PC World Features Ari Shapiro and SIGGRAPH’s Motion in Games Conference at ICT

An article about the recent ICT-hosted SIGGRAPH Motion in Games Conference (MIG) focused on the work of ICT’s Ari Shapiro as well as larger trends in gaming and academia that are creating ever-more realistic video game characters. The story noted that Shapiro is the face of Digital Ira, ICT’s collaboration with Acitivision and Nvidia.
“With animation, it’s all about human factors. It’s not just ‘does the character look real’ but does it act real, in socially appropriate ways, alongside the other players in the game,” Shapiro said.
The story noted that MIG 2014 brought academics and industry professionals together for three days to share breakthroughs, debate papers, and then translate the latest research so that it could be used to enhance future games. The story explained that the univesity-research presented at the conference is important for academia and the game industry.
“This sort of research takes years and is outside the scope of the average game company’s R&D budget. This is one major reason why the industry is now in close collaboration with academia—and vice versa. Because university research departments can better attract top talent if there’s a groundbreaking game that results from years of study. At MIG 2014, both sides were learning from each other and that can only bode well for the future of gaming,” said the story.