon textures? Who knows.

To close this article, I'd like to share the comments of an architect friend of mine. He eschews all the 3-D modeling and rendering software available on the market today, and instead continues to produce his perspective drawings by hand. Why?

“My clients smile more when the perspectives are hand-drawn,” he simply says.