{"id":33704,"date":"2020-05-27T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/mad-tech\/2020\/05\/27\/berreth-fitzgerald-and-polyak-to-present-at-prestigious-siggraph-2020\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T07:32:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T12:32:21","slug":"berreth-fitzgerald-and-polyak-to-present-at-prestigious-siggraph-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/mad-tech\/2020\/05\/27\/berreth-fitzgerald-and-polyak-to-present-at-prestigious-siggraph-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Berreth, Fitzgerald and Polyak to Present at Prestigious SIGGRAPH 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It all started with some wooden spools. Brooks Hall was being rewired for internet, and a faculty member stumbled across 20 wooden spools lying in the breezeway between two buildings. That led faculty members Todd Berreth, Patrick Fitzgerald, and Emil Polyak to come up with a new project which was recently selected for inclusion in the 2020 SIGGRAPH conference in two categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe liked the idea of very physical and handmade sets combining with cutting edge AR technology to develop the AR\/Carousel, an idea we came up with over several brainstorming sessions\u201d said Patrick Fitzgerald, associate professor of art + design who teaches courses in illustration, multimedia and animation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The faculty embarked upon a project called Story-Go-Round: A Carousel-based Platform for AR Storytelling<\/em>, which debuted in their shared design studio, ADN 460, Multimedia Project Studio. Student teams developed carousel-like stages out of the found spools which were linked to a game engine to control rotation using a motor and stream live camera feeds of the stage directly into a game environment, blending physical and virtual reality into a singular experience. Students of the studio were required to think creatively and problem-solve for unorthodox scenarios, to tell stories through interactive control and computer game play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe fun thing about this project was that we pitched a vision to students on the first day of class of what we wanted to do, and then built the technology over the course of the semester\u201d said Todd Berreth, assistant professor of art + design and member of the NC State Visual Narrative Cluster. \u201cThe students were able to produce some really amazing, inspirational work both in their own project development, the concepts, and through the artistry and engineering involved, while the faculty actively brought our own research into the classroom, as we built a technology and education platform together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the work that came out of the studio, Berreth, Fitzgerald and Polyak decided to submit the project for SIGGRAPH, the most prestigious computer graphics and animation conference in the world. \u201cAcceptance rates are pretty low, so we were thrilled when we found out we would be participating in not one but two events\u201d said Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first category is a general talk focusing on the work developed as a platform. Through the talk, Berreth, Fitzgerald and Polyak will present their work alongside other projects in a curated session based on a theme. The other category for which they were accepted is to Groovy Graphics Assignments, which is an education-focused venue to present innovative, creative and fun computer graphics assignments for use within computer science, game design, or art + design courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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