The Technical Sketches & Posters program provides a dynamic forum for new and thought-provoking ideas, techniques, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Its content ranges from academic research to industrial development and from practical tools to behind-the-scenes explanations of commercial and artistic work. It is ideal for presenting innovative ideas that are not yet fully polished, high-impact practical contributions that build on existing research, and cool "tricks" that help users solve challenging problems.
Technical sketches are scheduled oral presentations of about 15 minutes followed by a question-and-answer session. The technical content is also described in a two-page document, which is included in the SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 DVD-ROM and published in the ACM Digital Library.
Posters combine display of visual materials in a high-traffic area within the convention center with a scheduled poster session, where authors informally explain and possibly demo their work to interested attendees. Authors have the option to submit multimedia posters that include video. Accepted multimedia posters will be played in a loop on a large screen in addition to the standard printed display.
Whether you are coming up with what-if ideas, developing new techniques, or using existing ones in novel ways, your submission is welcome. We encourage submissions from animators, developers, educators, students, and researchers from academia and industry. We also welcome submissions that provide technical details on work submitted to the Computer Animation Festival. Typical examples include:
The deadline for submission to SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Technical Sketches & Posters is 30 August 2011, 23:59 UTC/GMT. Please return to this page often for further submission details and review the Frequently Asked Questions before contacting us.
If your question is not already answered there, please use this form to contact us.
Be a part of this exciting exchange of brand new ideas and techniques. Be a 21st-century pioneer and contribute to SIGGRAPH Asia 2011!
Use the Technical Sketches & Posters Online Submission Form to submit your proposal before the submission deadline (30 August 2011, 23:59, UTC/GMT). All forms must be completed, and all materials must be successfully uploaded by that time. The submission deadline will be strictly enforced.
We strongly encourage starting the submission form well before the deadline. Also, please do not wait until the last minute to upload your files. See Uploading Files for complete information.
Log in to the SIGGRAPH Asia Information System, select Begin a New Submission, and then select "create" for the Technical Sketches & Posters Submission Form.
Submission Options
The submission form gives you the opportunity to specify whether your work should be considered a sketch or a poster, or both. If you choose both categories, the jury will decide which format is appropriate for your submission. Due to the limited number of time slots for oral presentations, only the strongest submissions will be selected as Technical Sketches. If a submission is specified as "Technical Sketches only" and it is rejected, it will not be considered for a Poster presentation. "Posters only" submissions will not be considered as Technical Sketches. All posters submitted with a video attachment will be considered for the multimedia poster program (which provides an extra display of the accepted material on a large screen in a high-traffic area of the convention center).
Sorting Topic
The Technical Sketches & Posters Chair will use the Sorting Topic to assign your submission to reviewers who are best able to assess your work. Please be as accurate as possible when specifying it.
English Review Service
If English is not your first language, you may use the English Review Service to help with the text of submissions. Please note that this takes time, so your submission should be submitted to the English Review Service well before the final Technical Sketches & Posters deadline. Make sure to indicate your request by ticking the appropriate checkbox in the submission form.
Submission Content
Your submission must include the following materials and information. The total size of all uploaded files should not exceed 100 MB:
A one- or two-page document describing your work (PDF): this self-contained document, formatted according to the SIGGRAPH template for technical papers, should be at most one page long for Posters and two pages long for Technical Sketches (a submission you wish to be considered for both can be two pages long). It should briefly explain your work, emphasize what is novel about it, and explain the concept or the technique, using appropriate figures, tables, results, and references. See this sample for formatting guidelines. Other instructions can be found on this page.
Prepare the document with the Submission ID number alongside the printed title. For example: "Rendering Hair (sap_0029)". You will be assigned a Submission ID number, of the form "sap_0029" when you create an Online Submission Form. This number will be used to identify your submission throughout the review process. In all other ways, the document must be in the final format. For instance it should include the names of all collaborators on the work and their institutions, since the reviewing process is not double-blind. Submissions that are more than two-pages long or that are improperly formatted will not be considered.
One representative image (JPG) suitable for use on the conference web site and promotional materials: All submissions should include a representative digital image that should be of the highest print quality possible, pixel resolution of at least 1500 x 1200 (at least 300 dpi at 5 inches wide, with depth proportional) or the highest possible screen grab. Images must be submitted in JPG format.
Up to three supplementary materials (OPTIONAL): The one- or two-page
document must stand alone as an overview of the proposed sketch or poster. But in many cases, providing extra material could help the jury to evaluate the work. Accordingly, authors may provide supporting material in the form of video, images, and/or further documentation:
- Images: Authors may provide high-resolution images to demonstrate their work. They must be in one of these formats: TIFF, JPEG. PNG, BMP, GIF.
- Video: All submitters are encouraged to provide video demonstrations of their projects when available. A video must be provided for posters to be considered for the multimedia poster program. The video may be uploaded in one or more separate files. We can only accommodate videos in QuickTime, MPEG-4, or DivX Version 5 (or later) formats. The total length of all videos should not exceed five minutes. Remember that the total size of all uploaded files should not exceed 100 MB.
- Documentation: In some cases, results can best be conveyed as a document with images, graphs, charts, and so forth. Supporting documentation should be in PDF format, up to three pages long, and should contain mostly captioned figures or tables. Please refrain from submitting an expanded paper, as the jury will not have time to read it.
Please review the Frequently Asked Questions for more tips and guidelines on how to prepare your sketch or poster and what to submit.
All submitters must complete the Submission and Authorization Agreement (formerly the Acceptance Agreement) before the submission deadline. Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed or accepted.
You must review your permissions (part of your original online submission form) and complete the Submission and Authorization Agreement by entering an electronic signature before the submission deadline. You can already peruse and sign the agreement during the submission process. We strongly recommend this. If you do not complete your Submission and Authorization Agreement with an electronic signature, your work cannot be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2011.
The Submission and Authorization Agreement is a legal document. It explains the uses SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 makes of presented material and requires you to acknowledge that you have permission to use this material. This may involve seeking clearance from your employer or from others who have loaned you material, such as videotapes and slides. The agreement helps prevent situations whereby SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 presentations include material without permission that might lead to complaints or even legal action. In addition, this agreement asks if ACM SIGGRAPH may use your materials for conference and organization promotional material in exchange for full author/artist credit information.
For a better understanding of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Submission and Authorization Agreement please review the Submission and Authorization Agreement Explanation.
Jury Review
All submissions will be reviewed by a jury of academic and industry professionals in computer graphics, animation, games, interactive techniques, art, and related fields. The Technical Sketches and Posters Chair and Committee are responsible for conducting the jury process in order to set up a high-quality program, with exciting talks and posters sessions.
The review process is single blind, which means the reviewers will know who the authors are, but the authors will not know who the reviewers are. Thus, submissions should include the names and affiliations of the authors.
Notification
Submitters will be notified of acceptance or rejection by the end of September 2011.
Technical Sketches
If your work is accepted as a Technical Sketch, you will be required to prepare two extra PowerPoint slides for the Technical Sketches Fast Forward session. A two-minute presentation slot will be allocated to you in this session, in addition to the 15-minute presentation followed by five minutes of questions, in your regular Technical Sketches session (the exact time allocations may change slightly depending on the number of accepted presentations). Please check the conference program to find out when and where the Fast Forwards and your session are scheduled. For information on the Speaker Preparation Room, Session Room Equipment, Slide Preparation, and Movies in Presentations, see Speaker Preparation.
Posters
If your work is accepted as a Poster, you will be required to print the actual large-format poster and display it as soon as possible in the location that will be specified in your instructions. If your work is accepted as a multimedia poster, you will also be asked to provide a slide with embedded video, to be part of a poster loop played on a large screen in the convention center. During the poster presentation session, the poster must be staffed at all times by at least one person, and you are encouraged to bring a portable computer to demo your work.
For instructions about preparation and delivery of your final content for publications, see the poster format examples. Please carefully follow the instructions in the acceptance letter.
Presenter Recognition
Presenters are expected to cover their own travel costs, which are not covered by SIGGRAPH Asia 2011. One contributor for each accepted submission will receive a registration discount as specified in the SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Recognition Policy.
Publication
All work selected for the Technical Sketches & Posters program will be documented in the SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 Full Conference DVD-ROM, a publication that provides an ISBN and ACM order number. The work will also be published in the ACM Digital Library.
Policies
Submissions
How to Get Accepted or Rejected
1. Is a Technical Sketch or Poster a publication?
Technical Sketches & Posters are publications. Both submission types will be published in the ACM Digital Library after the conference. This was one of the important changes to the program starting from SIGGRAPH Asia 2009. We hope this will further encourage you to submit your work to this program.
2. Will my Technical Sketch or Poster preclude publication of my idea in future conferences and journals?
No. Publishing a Technical Sketch or Poster does not prevent you from submitting an extended paper in the future. Most conferences and journals require at least 30% of new material when a paper extends prior work, which should not be difficult since the Technical Sketch or Poster document is no more than two pages.
3. Can I submit work I've published or submitted elsewhere?
No, Technical Sketches & Posters is dedicated to presenting new, unpublished work. Work that is under review elsewhere (for example, by a journal or another conference) cannot be submitted to the Technical Sketches & Posters program. Such dual submissions are widely considered unethical.
4. How should I present work that is based on a recent paper I wrote but extends that work?
Submissions with new, incremental results based on previous publications are a common occurrence. You must reference the original paper(s) and clearly explain what in your submission is new. To consider the work for acceptance, the jury expects about 30% new material that goes beyond the previous publication.
5. Can I submit work that I did for my thesis?
Yes, provided that work has not already been extracted from the thesis and formally published.
6. My SIGGRAPH or SIGGRAPH Asia Technical Paper was rejected. Can I submit a shorter description of the same work to Technical Sketches & Posters?
Yes, provided it is not currently under review or scheduled to appear elsewhere. Notification of Technical Papers acceptances will happen well before the Technical Sketches & Posters submission deadline. This will leave you several weeks to prepare a one- to two-page document describing the work and submit it along with additional materials, using the normal Technical Sketches & Posters submission mechanism.
7. My company has a great new product that is of general interest to the SIGGRAPH community. Can I submit a Technical Sketch or Poster about it?
A simple product announcement is not appropriate for the Technical Sketches & Posters program. However, a methods or systems description of the engineering design and algorithms behind the product could be appropriate.
8. Can my company have a dedicated session in which we present a collection of Technical Sketches about various aspects of a large project?
No. You are welcome to submit a collection of related work. However, the jury will evaluate the submissions individually and decide whether to accept each one individually, so each must stand on its own. For those that are accepted for Technical Sketch presentation, we can't promise that they will be presented together in a single session. They may be grouped into sessions with other Technical Sketches that present similar techniques.
Submissions
9. Why do you only accept electronic submissions?
The jury has a small amount of time to review a large number of submissions. Electronic submission allows the jury to start the review process almost immediately. It also saves the time and costs involved in shipping submissions to the jury members.
10. Can I submit earlier papers or technical reports as supporting materials?
No, the jury already has its hands full and will not have time to read them. The acceptance decision will be made based on your one-page submission. However, you can provide URLs for the works in your submission or supplemental documentation, so if a specific question arise, jurors can download the works themselves.
11. Do I have to submit a supporting video?
You're not required to, but it is a good idea for both Technical Sketches and posters, and it is necessary for the work to be accepted as a multimedia poster. The power of a video during the jury process cannot be stressed enough. The jury has a small amount of time to review a large number of submissions. Seeing the video can answer many questions that the jury might ask after reading just the one-page document. For instance, the jury is unlikely to accept a Technical Sketch or Poster about animation if they haven't seen the actual animation. In the case of posters, the video can be very useful to give an idea of the demo the authors will be able to show to attendees during the informal presentation sessions.
12. My submission is about production effects, but the studio won't give permission to submit a supporting video because the movie hasn't been released yet. What should I do?
First, be certain that you will have permission to show the actual effects at the conference. If possible, submit a video that uses non-sensitive stand-in models or scenes to illustrate the techniques in question, with an explanation that the real thing will be shown at the conference. Contact the Technical Sketches & Posters Co-Chairs to see if some special arrangement can be worked out. If all else fails, submit without a video, but with an extra document listing in detail what the contents of the video will be, illustrated with still frames if possible.
14. My video files are larger than 100 MB. What should I do?
The total size of your uploads should stay below 100 MB, to allow jurors in various locations around the world to easily download them. Remember that the total length of your video must not exceed five minutes. The jurors won't have time to watch more than that. To fit the size requirement, you can try to decrease the image resolution and/or use a better compression technique. You can also try a higher compression rate at the cost of slightly reduced image quality.
15. Can I submit a supporting videotape in VHS NTSC or PAL format?
Unfortunately, you cannot. Supplemental videos must be uploaded in digital form to save everyone the effort of making and shipping multiple copies of videotapes.
How to Get Accepted or Rejected
16. Do you have any advice on how to write my Technical Sketch so it will be accepted?
First of all, make sure your submission is no more than two pages long. The jury has a small amount of time to review a large number of submissions. Submissions that are longer than two pages will be rejected without review.
It should be immediately obvious at the beginning of your document what the motivation for your work and the new contribution(s) are. Just one or two sentences such as: "We present a new method for ... that's N times faster than ..." Or: "We have conducted a new study comparing A and B." Or: "Effect X in feature film Y presented a new challenge." Or something similar.
Try to focus on one or two key ideas. Two pages is not a lot of space. For example, it is almost impossible to summarize all the contributions of a regular, eight-page paper in two pages. Remember that the jury members have very limited time to "get it", so keep it simple.
You should cite previous work where appropriate. Of course, there is not space for a huge bibliography, but a few key references are helpful. If you propose to present work that extends previous work of your own, cite the previous work and explain what is different. For example: "We build on our previous work [1] by ..." If there has been previous work by several others, choose one major work to cite and state why your work is different. For example: "Unlike previous work, such as [1], we ..."
There are few graphics techniques and applications that result in absolutely no visuals. Submit supporting images or video to illustrate your work. The jury is more likely to accept a Technical Sketch or Poster if they can examine the results.
Lastly, non-native English speakers may wish to make use of the English Review Service to check for grammar and readability before submitting their abstracts. Please note that this takes time, so your submission must be submitted to the English Review Service well in advance of the published deadline. Make sure to indicate your request by ticking the appropriate checkbox in the submission form.
Examples of successful Technical Sketches and Posters from SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 can be found in the ACM Digital Library.
Why are submissions rejected?
Submissions that are longer than two pages will be rejected without review. For technical submissions, several phrases are commonly heard just before rejection: "Good solutions to this problem already exist. I see no motivation for this specific one." "There's not enough new here." "It's not clear enough. I don't understand it." "There's not enough evidence to demonstrate the claims." "I'm not impressed by the results." "This has been done before." Try to get the reviewers excited, thinking: "Hey, this is a talk I would like to attend!"
30 August 2011 (23:59 UTC/GMT)
Submission deadline
September 2011
Jury review
Late September 2011
Acceptance notification
Two weeks after acceptance notification
Final materials submission
12-15 December 2011
SIGGRAPH Asia 2011
