CALL FOR ABSTRACTS; EXTENDED DEADLINE JUNE 27, 2003 =============================================================================== VIRTUAL STORYTELLING'03 Second International Conference on Virtual Storytelling "Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling" November, 20-21 2003 Modern and Contemporary Art Museum "Les Abattoirs", Toulouse, France http://www.virtualstorytelling.com/ICVS2003/ =============================================================================== With the support of: The European Commission, Grand Toulouse, The Communication et Systèmes Group, The University of Glasgow, The University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse, The French Virtual Reality Working Group GT-RV, The Eurographics Association, Immersion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACKGROUND ---------- This conference will be the second of the International Conference on Virtual Storytelling series. The first one, took place on September 27-28, 2001 in Avignon (France) in the frame of the prestigious "Palais des Papes". Despite the tragic events of the 11th September that led to some last minute cancellations, more than 100 people from 14 different countries (Belgium, France, Canada, Czech-Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, South-Korea, Switzerland, U.K., U.S.A.) attended the four invited lectures given by international experts - Eric Badiqué & Pascal Jacques (European Commission), Andrew Glassner (consultant) & Ronen Barzel (formerly animation scientist at Pixar), Paul Kafno (producer and managing director of HD Thames) and Bruce Blumberg & Bill Tomlinson (Synthetic Characters Group, MIT Media Lab), the thirteen scientific talks and the six scientific demonstrations. One demonstration was a live show of virtual puppets presented during the Gala Dinner. Two SME presented some high-tech hardware (Immersion SA) and software (RealViz) on industrial booths and sponsored ICVS'2001 by offering prizes for the "Best Paper" and for the "Best Application". We know for sure that these prizes are currently used by the recipients to improve their artistic and scientific research. The conference proceedings, composed of 210 pages, were published by Springer as volume 2197 of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. More than 150 copies have been distributed to the participants, the members of the Committee and the sponsors. Moreover, Springer sent copies of the proceedings to the numerous libraries around the world that have subscribed to the LNCS and gave an electronic access to the proceedings via the LINK Web site. More information on Virtual Storytelling'01: http://www.virtualstorytelling.com/ICVS2001/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCOPE ----- The story is the richest heritage of human civilisation. One can imagine the first stories being told, several thousand centuries ago, by wise old men huddled around camp fires. Since this time, the narrative process has been considerably developed and enriched: sounds and music have been added to complement the speech, while scenery and theatrical sets have recreated to enhanced the story environment. Actors, dancers and technicians have replaced the unique storyteller. The story is no longer the sole preserve of oral narrative but can be realised in book, theatrical, dance or movie form. Even the audience can extend up to several million individuals. And in its many forms the story lies at the heart of one of the world's most important industry. The advent of the digital era has enhanced and accelerated this evolution: image synthesis, digital special effects, new Human-Computer interfaces and the Internet allow one to not only realise more sophisticated narrative forms but also to create new concepts as video gaming and virtual environments. The art of storytelling is becoming evermore complex. Virtual Reality offers new tools to capture, and to interactively modify the imaginary environment, in ever more intuitive ways, coupled with a maximum sensory feedback. In fact, Virtual Reality technologies offer enhanced and exciting production possibilities for the creation and non-linear manipulation in real time, of almost any story form. This has lead to the new concept of Virtual Storytelling. Virtual Storytelling'03 will gather researchers from the scientific, artistic and industrial communities to demonstrate new methods and techniques, show the latest results, and to exchange concepts and ideas for the use of Virtual Reality technologies for creating, populating, rendering and interacting with stories, what ever their form be it theatre, movie, cartoon, advertisement, puppet show, multimedia work, video-games... In particular, the conference will address the following topics: - How to acquire the story elements (objects, decors, environments, etc.) from reality? - How to create virtual actors? How to model their geometry and physical behaviours in real time? How to populate virtual environments and manage their interactions? - How to animate the virtual actors (e.g. their faces, clothes, and hairs, etc.) in real time? - How to include lifelike elements in the virtual environment? How to create "realistic" behaviours and emotions? - How to create storyboards from virtual environments? How to create and manage non-linear scenarii? - How to simulate the production (lighting, actors direction, etc.) and the shooting (camera trajectory)? - How to create real-time special effects (explosion, fire, snow, rain, layered fog, etc.)? - How to use Virtual Reality interfaces (force feedback systems, stereoscopic or immersive display, 3D sound) for creating and telling virtual stories? - How to render or broadcast virtual stories in real-time? - What are the new narrative forms allowed by Virtual Storytelling? - How Virtual Storytelling can be compared to traditional storytelling? What is the impact of non-linear and collaborative working (authoring and production) environments on the creativity? - What are concrete examples of using Virtual Storytelling? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMITTEES ---------- o Chair: Olivier Balet Technical Director, Virtual Reality Department, Communication & Systèmes Group, France Jean-Pierre Jessel Associate Professor, Computer Graphics Dept., University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France Gérard Subsol Senior Researcher, France o Local Organization Patrice Torguet Assistant Professor, Computer Graphics Dept., University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France o Scientific and Application Board: Norman I. Badler Director of the Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Ronen Barzel Animation Scientist, Pixar, U.S.A. Maurice Benayoun Director of the Creation, Z-A Production, Paris, France Kevin Bjorke Content Development, NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, U.S.A Bruce Blumberg Associate Professor, Synthetic Characters Group, MIT MediaLab, U.S.A. Ronan Boulic Senior Researcher, Virtual Reality Lab, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland Marc Cavazza Professor of Intelligent Virtual Environments, School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Teesside, U.K. Yves Duthen Professor, IRIT, Université des Sciences Sociales, Toulouse, France Franz Fischnaller Professor at Electronic Visualization Laboratory, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago, U.S.A. Art-Director and Production Coordinator of F.A.B.R.I.CATORS, Milano, Italy. Catherine Garbay Research Director, TIMC Lab. IMAG, France. Andrew Glassner Writer-director, consultant in interactive fiction, Seattle, U.S.A. Stefan Goebel ZGDV, Darmstadt, Germany Jonathan Gratch Project Leader, Institute for Creative Technologies, University of South California, U.S.A. Alain Grumbach Professor, Artificial Intelligence Group, Networks and Computer Science Dept., ENST, Paris, France Barbara Hayes-Roth CEO, Extempo Systems Inc., U.S.A. Paul Kafno Director, HD Thames, U.K. Wim Lamotte Professor, Expertise Centre for Digital Media, Limburgs Universitair Centrum, Diepenbeek, Belgium Didier Libert ENSAM, Paris, France Sina Mostafawy [rmh], Germany Ryohei Nakatsu Professor, School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Sanda, Japan CEO, Nirvana Technology Inc., Japan Jean-Christophe Nebel Research Fellow, 3D-MATIC Laboratory, University of Glasgow, U.K. Sally Jane Norman General Director, Ecole Supérieure de l'Image, Angoulème/Poitiers, France Catherine Pélachaud Professor, University of Paris 8, France Ken Perlin Director of the New York University Media Research Laboratory and Center for Advanced Technology, U.S.A. Simon Richir Assistant Professor, ISTIA Innovation, Angers, France Leonie Schaefer Researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, Sankt Augustin, Germany Barry Silverman Director Ackoff Center for the Advancement of the Systems Approach, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Ulrike Spierling Professor, University of Applied Sciences, Erfurt, Germany Marie-Luce Viaud Senior Researcher, INA, Bry-sur-Marne, France John Wilson Director of the Nottingham University's Institute for Occupational Ergonomics and Director of the Virtual Reality Applications Research Team, Nottingham, U.K. R. Michael Young Director, Liquid Narrative Group, Dpt. of Computer Science North-Carolina State University, Raleigh, U.S.A. ... o Programme Committee: Jan Allbeck Ph.D. Student, Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Victor Bayon Research Associate, VIRART, University of Nottingham, U.K. Stéphane Donikian Research Scientist, SIAMES Project, IRISA, Rennes, France Patrick Doyle Ph.D. Student, Knowledge Systems Laboratory, Stanford University, U.S.A. Knut Hartmann Computer Graphics and Interactive Systems Research Group, University of Magdeburg, Germany Junichi Hoshino Assistant Professor, Entertainment Computing Laboratory, Tsukuba University/PRESTO JST, Japan Ido Iurgel Researcher, ZGDV, Darmstadt, Germany. Michael Johns Ph.D. Student, Ackoff Center for the Advancement of the Systems Approach, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Pieter Jorissen Ph.D. Student, Expertise Centre for Digital Media, Limburgs Universitair Centrum, Diepenbeek, Belgium Alexander Lechner Vertigo Systems, Germany. Manuel Viñas Limonchi University of Granada, Spain Heidy Maldonado Ph.D. Student, School of Education, Stanford University, U.S.A. Maic Masuch Professor, Graphical and Interactive Methods for Computer Games Research Group, University of Magdeburg, Germany Michael Mateas Assistant Professor, Literature, Communication and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A. Chris Raymaekers Post-Doc, Expertise Centre for Digital Media, Limburgs Universitair Centrum, Diepenbeek, Belgium Jean-Hugues Réty University of Paris 8, France Nadine Richard Post-Doc, Information Interaction Intelligence Group, ENST, Paris, France Paul Richard Assistant Professor, ISTIA Innovation, Angers, France Magy Seif El-Nasr Assistant Professor, School of Information Science and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A. Oliver Schneider Researcher, Dept. of Digital Storytelling, ZGDV, Darmstadt, Germany Alexander Sibiryakov Research Assistant, Dept. of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, U.K Danae Stanton Lecturer, Learning Sciences Research Institute, Department of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, U.K. Andrew Stern Artist and Researcher, InteractiveStory.net, grandtextauto.org, U.S.A. Nicolas Szilas Researcher, IDtension, France Bill Tomlinson Assistant Professor, Arts, Computation and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, U.S.A. Daria Tsoupikova Assistant Professor, Electronic Visualization Laboratory, School of Art & Design, University of Illinois at Chicago, U.S.A. ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROGRAMME --------- The conference will be composed of: - 4 one-hour keynote presentations presented by international experts: o "The Art of Mixing Realities" by Sally Jane Norman Director of the Ecole Supérieure de l'Image, Angoulême/Poitiers, France. Sally Jane Norman is a performing arts theorist and practitioner, Docteur d’état (Institute of Theatre Studies, Paris III), author of numerous papers including new media studies commissioned by UNESCO and the French Ministry of Culture, involved since 1996 in EU R&D programmes (esprit and IST), director of experimental platforms testing creative use of digital tools in live performance (International Institute of Puppetry, Charleville-Mézières ; Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music, Amsterdam ; Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe ; European Festival of Young Digital Creation, Valenciennes ; Ecole supérieure de l’image, Angoulême). Director General of the Ecole supérieure de l'image, Angoulême/ Poitiers, she directs the " Digital Arts " doctoral programme linking ESI with the Universities of Poitiers and La Rochelle in the Poitou-Charentes region. o "Building virtual actors who can really act" by Ken Perlin, Professor in the Department of Computer Science, and Director of the New York University Media Research Laboratory and Center for Advanced Technology. Ken Perlin's research interests include graphics, animation, and multimedia. In 2002 he received the NYC Mayor's award for excellence in Science and Technology and the Sokol award for outstanding Science faculty at NYU. In 1997 he won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his noise and turbulence procedural texturing techniques, which are widely used in feature films and television. In 1991 he received a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Perlin received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University in 1986, and a B.A. in theoretical mathematics from Harvard University in 1979. He was Head of Software Development at R/GREENBERG Associates in New York, NY from 1984 through 1987. Prior to that, from 1979 to 1984, he was the System Architect for computer generated animation at Mathematical Applications Group, Inc., Elmsford, NY. TRON was the first movie for which his name got onto the credits. He has served on the Board of Directors of the New York chapter of ACM/SIGGRAPH, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Software Industry Association. More information: http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/ o "Seizing the Power: Animation and Realtime Hardware" by Kevin Bjorke Kevin Bjorke is Shading Engineer and evangelist for developer marketing and content development at NVIDIA Corporation. He was involved intimately with the creation and use of the Cg shading language and CgFX format for realtime shading. He has created numerous shaders, sample scenes, tutorials, educational talks, lab classes, online videos, tools. He has visited and interfaced with a wide variety of production studios in both the film and game industries. He worked with the software and architecture groups of NVIDIA to bring high-end 3D rendering capabilities into realtime hardware. He has lectured at many graphics developer events around the US and the world including Siggraph 2002, Game Developer's Conference 2003, Developer Deep Fry Austin, Iron Developer Tokyo, Gathering 2 and Dawn to Dusk London. He contributed to the book The Cg Tutorial, and worked directly with the providers of CAD and DCC tools (such as Maya, SolidWorks, 3DStudio Max, and SoftImage XSI) to ensure that high-quality realtime shading was available at every 3D artist's desktop around the world. Previously, he supervised lighting, camera work, shading and imaging for The Animatrix, Final Fantasy, and similarly contributed to the films A Bug's Life and Toy Story. o "Virtual Storytelling in Europe" by a representative of the European Commission. - 16 thirty-minute scientific presentations selected by the international programme committee. - demonstrations. The working language will be English. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOCATION -------- The conference will be held in the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum "Les Abattoirs" of Toulouse, France. Toulouse is located in the Southern part of France, about 700 kilometers (450 miles) from Paris. The city is the 4th biggest French town and is very famous as for its heritage treasures that for its high-tech industry. More information on Toulouse: http://www.ot-toulouse.fr/English/ More information to get to Toulouse: http://www.ot-toulouse.fr/English/venir/setvenir.html With the Left Bank of the Garonne now confirming its status as a centre of culture, a new idea has seen the light of day in the former Toulouse abattoirs, which were opened in 1831 by the town architect and designer Urbain Vitry. In 1995, after an international competition, the architects Antoine Stinco and Rémi Papillault created a vast open space of 6000m2 to accommodate the new purpose of the building: permanent and temporary exhibitions, artistic experimentation and encouragement to creativity, a library with access for the public, bookshop, auditorium and café-restaurant. More information on the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum "Les Abattoirs": http://www.ot-toulouse.fr/English/decouvrir/musees/abattoirs.html http://www.lesabattoirs.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AGENDA ------ - April 1, 2003 Opening of the conference web site at www.virtualstorytelling.com - June 27, 2003 Deadline for submission - July 21, 2003 Notification of acceptance - August 29, 2003 Deadline for definitive version - November 20-21, 2003 Conference ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUBMISSION PROCEDURE -------------------- o Abstracts will be submitted in English with the following format: - One page with title, author name(s) and affiliation(s) and keywords. - An abstract of 4 pages maximum, figures and references included (the definitive version could be 10 pages long). - Font size 12 pt, single column, simple spacing. ONLY ELECTRONIC VERSIONS EXCLUSIVELY IN PDF format will be submitted. o The files must be sent, attached in a mail, BEFORE Friday June 27, 2003 to: Gerard.Subsol@wanadoo.fr Patrice.Torguet@irit.fr o Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by 3 members of the Program Committee. o Notification of acceptance will be sent to authors on Monday July 21, 2003. o A style format (Word and Latex templates) will be available for the definitive versions. o Two PAPER and one ELECTRONIC version (exclusively in pdf format) of the definitive versions will be sent before Friday August 29, 2003. o proceedings, Write-ups of talks and presentations will be published by Springer as a volume of Lecture Notes in Computer Science series that will be available during the workshop. See the proceedings of the first edition: http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/tocs/t2197.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTACTS -------- Gérard Subsol Gerard.Subsol@wanadoo.fr Jean-Pierre Jessel jessel@irit.fr Patrice Torguet torguet@irit.fr Olivier Balet Olivier.Balet@c-s.fr Web Site: http://www.virtualstorytelling.com/ Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/icvs2003/