I will not cover why we are not physically at Siggraph. I have been dreaming for years about this event, and 2020 being 2020, it’s finally all remote. For some reasons, I will not experience the complete package, but it’s all good, I mean, we have the Internet and it’s simply awesome to experience Siggraph from the comfort of our home (different, but still awesome).

The first talk I have on my schedule is linked with Vulkan. Given by Professor Mike Bailey, this course explores how to get started with Vulkan, and what are the major differences from other graphics API such as OpenGL and DX. https://eecs.oregonstate.edu/people/bailey-mike

First, I have to say that Professor Bailey is very dynamic and passionate in his communications! :) It just feels like having a class in person, he delivers, and shares some incredible infos on Vulkan! I have been messing around this API for a few months, and this course really dives in some particular details on why to use Vulkan.

It was a 3 hours course, I made it non-stop taking notes and making sure that I had the references on what to look forward to later this fall. What I really enjoyed was the part on shaders compilation using Shaderc and also how Professor Bailey explained how the drawing in Vulkan was not that different from other APIs.

I subscribed to this talk because I thought it would be interesting to understand a bit more on the color spaces. Theresa-Marie Rhyne gave a lecture on color spaces and how the brain deals with colors from a computer's level, how projectors mix colors to make sure what a color is “seen as” but might not be “treated as” during computation levels.

This talk is a must watch, to get a good understanding of color spaces and how different devices deal with colors. The Q&A was relevant too, as I learned about the existence of this book, that I will for sure order to get a physical copy!

Also, what about the incredible works explaining all the color spaces and what are the techniques to make them even better using technologies. It was deeply impressive to see Theresa-Marie explaining a lot of the technical aspects both from painting and technical approaches.

Being a cinephile, there was no question I would miss this presentation on the latest VFX presentation of Star Wars. While not being a fan of the franchise, I have to say that the rendering techniques and creative process to deliver this movie are inspiring!

It was so awesome to see how they created a lot of the places and scenes on different moods! The first part of the talk focusing on the desert was very inspiring and made me wonder how cinema and CGI could benefit from including both arts and tech into a production. Honestly one of the most dynamic talks of Siggraph so far: full of information, with a clever delivery.

A talk that presents both the technical aspect and the art vision of the language of cinematography! Hands down, the best presentation of the day!

Coming from a family where cinema and movies was part of my education, it was deeply inspiring to see how CG can be used for story-telling, both on the technical post-production and also on the production level. The devotion of the team behind this movie is mind blowing.