The house that Shrek built will prominently feature its star CG creation when the artists at DreamWorks Animation descend upon San Diego, Calif. for this year’s SIGGRAPH. The studio will host a series of special programs and courses as it also recruits artists to fill more than 50 positions for all upcoming movies including Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar: The Crate Escape, Monsters vs. Aliens and How to Train Your Dragon.
‘Shrek-a-logy: The History of an Ogre’ is a special program that will be presented on Tuesday, Aug. 7 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in room 6DE. Philippe Gluckman, Matt Baer, Raman Hui, Dave Smith and Tom Hester will offer unique insights into how the Shrek world evolved over the life of the franchise, both technically and creatively. All of the panelists have held key roles on all the Shrek films and will share stylistic conceits, technical overviews, production tips and anecdotes, all illustrated by behind-the-scenes material and visual breakdowns.
The growth of the ogre will be looked at in further detail with a course titled ‘From Shrek to Shrek the Third: Evolution of a CG Animated Character.’ Philippe Gluckman, Dave Doepp, Scott Peterson, Jason Waltman, Larry Cutler, Lucia Modesto and Bill Seneshen will discuss the choices that helped keep the franchise unique, as well as the challenges of constantly adapting to new technical and creative demands on Sunday from 1:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in room 6AB-CF).
‘Strands and Hair Simulation’ will be the topic of discussion on Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Presented by Sunil Hadap, the course will cover the gamut of hair simulation problems and present working solutions as artists learn to take full advantage of recent advances in hair modeling, rendering and animation.
Allen Ruilova will examine how DreamWorks Animation is using lighting, rendering and fluid simulation to create realistic-looking CG honey for the upcoming film Bee Movie during one of the posters being presented on Monday and Wednesday from 12:15p.m. to 1:15p.m.). Other titles include ‘Poseable Dynamics for Merlin’s Beard,’ ‘3000+ Variations of the Voronoi Diagram’ and ‘Tiled Cracked Networks.’
For the fourth consecutive year, DreamWorks Animation is hosting the SIGGRAPH Educators’ Luncheon Symposium, a forum for college and university level educators to discuss and debate directions and strategies for Digital Media education. In addition, the studio is sponsoring FJORG!, a new international computer graphics animation competition that will see 15 three-member teams go head-to-head in an intense, 32-hour character animation competition held before a live audience. Winners will be announced during a special session on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
