[General] REMINDER: SCA Regular Registration Deadline is Friday!

Symposium on Computer Animation 2013 July 19-21 Anaheim, CA, USA Call for Participation ***The Regular Registration deadline is this Friday, June 28th!*** The 12th annual Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) will take place in sunny Anaheim, California from July 19-21, immediately before SIGGRAPH. With 20 full papers, 4 short papers. and 4 TVCG papers, it promises to be a memorable event. This year's SCA features two exciting keynotes: * Michiel van de Panne (University of British Columbia) Title: Movement Skills for Physics-based Characters: A Roadmap Abstract: Physics-based character animation has a long history as a promising method for modeling the motion of humans and animals. Tremendous progress has been made in this area over the past twenty-five years. However, much work still remains to be done before these methods can become truly successful. Our best models for simulating motions (and controlling robots) still fall well short of the agility, adaptability, and range of skills seen in nature. What have we learned? What is the missing ingredient? When might we realize "downloadable skills" for our simulated characters, our robots, and perhaps our brains? I will present my own roadmap of where we have been, the lessons learned, and where we may need to go next. * Ron Henderson (DreamWorks Animation) Title: The Croods: Modern Technology for a Prehistoric World Abstract: DreamWorks Animation produces family entertainment that is enjoyed by audiences worldwide. It is a major consumer of technology, and employs a skilled workforce of scientists and engineers working to advance the state of the art in computer graphics for film production. In this talk we look at some of the key technology behind our recent film The Croods (2013). The movie follows the story of the world's first family as they embark on the journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Production for The Croods required many diverse locations to represent the exotic world for this adventure, and an equally diverse set of visual effects challenges: earthquakes and landslides, liquids from tar to shallow seas, torches and wildfires, pyroclastic flow and massive deforming volumes. We review how our technology for achieving these effects have evolved rapidly over the last 3-4 years, showcase some of the artistic achievements in this film, and lay out some of the technology challenges we need to overcome in the future.