SIGGRAPH is the melting pot where the newest of technologies and the brightest of minds come together under one roof. This year’s conference took place August 12-18 in Vancouver, BC. With more than 50,000 attendees and content topics spanning CG, Animation, VR, Games, Digital Art, Mixed Reality, and more, it’s the world’s largest conference on computer graphics.

To kick-off the conference, our CMO Clive Downie gave a keynote on the Business Symposium stage titled, “How Real-Time 3D is Driving Creative Endeavors.” Clive discussed the significance of real-time 3D content and how technological advancements that were born in the gaming industry are now beginning to power new types of collaboration, creativity, and workflow.

Clive’s keynote was a great segue into our presence at SIGGRAPH this year – where we showcased the power of real-time rendering and just how 3D content creation tools are fostering unprecedented artistic freedom and greatly simplifying workflows in industries like film, games, and automotive.

The biggest news was our announcement of “Baymax Dreams” and our collaboration with Disney Television Animation. Director Simon Smith (Bee Movie, Penguins of Madagascar) and Adam Myhill, Creative Director at Unity, gave a live demonstration of real-time directing for episodic CG animation, where Simon took a ‘beat’ from the scene and reworked it live—with Adam changing the lighting, camera frame, effects, and staging in real-time as they worked. Simon even did some acting and recorded his own voice, adding it straight into the scene for the final shot. The “Baymax Dreams” real-time shorts are part of the Emmy Award-nominated television series “Big Hero 6: The Series,” with the first episode airing September 29 (and on the Disney Channel YouTube account and DisneyNOW starting September 15).

Sonder writer and director Neth Nom presented on Toon Shading and Lighting, in addition to offering audiences a screening of the full film. Sonder has already been accepted to nine film festivals in 2018 with more to come in 2019.

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Adam 2: The Mirror by Oats Studios and Book of the Dead by Unity’s demo team were screened as official program selections in the Computer Animation Festival (also known as the CAF). Both projects were also featured in Real-Time Live! (timestamps at 18:40 and 1:06:00 respectively), and Unity partnered with Technicolor to reveal a new demo of a Unity-powered virtual production platform. Innovations in virtual cinematography and real-time filmmaking are empowering directors, DPs, and other creators with full multi-user collaboration and live manipulation of environments.

Adam Myhill, Creative Director at Unity, took part in “The Present and Future of Real-time Graphics For Film”, a panel discussing how real-time tools are being used in the film industry and what that means for the future of filmmaking. It was an interesting discussion among industry thought-leaders including representatives from Pixar Animation Studios.

Natalya Tatarchuk, Director of Global Graphics at Unity and SIGGRAPH 2018 Games Focus Area Chair, conducted two courses titled “Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games.” The two-part course dove deep into production-proven rendering techniques for “fast, interactive rendering of complex and engaging virtual worlds of video games.”

SIGGRAPH was a great venue to meet and hear from talented creators across gaming, film and other industries. It was amazing to witness all the ways creators across the world are harnessing the power of Unity and pushing its capabilities to create innovative experiences and bring their ideas to life.

If you’re interested in learning more about Unity at SIGGRAPH 2018, take a look here. Also, keep an eye out on our YouTube channel as we release sessions from SIGGRAPH.