SIGGRAPH '23: ACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Labs

Geometry Nodes is a procedural modeling and animation system that has been part of Blender since 2021, with Blender 2.92. It was initially focused on set dressing, procedural modeling and initial hair grooming. However in Blender 3.6 similation nodes were finally added. The class will be a hands-on show and tell of Geometry Nodes with particular emphasis on the brand new simulation systems.

This lab will provide a hands-on introduction to visualization of spatial data using interactive maps that can be deployed as public web pages. We will use a combination of RStudio, the Shiny package, and the Leaflet open-source library to provide an introduction on how to combine data and maps to create public web pages. Attendees will gain an overview of RStudio, Leaflet, and Shiny Applications. They will learn how to install packages for leaflet and Shiny, create and customize different types of leaflet maps, including a choropleth, and develop a Shiny application deployable on the web.

AI-generated images burst onto the scene about a year ago, with tools like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL·E 2 all making their debut in 2022. How do these models work, and how can they be used in a production setting? In this talk, we will give an overview of how models like DALL·E 2 work and how to leverage their architectures to make them truly useful tools in the creative process. Although there are differences between each specific model architecture, the takeaways from understanding this particular stack are transferable to the others.

Paper Animatronics is a new way for elementary school kids to engage with subject matter through project-based learning. We’re upgrading the classic shoe box diorama, and empowering kids to bring it to life by adding servo motors, sound and lights to create compelling characters and shows. In this workshop designed for teachers, parents and other advocates for creative education, you will get to work hands-on with our new paper animatronics kits. These make it easy to create talking characters that you can voice in real-time or use in more complex, scripted shows where things move and light up on cue using a synchronized Arduino program. Through these activities, you will see how kids learn to be creative across both technical and artistic disciplines as they explore class subject matter.

Flamenco is the Open Source render farm software, developed by Blender Studio. It is aimed at performing tasks such as frame rendering and video encoding. This hands-on class will teach how to install and use it, and most importantly, how to adjust and extend it for your specific needs.

The proliferation of smartphones has made it easy for anyone to take digital photographs, and the recent popularization of text-to-image models has made it easy for anyone to create images. In this age, by combining digital technology with the tactile experience of handmade processes, we can rediscover the joy of creating with our own hands and the emotional connection that comes from physically interacting with our work. Previously, we proposed a new printing framework that integrated computer processing with full-color cyanotype printing. In this work, we demonstrate expanding the range of aesthetic expressions with computer processing for tone adjustment with several alternative processes such as salt print, platinum print, and cyanotype. In the installation, we present our printing framework with the user interface and exhibit works utilizing our proposed method. The use of new media developed after the digital age and the integration of computer processing in photo printing may be a way to create a new photographic life with the joy of materialising scenery.

This hands-on exhibition, based upon a physical computing artwork, will allow conference-goers to participate in the creation of an ongoing audio-visual composition.

This SIGGRAPH lab is an introduction to creating reactive graphics in p5.js that respond to inputs from external sensors connected through a hand-built circuit via the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. Participants are guided through the process of building a working hardware and software template that can be further customised for their own creative designs.

This hands-on class will allow artists to use open-source tools to create interactive and immersive experiences. These tools have been created and incubated at the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), a unique non-profit organization in Canada whose mission is to democratize technologies to enable people to experience and author multisensory immersions. During the class we invite participants to use their favorite software on platforms they are already familiar with, to interface with our tools. The toolset will include transmission protocols, video mapping tools, sound spatialization software, and gestural control using pose detection. The class will be organized in two parts: a presentation of the tools and context involving the development and applications, and a hands-on session with an ephemeral immersive space. This event is designed for art researchers, artists, designers, content creators, and other creatives interested in creating immersive spaces using research-developed tools. Participants will learn how to employ open-source tools for different artistic tasks so that they will be able to deploy their own immersive spaces after the class.

In this case study, we explore the possibilities between Generative AI and tactile graphics for inclusivity in computer graphics communities. The use of Generative AI in the design of tactile graphics has made it possible to support the processes used by publishers and tactile graphics designers. In addition, the idea of printing tactile graphics on transparent sheets with a 3D printer through digital fabrication technology allows the creation of inclusive tactile picture books that can be read and enjoyed together by sighted and visually impaired people in a single picture book.

This paper discusses a new processing technology for acrylic sheets using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Acrylic are widely used due to their transparency and weather resistance, but current processing methods cannot create embossing features without reductive manufacturing methods. HIFU emits ultrasonic waves that melt the surface of the acrylic sheet, creating bumps that can be controlled by adjusting the irradiation time, speed, distance, and amplitude. This technology can control transparency, line thickness, and tactility and can create bumps and depressions instantaneously, making it potentially useful for embossing, etching, and braille generation. The paper demonstrates the controllable variables of the HIFU approach and highlights its potential for industry as a high-precision acrylic plate processing technology.

Coding empowers automation. Scripts can handle mundane and repetitive tasks in an efficient and precise manner. This course will offer will use an hands-on interactive format to walk attendees through representative scripting projects, selected to be useful for everyday workflows. It is intended to be an intermediate course. The goal is to cover provide enough information for attendees to build on later. Python scripting can automate many tasks in Maya, from running simple commands to developing plug-ins. Attendees will learn how to automate a simple task using the magic of scripting, through a hands-on projects. The course will placing objects in a scene through scripting MASH (motion graphic) networks. Attendees should walk away with a solid understanding of the power Python scripting and Maya commands provide, and the the ability to conceive their own advance projects for Maya. Attendees should have programming experience, preferably in Python, but a solid grasp of the foundational programming constructs should suffice. Attendees should have Autodesk Maya, Python, and Visual Studio Code pre-loaded on their devices if they intend to follow along.