How did you get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?

My first SIGGRAPH was about 10 years ago. At that time I was developing muscle and skin deformation software for high end biomedical simulation. This software later became available commercially – Absolute Character Tools.

What was your first experience at SIGGRAPH like?

It was a blast! My first SIGGRAPH experience came after a few quiet years of not travelling or being involved in international research. I remember feeling like I was back in the middle of things at SIGGRAPH – it was the place that everyone came together and where all the leading research got its first showing. It was also great to see the crossover of academic results into the commercial arena... although it was amusing to see the chaos at the interface of academic and commercial interests. Some academic research advances never seemed to catch on commercially while others appeared on the commercial side first. Most advances in the area had their roots in groundbreaking papers presented previously at SIGGRAPH.

I have personally always walked on both sides of the fence, both academic and commercial, and I continue to be both pleasantly surprised and sometimes frustrated by the highly variable interface of the academic and commercial worlds. However the shared love of art that SIGGRAPH embodies is a pleasant surprise and a clear unifying element.

What are some of the exhibits you liked?

The Emerging Technologies exhibition is always a highlight. Here you see the pointy end of new developments and ideas – some are destined to skyrocket directly into commercial success while other will crash and burn. However the energy, enthusiasm and imagination of the creators is always an inspiration.

I must admit that I, like the rest of the huge crowds, have been amazed at the demonstrations of leading interface research demonstrated by Microsoft over the past few years. Everyone seems to like bashing Microsoft for being slow and uncreative, particularly in comparison with the creative and cool stuff Apple does. But like so many others crowding their demonstrations I have been blown away by the sheer creativity and brilliance of work coming out of Microsoft Research labs in the past few years.

Oh – and of course it’s always a treat to see dancing robots and all the other robot related stuff that the Japanese researchers are so particularly fond of.

Any suggestions for future SIGGRAPHs?

More dancing robots (laughs) but to be serious, more art. I have always been impressed by the emphasis on art at SIGGRAPH. I see this as the thread that ties it all together – it’s the common playing field for academic, commercial and artistic interests. However the emphasis is very much on the moving image and a much smaller sample of “fine art”.

Now I know we (the CGSociety and Ballistic Publishing) have a particular bias towards art in general but I would really encourage SIGGRAPH to exhibit and celebrate more individual and personal art from members. Each year we publish EXPOSÉ, the annual compendium of the best digital art from around the world. It would be great to see greater exposure and recognition for the award winning artists whose work rides on the back of advances and technology developed by the SIGGRAPH community.

Could you talk about the history of Ballistic?

Ballistic Media was founded just 4 ½ years ago. It comprised the CGSociety and Ballistic Publishing divisions. The publishing division was created to support the community both financially and to expose the general public to digital art.  I named the company Ballistic because of the speed we work at – it took us less than 90 days to create the company, make our web site, do a call for entries, collect and judge over 1,000 entries, design, complete and send out our first book, EXPOSÉ 1, to press. Fortunately it was a huge success. We have now just released our 23rd book and the community has grown to be the largest group or professional (and aspiring professional) artists in the world.

At every stage I have strived to keep us on focus – we are the community of digital artists. It’s not just a business, it’s not just about collecting content – it is all about the artists that choose this medium. Moreover it’s about what the artists want to do with the medium. Our community is focused on telling visual stories. The form of the expression may vary – film, game, illustration etc – but the passion to tell compelling visual stories remains the same.

As we have grown we have been able to add a lot to the original CGTalk forums, on-line teaching jobs, personal portfolios, and other services that benefit the community. Our on-line events have also grown exponentially with our regular CGChallenges attracting almost $100,000 prize pools and gaining international recognition for participants and the CGSociety.

While the book publishing remains our core we are now in a very strong and diversified position with plans to further broaden our services to members and to strengthen synergistic partnerships in a number of key areas.

Being a leader in the exhibition of artwork, what are some of the trends you are seeing in digital as a medium?

Although still very young and dynamic I have seen a rapid maturing within the market. There was a very elitist attitude to begin with. A number of early adopters felt they owned and defined the “digital art” look and that it was oriented towards a somewhat dark, and strictly 3D, games look. This early elitism has rapidly given way to a healthy acceptance of traditional skills, techniques and genres entering the market. Just looking at entries to EXPOSÉ we have seen an explosion of traditional style illustrations – but done digitally. In a few short years we have seen a complete turnaround from a small core defining the market, to the entire digital arts movement adopting us as their own.

It is slow, but I have also recently seen a marked improvement from the unique benefits of a morph-able and re-renderable digital approach. I don’t just mean in the quality or wow factor of work. I mean in the expressive and storytelling component of the work. We are now finally getting to the stage where the tools and technology are starting to get out of the way and the artists are able to focus more on the essence of their work. That’s not to say that there is any abatement of demand for pure technical effects and overload of complexity. The slate of recent film and games demonstrate that our appetites are a long way from being sated for that... but it’s nice to see the rise of more moving and meaningful work that the digital world is now recognizing the merits of.

Are there any particular movements that interest you?

Games for women. By that I don’t just mean just games for women but the trend for something other than the standard “Shoot to kill; Shoot anything that moves ... heck, just shoot everything!” Come to think of it it’s great to see the general movement of women into the traditionally macho area of 3D games and academia. I really feel that the industry is in desperate need for more balance in general. It is dominated by commercially driven, rigid goal seeking and mostly destructive themes. Ok, I know it’s an oversimplification to say it’s boys making aggressive games (and toys) for boys – but that’s been then unhealthy focus of the industry to date.

This year I was particularly thrilled to attend a keynote talk by Glenn Entis, Chief Visual Officer of Electronic Arts and hear that over half of the people “playing Sims” spend over half of their time “creating stuff”... clearly for a lot of people creating stuff is more interesting than “playing the game”. The industry is just starting to grapple with the reality of virtual environments as destinations in their own right – places that people want to hang out in, explore, socialize in and be creative in – and not just as locations to kill or be killed.

Ok, this is not new, but I am encouraged to see the rising awareness of the creative, social and educational aspects of “digital worlds”. This reflects on so many things associated with SIGGRAPH – new interfaces, new displays, new technologies. This is also close to our hearts as the overseers of the world’s largest gathering of creative artists. We don’t just want to provide a great place to hang out, we want to create a place that is diverse, vibrant, safe, educational, and career advancing.

What published pieces have proven successful among the attendees?

There are two things that have proven to be spectacularly successful that I would like to comment on. Our new d’artiste titles and ESSENCE – The Face which is the first in a new series for us.

I conceived the d’artiste series in the first year of Ballistic, to fill a gap in the market – support material for the traditional role of apprenticeship to a master artist. Each d’artiste book features the work of 3-4 master artists in one area. We interview them; show off a selection of their works; get them to deliver one or two sample tutorials on how they approach their work; and get them to select and comment on an invited artist’s gallery. Readers get a great sense of which their master artists are, how they think, how they approach their work and how they view their contemporaries' work. This format has been a massive success. It is highly visual and personal and although they are not tutorial books, they are recommended by many schools. They are also one of the only ways for the contributing master artists to memorialize their work and be recognized in their own right, rather than just one of hundreds of artists in the credits of a film or game.

Creative ESSENCE is a new series we have just started. It is all about the essence of bringing characters to life. This is a central theme in interactive visual arts and film. The ESSENCE books take 6 or more leading artists and offer in depth explanation of the best techniques in one area. The work presented is not completely stet-by-step, but it is designed to be used like a tutorial by the intermediate-advanced user. For the first time we also provided the digital assets used in creation of the book on a separate DVD. Both the books and DVDs have proven to be one of our best sellers.

Is there anything you would like to see in the future?

I know I am harping on the same theme again – but more art from our combined communities. We put together an art gallery for GDC (Gamed Developers Conference) last year. It was a huge success. I really feel that SIGGRAPH should expand the scope and number of art works on display to reflect the broad industry and not just the fine arts. With over 15,000 catalogued art submissions in our database, this is something I would love to be involved with.

I must say that I am thrilled to see the announcement of SIGGRAPH Asia in Singapore next year. This is something that the industry needs and that we will be involved in. I know this will be a great success and I dream of seeing similar events in Central Europe, India, Brazil and the Middle East.

What are some of the ways someone who is trying to get involved with the digital medium could do to get started?

A good place to start is on the www.CGSociety.org web site and our books www.BallisticPublishing.com

Bur seriously, the CGSociety web site is the single largest resource for all things related to the professional digital art world. For a beginner I would recommend just browsing the forums and all the fantastic user art in the galleries and users portfolios. There are a huge number of feature articles on commercial work and on user’s art – “lots of how it was done” articles that are a great learning tool. There are also on-line classes in the CGWorkshops, running continuously.

When people are ready to show off their own work the forums are a great place to post it and get feedback from other users. There are also competitions and book submissions happening all the time. Anyone is free to enter these and the prizes are fantastic – over US$90,000 in the current CGChallenge! For submitting images for books, users should check out the Ballistic Publishing submissions web site. Of course people should also be creating their own CGPortolios and linking to their friends. The more users participate, the more they learn and get exposed to potential new employers.

Ok – we are not the only ones out there but we have a broad spread of information, art and services for both aspiring and professional artists. It’s mostly free and users are our focus – not just their work.

That is some great advice. Can you talk about your own personal art?

Quickly – because I just don’t get time to do much these days. I do have some work in our first book, EXPOSÉ 1, and in my CGPortfolio. When I had time I enjoyed creating a unique form of abstract art that is only possible digitally. This was all done in Painter – in fact there are a number of features in Painter that are there just because I asked for them. In my day I was one of the Painter gurus. I was also an early 3D artist. Amongst other things I was the first person to create a commercial product with a Lightscape (radiosity render) rendered 3D environment (Undercover, rock-and-roll CD magazine). These days when I do get time to do 3D work it’s mostly to do with medical, scientific or technical visualization – usually very difficult animations. However these are really feats of technical excellence and don’t have any significant artistic component.

On the artistic side, I art direct Ballistic Publishing and oversee the CGChallenges. So I have a highly developed appreciation and art direction role. Although I don’t get time to create my own visual art, I do enjoy creative writing. For the CGChallenges I create numerous short stories that are highly emotive and visually evocative. It is always a great thrill to see work inspired by these stories. If I had unlimited time I would devote a lot more to developing a range of creative properties – in all media.

I am actively working to build bridges in the CGSociety to the other creative areas of writing and music. This is working well in the writing area with excellent and growing links to Science Fiction and Fantasy writers; something we plan a lot more of.

Awesome, what would you say are your influences?

Life... Everyone... The trick is to go through life with your eyes wide open – like a tourist. Seeing everything as new; constantly evaluating and integrating new ideas and influences. It’s a lot harder than it sounds – it’s far too easy to fall into comfortable complacency. I did study art at in the final years of my schooling – we studied all of the big name (past) artists, but to be honest none of them have influenced me like the more recent artists (3 still living): Syd Mead, John Berkey, Jim Burns and Salvador Dali. The science fiction/futurist/fantasy themes interest me. I count myself very fortunate that I have had the opportunity to email, talk to and become good friends with these people. Salvador has of course passed away but I had the opportunity to spend a week with an artist that lived and worked with Salvador for a year – the (unpublished) stories he told of his time with Dali were an inspiration in their own right.

I continue to be influenced by the artists emerging within our community. Some of them are clearly destined to become the master artists of the future and it’s a treat to see their talent blossom. Of all of our featured artists, I am perhaps personally most inspired by Stephan Martinière... one of the world’s foremost concept artists for film and games. I remember my first meeting with Stephan, I commented that his work reminded me of John Berkey. Stephan was so pleased and told me that John was one of his biggest influences and that he considered it high praise that I compared his work to John’s.

I am so lucky to be in a position to meet and work with these artists. Each year we invite 10 or so of the world’s leading artists to participate in the judging of the EXPOSÉ annual book entries and awards. We also select one Grand Master to honor each year. Syd Mead and Jim Burns have both participated in EXPOSÉ and John Berkey was this year’s Grand Master.

Dr Mark Snoswell is President of the CGSociety and Publisher for Ballistic Publishing. He is the founder and a director of Ballistic Media Pty Ltd. His recent past includes development of Absolute Character Tools muscle and skin system for advanced character animation.

You can see a small sample of Marks personal work in his portfolio at http://marksnoswell.cgsociety.org/gallery/

Email: mark@allisticmedia.net

Here are some websites mentioned in this interview:

CGSociety                                http://www.CGSociety.org
Ballistic Publishing                    http://www.BallisticPublishing.com
CGWorkshops                          http://workshops.cgsociety.org
Jobs                                         http://jobs.cgsociety.org
CGPortfolios                             http://portfolio.cgsociety.org
CGTalk – forums                       http://www.CGTalk.com
CGChallenges                          http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge
Book submissions                    http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/bsw
Absolute Character Tools         http://www.cgCharacter.com