Kunjungan Siggraph ke Indonesia

Hi All,

Pertemuan Animator Forum dengan Siggraph kemarin sukses besar. Semuanya berlangsung lancar, dan tamu-tamu delegasi SIGGRAPH yang berjumlah 4 orang terlihat impress dengan acara yang kita selenggarakan. Terimakasih atas antusiasme rekan-rekan yang sudah datang, Kita telah tunjukan ke mereka kalau CG(Computer Graphics) di Indonesia exist !

Alain Chesnais, president Siggraph yang ternyata ramah itu mengatakan kalau dia telah mendapatkan apa yang dia cari ke Jakarta. Siggraph pada intinya ingin mengumpulkan informasi mengenai dunia CG di Indonesia, dan dengan demikian bisa lebih efektif dalam mencarikan solusi untuk masalah-masalah yang kita hadapi di bidang industri dan pendidikan.

Acara dimulai dengan presentasi dari Alain Chesnais, mengenai trend masa depan CG. Presentasi yang sangat jelas dan meyakinkan, karena dia adalah salahsatu orang yang berpengaruh dalam menentukan arah perkembangan CG dunia.

Dilanjutkan kemudian oleh Andi S. Boediman yang menjelaskan mengenai dunia pendidikan CG di Indonesia, kondisi saat ini, problem, potensi-potensinya, dan apa kegiatan yang telah dilakukan. Kesimpulannya adalah Indonesia adalah tidak memiliki jurusan yang spesifik mengajarkan CG. Kalaupun ada hanya diajarkan sebagai satu mata kuliah (sekitar 30 jam) di jurusan Visual Komunikasi, Computer, Informatika, Asitektur, atau advertising. Setelah itu Wong Lok Dien juga memberi presentasi tambahan untuk dunia pendidikan programmer CG di Indonesia.

Ada kejadian yang unik kemarin, ketika delegasi menanyakan ke forum "berapa orang disini yang sehari-harinya berkutat dengan CG?" semua mengangkat tangan, namun ketika ditanya "berapa orang yang secara formal belajar CG" maka sedikit sekali. Intinya sebagian besar belajar otodidak, dan team SIGGRAPH surprise dengan kenyataan itu. Untuk pendidikan SIGGRAPH bersedia membantu dengan menyediakan materi yang siap pakai secara gratis, namun harus mendapat dukungan dari institusi-institusi pendidikan di Indonesia, dan tentu saja pemerintah.

Presentasi dilanjutkan oleh Daniel Harjanto mengenai perkembangan CG di Indonesia dari tahun 1980-an (CMIIW) sampai sekarang. Beliau membahas dari perkembangan masing-masing pasar baik CAD/CAM, broadcast, arsitektural, film, dan mulai munculnya game developer. Presentasi ini diikuti oleh beberapa profile company dari masing-masing bidang.

Pembicara terakhir adalah Y.T.Lee dari SIGGRAPH Singapore, mengenai contoh riset dalam dunia CG yang telah dia lakukan. Walaupun teknis, tapi menarik karena di Indonesia tidak pernah ada yang pernah melakukan hal seperti ini. Menurut saya disinilah kelebihan mereka, yang kerap melakukan riset CG hingga tidak sekedar menjadi user melainkan juga membuat sesuatu.

Setelah semua selesai, diadakan sesi tanya-jawab antara delegasi dengan forum, seputar mengenai apakah SIGGRAPH itu, apa keuntungan menjadi bagian dari organisasi itu, dan mengenai Industri Indonesia pada umumnya seperti sofware bajakan, E-learning, dan support yang dibutuhkan. Tanya jawab ini berlangsung santai dan dilanjutkan dengan acara bebas ngobrol2 bersama.

Acara ini kemudian dilanjutkan dengan acara reguler animator forum yang dimulai dari jam 18.00 sampai malam, Para delegasi SIGGRAPH kagum dengan antusiasme para peserta yang datang berjubel. Ini memperlihatkan bahwa peminat CG di Indonesia memang banyak sekali. Mungkin untuk lengkapnya acara reguler AF bisa di tulis menyusul.

Disela-sela acara yang padat, banyak hal2 lain yang bisa dicatat. Seperti saya melihat berkumpulnya para pelaku CG dari Jakarta, Bandung, Jogja, dan Surabaya saling bertemu dan diskusi, membahas aneka ragam topik bisnis, teknis, maupun personal. Selain itu kita berkesempatan untuk berbincang-bincang dekat dengan anggota delegasi yang pengalamannya ajaib. Saya sendiri sempat berbincang tentang bagaimana cara mereka membuat software MAYA, membuat film DINOSAURS, dan lucunya para pembuat aplikasi2 highend 3D itu saling mengenal karena orangnya itu-itu saja. Secara informal mereka juga menganjurkan kalau para pelaku industri berkumpul untuk membentuk chapter SIGGRAPH di Jakarta....

Pada akhirnya kita harus kasih salut ke team yang sudah mempersiapkan acara ini, karena walau dadakan akhirnya bisa juga berlangsung lancar. Dan pertanyaan yang sulit dari semua ini adalah, what next... membuat SIGGRAPH Jakarta ? mungkin bisa jadi topik bahasan baru :-)

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b u
l i t
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Bullitt Sesariza

ACM SIGGRAPH-SEAGRAPH Delegation to Singapore

posted by Alan Chalmers & Barb Helfer at http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~alan/SIGGRAPH/SEAsia/details.htm

Singapore 14 – 17 February 2004



Local Hosts: Singapore Chapter

SIGGRAPH Singapore
c/o Centre for Graphics and Imaging Technology
Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Avenue
Singapore 639798
Fax: 6792 4117
Email: ashsseah@ntu.edu.sg
http://singapore.siggraph.org/





Figure: Visiting the venue of Graphite 2004, which will be held at the impressive facilities of Nanyang Technical University


Centre for Graphics and Imaging Technology

Started in 1989 as the Computer Graphics Centre, the Centre now, together with industrial partners, the Centre now serves as the focal point for graphics and imaging related research and development activities among the university, industry, and business. It aims to advance, promote and transfer such technology to local industry and the international community through training courses, collaboration, consultancy, seminars, and publication. Research in CGIT is conducted by faculty members, full-time and part-time postgraduate students, and undergraduate students of the School of Computer Engineering (SCE), the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), the School of Mechanical and Production Engineering (MPE), and the School of Communication and Information (SCI).

During the delegation’s visit to the Centre, Dr KC Wong showed etails of the work that they have been dong to develop Maya tools to provide an easy interface for creative people. This work includes tools to easily animate bird flight and snakes.



Figure: (a) Dr Wong welcomes the delegation (b) showing the work on animating snakes

Alain Chesnais presented a talk “Current Trends in Computer Graphics” to staff and students of Nanyang Technical University.



Figure: (a) Alain being introduced by YT (b) the audience who were very interested in what Alain had to say, especially about the implications of future GPU developments

ACM SIGGRAPH-SEAGRAPH Delegation to Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and India

posted by Alan Chalmers & Barb Helfer

14 February – 1 March 2004

Local Hosts: Singapore Chapter

SIGGRAPH Singapore
c/o Centre for Graphics and Imaging Technology
Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Avenue
Singapore 639798
Fax: 6792 4117
Email: ashsseah@ntu.edu.sg

http://singapore.siggraph.org/

Figure: Visiting the venue of Graphite 2004, which will be held at the impressive facilities of Nanyang Technical University

6.1.1 Centre for Graphics and Imaging Technology

Started in 1989 as the Computer Graphics Centre, the Centre now, together with industrial partners, the Centre now serves as the focal point for graphics and imaging related research and development activities among the university, industry, and business. It aims to advance, promote and transfer such technology to local industry and the international community through training courses, collaboration, consultancy, seminars, and publication. Research in CGIT is conducted by faculty members, full-time and part-time postgraduate students, and undergraduate students of the School of Computer Engineering (SCE), the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), the School of Mechanical and Production Engineering (MPE), and the School of Communication and Information (SCI).

During the delegation’s visit to the Centre, Dr KC Wong showed etails of the work that they have been dong to develop Maya tools to provide an easy interface for creative people. This work includes tools to easily animate bird flight and snakes.

Figure: Dr Wong welcomes the delegation

Alain Chesnais presented a talk “Current Trends in Computer Graphics” to staff and students of Nanyang Technical University.

Figure: Alain being introduced by YT

6.2 Jakarta, 17-19 February

Local Hosts: Arianto Bigman and Roy Adimulyo

6.2.1 The Animator Forum

Bullitt Sesariza
Jl.Rathkamp AA-10/1 Duren Sawit
JAKARTA 13440

Started in 1999 the Animator Forum is a non profit organization, providing a forum for animators and animation enthusiast in Indonesia to get to know each other, sharing knowledge and experience. This forum was created to encourage a productive climate for animation development in Indonesia. Everyone is invited. The Forum often has events with 60-100 attendees. Their biggest events have been together with digital studios including an animation and visual effects conference, technical workshop, exhibition and presentations.

In Indonesia, most of university work is in graphic design, while animators attend colleges such as digital studio, cybermedia college. Between 75-90 students attend each 15 month course. Most stay as free lancers (50%) in Indonesia. Maya taught although at $2000 for a licence in Indonesia it is hard for most companies to afford it. 3DS max is typically used in industry, while SoftImage is also used in postproduction.

There are only 2 games companies, but 9 TV channels wanting a lot of commercial work. In the last 2 years the movie industry has been growing significantly. The consensus is that Indonesia needs more exposure. This can be perhaps achieved by links off the SEAGRAPH and SIGGRAPH websites

Figure: Setting the visit agenda with Roy and Ari

6.2.2 Visit to Eltra Studio, a post production house

Jl. Raya Kedoya Al Kamal No. 7
Jakarta 11520
Indonesia
Tel: +62-21-5821567
Wibisana Wibawa: President Director
Bimo Pamungkas: General Manager

The work of Eltra Studio is mainly involved with TV commercials. After a tour of the facilites a general discussion was held on the roof with many graphics professionals in Jakarta.

Wibisono: Free lance production

Bullitt Sesariza: Art director Matahari studios - game developers

Henry (Vince) Iswaratioso: Executive Director Polaris-net - render farm for architectural visualisation

Andi Boediman: President Director Digital Studio

David Normal, Chair Bali SIGGRAPH Chapter

Figure: Tour of the Eltra Studio facilities

6.2.3 Animator Forum meeting

Attendees included:

Roy Adimulyo, Animator Forum [community]

Bullit Sesariza, Animator Forum

Juliana Anderson, Animator Forum

Andi S. Boediman, Digital Studio College

Arianto Bigman, Digital Studio College

Sonny, Freelance Production [production / animation]

Lucky Nugroho, The Post Office [post production]

Daniel Harjanto, Next Animation [animation]

Syah Inderaprana [Jindol], Pixel Effects [production / post production]

Andreas Bastedo, Director PT. TIGA Dimensi Solusi Indonesia

Deswara Aulia, executive Producer Dementia animation

Daniel Harjanto, Managing Director PT. Dunia Animasi Rabani

Syah Inderaprana, Director Pixel effects

Rudi Setiawanm, Sinz Animation

Suzanna V. Mokalu, General Manager, Cybermedia College

Luck Nugroho, Operations Manager The Post Office

Maria Tjhin, General Manager Castle Production

Meeting at Jakarta Design Centre with 40 leading Indonesian graphics professionals.

The meeting was chaired by Roy Adimulyo from AF. Firstly Alain gave his talk on trends in computer graphics. This was followed by:

Andi Boediman: graphics education in Indonesia

At Universities, graphics education is only part of visual communication. Vocational training is provided by a number of institutes, collegesand training centres. The biggest problem facing CG in Indonesia is the exchange rate which makes software and hardware prohibitively expensive and the fact that most people don’t speak English.

Strategic problems

• CG Industry is only in advertising, CAD (Architecture and engineering) and motion graphics. Film and games are a small portion with most companies in Jakarta
• Knowledge distribution - 200 million people, 18,000 islands
• Human resource distribution - lack of good teachers
• Standardization - no adopted standards
• Education material - no good quality material

Tactical problem

• Lack of government support
• No communication/collaboration between key players
• Only a few animation events/seminars/exhibitions

Possible solutions

• Distribution is most important
• Education centres need to be more common with substantial support
• Education material
• work with publishers
• use the Internet - only 3 or 4 mailing lists on CG - none on CG education
• use TV as education channel - make CG understandable to everyone

Standardization

• work with schools and government

Local initiatives

• develop closer relationships between industry and education
• tour to other centres to promote CG - high school road shows - but there areLOT of schools
• problem is still lack of people to do this
• support government initiative incurriculum
• invite international speakers to come and promote CG
• ITB asked by government to prepare curriculum graphics, photograph and design - only at operator level
• Yogya animation seminar and exhibition
• FGD (printing industry) - FGD-Expo - 17,000 attendees

Opportunities

• lot of interest amongst young people
• Indonesia has a lot of talent for visuals
• competitive human resource cost
• very big local market size - but still consumer of foreign film

Needs

• network of professionals to be invited
• good education material
• endorsement - to get support from government - government will not allow the creation of new schools - each new school proposed must have at least 2 x MSc level teachers
• open a new market - get attendees from the region eg China and Vietnam
• a major computer graphic event

Figure: Roy introduces Alain

Wong Lok Dian: Game programmer, a personal presentation

• Most people interested in CG research will go do IT and CS courses. Universities take their curriculae from outside mainly from USA and Germany
• CG an option of 30 hours
• Students can also do computer vision
• People are not used to doing CG research in Indonesia - most research is for government
• Most research in algorithms and AI
• Students typically have to learn most CG themselves from Internet
• They can also learn through the local game developers community

Andreas Bastedo: Christian University of Petra

• Students study in Informatics, does include some studying some games
• Visual communication design is only at the application level
• visual effects, broadcast etc
• do teach some global illumination eg raytracing
• using 3DS max, mental-ray - only user level

Daniel Harjanto: Industry perspective

Daniel has been working in the CG since 1983, mainly doing CAD using Intergraph workstations

• Small community - same people still involved
• Mainly TV commercials
• No visualisation for weather forecast
• Some CG for manufacturing design - for aircraft
• Almost 500 members on CG mailing list for Indonesia
• IndoCG - new community formed in July 2003 as a portal for Indonesia for CG artists
• Games industry - currently 2 companies (used to be 3)
• Post production houses - before 1997 there were 7 - now more than 20
• Engineering/architecture - a couple using CAD visualization
• Film - more than 50 (Jakarta more than 25) - mostly in Java
• Digital divide between Jakarta/Java and the rest of Indonesia - little internet outside Java (18,000 islands)
• Some companies have their own research and training facilities
• Industry still have to employ people even if their course/school not acredited by Government
• Industry judged by competence - government (for contracts) judge by certificates/paper
• There is some industry/education collaboration eg Digital Studio
• Indonesian people have talent but lack traditional skills eg story telling, timing etc makes it difficult to enter global market

Figure: Questions about Indonesian CG industry for Daniel

Figure: YT describing SEAGRAPH’s plans for the region

6.2.4 Evening session

The evening session was a typical meeting of the Animator Forum and attracted over 90 attendees. Highlights of the numberous presentations (mainly in Indonesian) were David Normal’s presentation in English and Indonesian on his plans for Baligraph, the proposed SIGGRAPH chapter in Bali to bring together foreign and Indonesian graphic artists and the Katatmata studios showing their animations.

Figure: David Normal presenting the proposed SIGGRAPH Chapter on Bali

6.3 Manila 19-21 February

6.3.1 Ateneo De Manila University: Meeting of Minds

The Ateneo de Manila University was initially a primary school, established by Spanish priests in 1859. In 1621, Pope Gregory XV authorized the San Ignacio, through the archbishop of Manila, to confer degrees in theology and arts. Two years later, King Philip IV of Spain confirmed the authorization, making the school both a papal and a royal university, thus the first university in the Philippines and in Asia. In 1959, the Ateneo became a university and in 1977, the University opened a new campus for its professional schools in Salcedo, in the bustling business district of Makati. Today, nearly 140 years after its beginnings, the Ateneo de Manila University is among the leading universities in the Philippines.

On Friday 20 February, SIGGRAPH Manila hosted the “Meeting of Minds” to bring together local "activists" and the delegation to explore, discuss and support the generation and dissemination of information on computer graphics and interactive techniques in the Philippines and the Asia Pacific Region.

Attending

Fatima Lasay (SIGGRAPH Manila coordinator)

Ramon “Richie” Lerma (Ateneo Art Gallery)

Dondon Carlos (Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI/DOST)

Glenn de Leon (Office for International Programs/OIP)

Sandra Lovenia (Department of Information Systems and Computer Science/DISCS)

Sacha Chua (Ateneo/DISCS)

Eric Vidal, Lecturer, Ateneo de Manila University

Russell Santos (Ateneo CompSAT)

Simon Villaruel (Ateneo-Interactive Ateneo/iAteneo)

Brian Bringas (College of St. Benilde-School of Design and Arts, Multimedia Arts Program)

Vanessa Puente (College of St. Benilde-School of Design and Arts, Multimedia Arts Program)

Norelyn Babiera (Fiera de Manila, Inc./GraphicExpo)

Luis Sarmenta (Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center/DISCS)

Fr. Rene Javellana (Fine Arts Program, Ateneo)

Rhandley Cajote (University of the Philippines, College of Engineering, Dept of Electronics and Electrical Engineering/EEE)

Rowena Cristina Guevara (University of the Philippines, College of Engineering, Dept of EEE)

Ruben DF Defeo, Florentina Colayco, Ruben De Jesus, Leonardo Rosete (UP College of Fine Arts)

Kailah Ramchandani, Link Commercial

Martin Gomez, Ateneo de Manila University

The day started with a visit by the delegation to facilities on Ateneo including the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center, and Department of Information Systems and Computer Science.

Figure: Students hard at work

Ritchie Lerma was the master of ceremonies for the day. The meeting was opened by Dr Handleness and then the presentations began with Alain giving his talk on “Future Trends in Computer Graphcis”. All talks were simulcast to a number of Universities around Philippines. Norelyn Babiera then described Fiera de Manila Inc., which is a full service exhibition company which organises and manages trade shows, conferences, in-store promotions, selling missions, corporate product launchings, and special events. Of particular interst id Graphics Expo 2004, now in its 9^th year and due to be held at the Philippine Trade Training Center 16-19 June. This expo covers: graphic design, digital imaging and photography, pre-press and print production, large format advertising, web publishing and multimedia and animation. The number of exhibitors is typically 65-75 with 120 booths and some 5,000 visitors. Attendees for previous years are: 5% government, education, students, 34% design studios, ad agencies, photographers, 27% businessmen, 17% commercial printers, publishers and 17% IT professionals.

Jun Miranda went on to tell the audience about the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging. Founded in 1998 the Center is an innovative learning facility that combines art and digital technology. It was established to answer the need for intensive, hands-on personal training for graphic designers, visual communicators, multimedia practitioners, and photographers in the Philippines. It is a recognised certified Adobe, macromedia, Kodak, Apple, Epsom training facility which provides: provides free public seminars, eg on photography, photograph exhibits, product launches, trade shows and provincial road shows. The teachers are practicing artists, certified experts or instructors. The Centre offers 42 photography and graphics-oriented courses

Figure: Ritchie introduces the day

Daniel Enriquez then described Multimedia Arts at the College of Saint Benilde, De La Salle University. This is the only Bachelor degree program of its kind in the country. The objective is to combine text, graphics, speech, sound and images and to link traditional art and design concepts with technology. The curriculum of the 3½ year degree comprises: arts foundation, photography, computer graphics (photoshop etc), use of tools, web design and production, video, 2D animation - cell, clay animation, flash animation, 3D animation - creative use of software, interactive authoring - CD or DVDs, interctive gaming (new feature - 3 electives), and sound (multimedia sound production).

DISCS at Ateneo University offers a series of electives to CS students including: introduction to MM eg colour theory, compression; Electronic pubishing eg desktop publishing, typesetting for electronic publishing; CG program eg basic mathematics, OpenGL programming; Computer Aided Instruction eg IT in the classroom, online tutorials/educational packages; Web page design eg design concepts and techniques, HTML; 3D animation and modelling eg theories, geometry; Human computer interaction, underlying principles, psychology and physiology; and an introduction to flash scripting.

The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, College of Engineering at the University of Philippines has a DSP Laboratory established in 1990 with main research groups: Speech, Audio, Digital image, DSP in communications. Some of the research presented by Rhandley Cajote includes: machine vision: Soccer playing robot, stereo ranging, motion from optical flow; Document processing and analysis; pattern analysis and recognition (handwriting recognition, graph anaylis); video coding and analysis; and, image processing eg painting identification (based on colour preference), finger print classification, contour line extraction, invisible watermarking for PDF, real world image segmentation using stereo. The DSP laboratory is currently looking at more collaborations with other research groups, working with industry and the conversion of image processing and CG (this is a growing world wide phenomenon for which a conference, IEE VIE 2005 will be held in the UK in April 2005)

Dondon Carlos, Multimedia over IP Team Leader of ASTI (Advanced Science and Technology Institute), presented the Philippine Research, Education and Government Information Network - PREGINET. PREGINET is a nationwide broadband network that links academic, research, and government institutions in the Philippines. It interconnects institutions for research and education activities and spearheads the development of applications on areas such as distance education, telemedicine, agriculture, disaster monitoring and network technologies. PREGINET facilitates interchange of research information, research and training, collaboration, and access to international databases. As of 17/2/2004 there are 82 partner institutes and 10 international partners. The communities being addressed include:

• education eg digital libraries, host websites, distance learning, video conferencing
• agriculture eg Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, provide information to farmers
• bioinformatics/telemedicine eg access to large databases (biomirror.preginet.net), organised workshop (1st Philippine Bioinformatics Workshop)
• government eg interconnectivity, host electronic local government units
• network R&D - testbed for next generation of network technologies, services and applications, grid computing, Philippine eLibrary

After lunch there were two parallel technical talks, “Real-time high fidelity graphics for archaeological site reconstructions” by Alan and “Extracting 3D models from 2D sketches” YT. The final presentation for this session was “A comparative review of recent shadow rendering algorithms for real-time applications” Eric Vidal, Ching Tan Room. That concluded the second part of the day’s activities.

Figure: Multimedia Arts at College of Saint Benilde

6.3.2 Visits

The delegation and a number of participants then went on to the Advanced Science ad Technoloy Institute, ASTI to see PREGINET at work providing high speed networking to the Philippines and the University of Philippines, EEE Dept for a tour of their labs.

Figure At ASTI Watching PREGINET at work

Figure: Visiting the DSP Lab, University of Philippines, Fatima with some of her art work on display there

6.3.3 Ateneo Art Gallery

The final event for the day was a gathering at the Aleneo Art Gallery for more talks and discussion as part of the 25th meeting of Artspeak. Ritchie again chaired the event which started with a talk by Martin Gomez entitled “Towards hybrid engineer-designers in the Philippines”. The goal is to merge art, design, science and technology achieving computational media design similar to MIT’s DBN courseware.

The Ateneo Art Gallery is widely recognized today as the first museum of Philippine modern art. It showcases works by postwar Filipino artists donated to the Ateneo de Manila University from 1959 to 1961 by the late Fernando Zóbel de Ayala (1924-1984). In 1967 the museum moved to spacious quarters on the Rizal Library ground floor where it has remained ever since. After the talk Ritchie gave us a guided tour of the Gallery.

Figure: Ritchie opens proceedings

6.3.4 Facility visits in the Makati area of Manila

In the morning before the delegation departed Manila, we visited a number of key media companies including:

• HolyCow Animation, a 2D and 3D animation facility, where in depth discussions were held with Marlyn Montano, the Managing Director, who is also President of the Animation Council of the Philippines. The Animation Council is a non-profit organization whose member companies specialize mainly in, but not limited to, either 2D or 3D animation. It is an organization recognized and supported by the Philippine government whose aim is to promote Filipino talent both locally and internationally.

Figure: Facility visits HolyCow Animation, Marlyn Montano on the right

• Philippine Center for Creative Imaging – described previously

• A photographic studio run by Narelyn’s husband

• Unitel Productions, the most multi-awarded production house in the Philippines. Our visit was hosted by Kailash Ramchandani

Figure: Discussions at the studio

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6.4 Kuala Lumpur 21-24 February

Local Organisers: Alain Zaugg and MP Nathan, ACM SIGGRAPH Kuala Lumpur Professional Chapter

6.4.1 Dinner with KL SIGGRAPH Chapter officers

The dinner at the Bombay Palace was with the officers of the KL SIGGRAPH Chapter. During the dinner informal discussions were held about the previous and future planned activities for this active Chapter. Our hosts for the evening were Optidigit and ClickGrafix.

Optidigit’s virtual talent studio combines a master-apprentice type 18 month training situation with a production studio. ClickGraphix offers a wide selection of services and multimedia, digital animation and non-linear video editing products

Figure: Going over the details of the visit with MP Nathan and Alain

6.4.2 KL SIGGRAPH Chapter Special Event

The KL SIGGRAPH Chapter arranged the meeting of graphic enthusiasts at the E-Innovation Centre, Creative Applications and Development Centre, in Cyberjaya. The event was to include screening of the Expose 1 Book Launching and Power Breakfast (internet TV show), Alain Chesnais’ talk on “Current Trends in Computer Graphics”, screening of the ACA Media Arts Festival and a mini exhibition of media companies in the afternoon.

Attending included:

Alain Zaugg, Executive Producer/Co. Director, Optidigit Sdn Bhd. (Chair KL SIGGRAPH Chapter)

M.P. Nathan, President/CEO, Astrio Sdn BhD Animation House (Vice Chair KL SIGGRAPH Chapter)

Steven Stahlberg, Animation Director/Co. Director, Optidigit Sdn Bhd. (Treasurer KL SIGGRAPH Chapter)

Dr Siti Mayiyam bt Shamsuddin, Head of Department, Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia, Universist Teknologi Malaysia

Mohd Shahrizal Sunar, Lecturer in the Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia, Universist Teknologi Malaysia

Norhaida Mohd Suaib, Lecturer in the Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia, Universist Teknologi Malaysia

Datuk Dr. Mohamed Airf Nun, Chief Executive Officer, Multimedia Development Corporation Sd. Bhd.

Dr Muhammad Ghazie Ismail, Senior Vice President, Multimedia Development Corporation Sd. Bhd.

Kamil Othman, Vice President, Creative Multimedia, Multimedia Development Corporation Sd. Bhd.

Jag Dhaliwal, Vice President, Finance, Multimedia Development Corporation Sd. Bhd.

Ismal Mohamed, Project Manager, Multimedia Development Corporation Sd. Bhd.

Chin Palik Kum, Head of VRC, Multimedia Development Corporation Sd. Bhd.

Dr Nik Marzuki Nik Muhammad, Managing Director, VisualXtremes

Tunku Eddy Mudzaffar, Marketing, Asia-pacific videolab

Marc Calvin Gan, Motion gfx designer, Asia-pacific videolab

Michael Newberry, Xilar8

Evelyn Lee, EL Videographics

Figure: Early morning meeting with key people from the Multimedia Development Corporation

Alain Zaugg opened the meeting and then showed one of the Cyberjaya TV shows which included an interview with Expose 1 artists, Steven Stahlberg and Rob Chang. A copy of the excellent Expose 1 Book was then presented to Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff Nun (CEO of MDC), En Kamil Othman (VP Creative Multimedia Departments), MDC and Alain Chesnais (President of ACM SIGGRAPH).

Figure: Presenting a copy of the Expose 1 book

6.4.3 Lunch with the Malaysian Development Coorporation

The Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor is a exciting 15x50 km corridor from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Kuala Lumpur specially designed as an integrated environment for business and activities specialising in ICT and multimedia technologies. The corridor includes special cyberlaws, policies and practices to promote multimedia technology and a physical infrastructure of 2.5-10GB network. As a result there are now many exciting opportunities for multimedia activity in Malaysia and many companies are setting up, or locating offices there.

Figure: Working lunch discussing the potential of the Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor for computer graphics in the region.

6.4.4 Mini-expo

In the afternoon a mini-expo has held. This was a POSTAM initiative in collaboration with KL-SIGGAPH to present the work and talents of the CGI industry of Malaysia to the ACM SIGGRAPH delegation.

Figure: Exhibits at the expo MP Nathan presents “Action Cut Seminar”

Figure: Stan Lee presents Stan art

Figure: Watching the VR presentation

Figure: Michael Newberry of Xilar8 presents his virtual aquariums

Figure Evlyn presents El Videographics

Figure: There is even a whole University devoted to Multimedia

[Back to TOC]

6.5 Bangkok 24-26 February

Local Organisers: Araya Choutgrajank, Chair of ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok, Santi Laohaburanakit, Vice Chair ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok

6.5.1 Dinner with ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok

Figure: Discussions at dinner Alain, Santi, Barb, Araya, Alisa, Saksiri and YT

6.5.2 Moving towards digital content community

On the morning of Wednesday 25 February, a round table discussion was held at the Ministry for Information and Communication Technology, chaired by Santi was held to determine future direction of Thailand’s digital media industry. Attending:

Kruewal Somana, advisor to the Minister of Information and Communication Technology

Araya Choutgrajank, Chair of ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok

Santi Laohaburanakit, General Manager, Vithita Animation Co. Ltd., Vice Chair ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok

Saksiri Koshoasharin

Alisa Uthaithum

Suvicha Mingkwan, Manager, Kenan Institute Asia

Dr Napaporn Girapunthong, Senior Consultant, Kenan Institute Asia

Dr Frankie Roman, Chief-of-party, Thailand Competitiveness Initiative, Kenan Institute Asia

Dr Niracharapa Tongdhamachart, SIPA (Software Industry Promotion Agency)

Mr Teeranit Ratabavaraha, Software Park, Thailand

Watanapun Krutasaen, Department of Visual Communication Design, Faculty of Decorative Arts, Silpakorn University

The opening address was give by Kruewal Somana who emphasized that the government of Thailand will strongly develop IT sector - to compete with world wide standards. The opening talk was followed by the handing over, by Alain, of official certificate of ACM SIGGRAPH charter to the Bangkok chapter. Alain then gave his talk on ACM SIGGRAPH and SEAGRAPH and then the discussion began. Topics discussed included:

What should be the modest first steps for Bangkok SIGGRAPH?

Develop a networking facility - get universities and industry to get together

Is there a manual for Chapter activities?

Yes -details of facilities available for chapters

Bangkok Chapter’s website will be up middle of March

Thailand to craft its own strategy for digital content

YT Lee: Singapore case study, government side - forward looking, provides vision and funding for industry to position itself

Industry - depends on market, Singapore market too small - need to look outside own market

Alain: Canada Case study - 20 year initiative to build CG industry, Alias, SideFX, Softimage, Discreet Logic (3DS max)

How to make Thailand competitive, software accessibility, price barrier?

Go to key software suppliers and look at country wide strategy - best to be done at the end of a quarter, when companies are reporting their results

Work with competitors through the chapter to achieve lower prices through volume

Bangkok chapter negotiate with government?

No - chapter is the facilitator

Technical assistance?

Bigger package ordered, better deal is possible

How to overcome IPR problems in developing countries?

Must make clear stance to protecting IP - follow up with policy

Can you protect software from piracy?

No - more complicated mechanisms lead to more interest from pirates

Good example is the Apple way of doing things

Need more education explaining why these protections need to exist

Can ACM SIGGRAPH help identify the trends in the field?

through conference and activities - yes we can help see the future

We will see a MAJOR change in the way things are going to change - through the low cost GPUs

People must change to be able to adopt this new technology

Speakers to explain impact on industry and training institutes

Need to get CG courses in Universities up to date - now

Human resource development - how do we best do this?

Work with CGEMS project - both University and Vocational training

Key thing is what the goals are - get University and Industry to work together

Raise awareness - make festivals to show case what is possible

Females in CG?

Thailand girls still mainly in art

SIPA trying to build this

Korea has animation High School - start early

Balance between art and science? Too much money going to science

currently a lot of it is done out of school

SIGGRAPH membership is split between technical and art practitioners

CG industry is being driven by art eg films and games

Apart from Education what else can be done to grow industry?

Indetify what are the barriers to competitiveness

IP issues - look at Soho net organisation in London - various CG houses have pooled their resources to work together to compete effectively - interesting mix between competition and collaboration - don’t work alone - pool knowledge and know how on high quality resources

Suggestions

1. Continuous networking, locally, regionally, internationally

2. Investment in universities for the long term to focus on key initiatives

3. Work as a group to negotiate good deals

4. Education and building up HR skills, vocational skills, raise awareness, create exciting role models, art drives technology

5. Look at Soho net

Government needs to make it very clear what the strategic goals are:

then put the incentives in place, eg tax incentives, bring in knowledge/key people from outside, send your people out and hope they come back

Art in Thailand

previously little attention paid to locals

SIPA - now supports culture of Thai people - good skills, but lack numbers of peoples, and lack software tools

SIPA - non-profit - first time in history, can get eg low cost computers to local industry, from eg Microsoft gave PCs for 10% of cost, try to reduce broadband costs

SIPA - has full authority to help SMEs - talking up to 1 million units - Alain to act as negotiator/consultant for SIPA

Can SIGGRAPH help provide training for local people?

Travelling courses - help facilitate leading people to come to the region

Help with short term Human Resource development

Two level soultion

Short term - speakers providing training

Long term - support to Universities

Figure: The entrance to ICT

Figure: ACM SIGGRAPH Bangkok is officially chartered by Alain

6.5.3 Presentations

In the afternoon presentations were made by a number of people to a large audience to further explore digital media in Thailand. Attendees included:

Dr Walaiporn Nakapan, Rangsit University

Saksiri Koshpasharin, Managing Director, Imagimax

KriengKrai Supornsahusrungsi, General Manager, Imagimax

Chahin Vanijwongse, Marketing Director, CyberPlanet Inititive Co. Ltd.

Hongthong Narongchai, Assistnat Managing Director, MotionMax Co. Ltd.

The first address was given by Manoo Oradeedolchet on SIPA and the Digital Content Industry. Opportunities for growth include:

• film and TV
• Games
• Education
• Thailand has a sizeable automotive industry

Thailand does not have any visibility in SW market compared with eg Ireland and India yet, but they want to reach $4 billion in five years. In 2000 there were about 20,000 software engineers in the country (India 410,000, Philippines 22,000, Malaysia 20,000, Korea 150,000, Japan 250,000, Ireland 200,000, China 180,000, Vietnam 10,000, Myanmar 5,000). SIPA trying to improve organization skills and personnel skills

Target

• at least 100,000 software workers in 5 years to produce $4billion worth of SW products and services in:
• transaction based (enterprise) software
• animation and multimedia
• mobile software
• embedded systems/software

How SIPA plays its role

• help developing a large group of creative talent in digital content
• help create job opportunities
• help establish market access

The Thai Government will relax immigration law so foreigner experts can be encouraged to go there while Thailand builds up its own workforce. Training programs will be introduced for software specialists, expecially computer arts and there is a real need to create job opportunities for new graduates eg 1.5 hour project about Bhudda - jobs for 100 people for this local content project.

SIPA is pooling scattered talent into manageable resource pool

• provides “one source” access for small SMEs - need a large group to provide important bargaining platform - go from freelancers to entrepreneurs
• develop business model to get investors to work with clusters of freelancers

Thailand is making serious offer to the film making community that opportunities exist in this part of the world.

Promote training for animation and multimedia talent in 2d & 3D animation, gaming techniques etc.

• 3 different trial programs this summer to train 500 animators and CG artists in 3 ICT cities and Bangkok

Starter Digital Content projects - workstudy/internship projects and experience building for new trainees

• 2 starter projects
• full length feature films with investiment of 50 million Baht

SIPA working in affiliation with Universities and software parks to provide skill upgrade, incubation services, laboratory services for new digital media startups

• will be Digital Content Studio and incubator centers in ICT Cities
• working with local companies on co-production arrangements
• SIPA receives six proposals, total value 1000 million Baht, creat up to 500 jobs in animation and MM related skills
• want to make youngster enthusiastic about the industry and its future

SIPA to make Thailand a Gateway to a large talent of digital talent workers

• ecommerce marketting and selling channel for Thai businesses to access global sourcing
• create TV programs - eg programs on “ICT Stars” to make the people recognisable to the local and global market
• ICT Star monthly journal - to introduce people and products
• road show programs and participation in world events - Japan, Korea and Hong Kong

Manoo Oradeedolchet’s very informative talk was followed by presentations by Alain, Alan and YT. These were followed by Suvicha Mingkwan on “Thailand as a regional hub for digital content: Opportunities and threats”

• Streaming media: audio, text, video etc
• gigabit solutions (Intel, Cisco and IBM) - big companies also have to collaborate
• Hollywood of Asia
• Digital content market size = $2,000 million by 2009 (ICT minister)
• number of workers from 100,000 to 250,000 by 2009 (SIPA)
• Thailand is following the same path as Ireland - are there shortcuts?
• Korea has excellent infrastructure to become digital world power
• Key concern for competitiveness is not the brand equity or economy of scale, but it lines on human capacity, creativity and technology advancement
• time for a global competitive strategy instead of domestic rivalry
• Thai digital content business should reinforce interfirm cooperation and move along a value chain to minimize their risk hence eligible to access new source of (venture) funding
• Use Thailand “good living” to attract foreign experts
• rivalry on quality not price
• promote elearning using latest technology
• focus on differentiation, Thai style with international appeal
• enhancing IPR and strict enforcement
• re-inforce interfirm, cooperation (DC cluster, BKK SIGGRAPH)

Common interests between suppliers, key business, related & supporting industries

• market research
• package deal
• HRD - human resource development
• Financial sources - minimize risk through collaboration
• bidding

Strategic initiative Supporting action

Reinforce inter firm cooperation Completion of cluster directory, establish international assoc
and cluster linkage

enhance business climate benchmarking study, improve IPS safeguards

Strengthen workforce capability virtual business incubator, global match making for high quality firms

Key success factors

• IPR protection
• networking
• early education and skill training
• access to information and advance technology e-library
• arts drive the industry
• strong government support - infrastructure, better business environment

CG and animation alone does not create much value unless combined with other products/industries

• Advertising
• Entertainment
• Edutainment

The afternoon session was closed by Araya who emphasized there was still a lot of work to be done and to ensure followup, three more seminars were planned for the rest of the year

Figure: Registration for the afternoon session

Figure: Presentation from the Chapter to Alain and Kruewal Somana

Figure: Suvicha Mingkwan’s presentation

6.4 Company visits

Figure: Araya explains what her company does

6.5.5 Meeting with His Excellency Surapong Suebwonglee

One of the highlights of the delegation’s tour was the hour long meeting with His Excellency Surapong Suebwonglee, Thailand’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology. He was particularly interested in how ACM SIGGRAPH, SEAGRAPH and the Bangkok Chapter could play a role in Thailand’s ambitious plans for multimedia.

Figure: (a) Meeting with the Minister (b) Detailed discussions

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6.6 Mumbai 27 February – 1 March

Local Organisers: Askahy Darbari

6.6.1 Meeting with Kinga Sithup from Bhutan

Figure: (a) Kinga explains what CG activities there are in Bhutan (b) YT describes how SEAGRAPH may be able to help

6.6.2 Patni Computer Systems Ltd

Attending:

Sandhya Sule, Manager, Patni Computer Systems

Vidyesh Nabar, Senior consultant

Akshay Darbari, Senior software engineer

Patni Computer Systems is 25 years old which went public a week before the delegation’s visit. It has a suite of offerings including industry and technical solutions and services. It has a world wide presence with General Electric as its largest client. Technical expertise includes:

• audio, imaging, video, automotive, home networks, mobile & wireless eg
• MPEG 2 - audio video codec library
• MPEG 2 - audio/video streaming solution
• MPEG4 - video encoder
• JPEG 2000 Vendor evaluation and Motion JPEG2000
• Image difference analyzer (for detecting damage in vehicle rental)
• IPP based player development
• semi conductor image defect classifier
• raytracing
• 3D viewer

A CAD/CAM group is based in Pune

• work in form of services, porting/migration development and support
• clients include Boeing, Airbus, Peugeot etc
• enhancement of various companies CAD systems
• eg Boeing for ATA compliance

Figure: Patni makes us welcome

Figure: (a) and (b) Demonstrations of the innovative work going on at Patni

6.6.3 Indian Institute of Technology

In the afternoon there was a series of presentations at the Indian Insitute of Technology. Attending:

Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Sharat Chandran, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Vinay Kulkarni, Director, Geometric Software Solutions

Venkatesh H.R., General Manager, Wipro Techmologies

Plus a number of students from IIT

Alain started off by presenting the goals of the delegation and his talk on “Current trends in Computer Graphics”. This was followed by Sharat who presented the activities of IIT:

• India has its own research conferences
• Indian Conference on vision, graphics and image processing
• started in 1995, every two years
• 170 papers submitted, 65 selected, 3 day event, 250 participants incl 50 overseas
• usually held in December
• ACM gave travel grants to strudents
• in co-operation with IAPR (International Association for Pattern Recognition)
• EE and CS depts in India support this

Also

• 23 editions of the theory conference FSTTCS
• VLSI design conference
• M programming competition
• various other international conference
• Alternate years - National Workshop

As for the Students of IIT

• CG is not favoured by PhD students
• field needs kick start in the region
• no job potential for graduates
• many good students go to the US

Faculty: Ravi Pooviah (IDC) teaches graphics/animation packages

The IIT presentation was followed by Venkatesh HR describing the activities of Wipro Techmologies:

• service provider
• no dedicated CG group
• VLSI design, mobile devices, games, simulators etc

Core Competance

• productisation
• optimisation for cross platform support
• not continous CG work - so not good for PhD students to join

Then Dr Vinay Kulkarni presented Geometric

• Service and products, have an R&D department
• CAD/CAM and CAE
• examples of work
• orthodontic technology eg milling teeth
• collaborative design
• streaming large CAD models across the web
• motion analysis for security applications
• modelling tires so structure doesn’t affect motion
• interested in contributing in research into 3D design
• application of CG - interested in training

Figure: Alain presents ACM SIGGRAPH

6.6.4 Round table discussion: Computer Graphics in India and Bhutan

Attending:

Nilesh Ghatpande

Akshay Darbari

Karthik Murthy

Kinga Sithup

Akshay got the idea of a Chapter while he was doing his degree

• taught CG at university as there was no CG available - then joined Patni to try and convince them to adopt CG
• problem in India is most companies are driven by services - R&D not done in Industry
• must include industry in Chapter in India - here individuals not focussed as not many jobs in Graphics
• NO industry members - but can include key industrial people

Big difference between work done in West and in India

• research in India not in sync with industry - there is no participation in University projects

Business model in India

• see the client first - not using the technology to attract clients

There is govt support, but to things like call-centres and outsourcing, not the development of new technologies

What can ACM SIGGRAPH and SEAGRAPH do?

• provide qualified opinions on CG area - white papers can be sent to Industry/Government

There already exist an Indian non-profit organisation for arrange activities for IT field, NASSCOM. This is well thought of and has a well established model. Nasscom has a very good hold with Indian industry, provides training etc. Iindustry supports NASSCOM and helps sets trends and gives vision eg what will be the Indian IT revenue, where the support will be coming from etc. However, the activities are not very focused. NASSCOM has published a report on animation in India

How to form Mumbai Chapter?

• how we orientate the Chapter is important
• Spoke to a lot of industry about the delegation’s visit. Their main concern was what happens after this delegation’s visit. Need to identify key volunteers - who will take this further?
• Use Indian conference as a focus for first activity - show ET and perhaps a panel session on “CG in Indian Industry” - organised by NASSCOM
• have more interaction with Chapters around the region

Figure: The participants

6.7 Wrap up 1 March

Figure: Wrapping up the delegation’s visit. It was an exhausting but very successful trip. Experiences gained will provide important guidelines for future such delegations to other parts of the world.