This event is free but for physical presence (speaker and audience) need to be registed to SIGGRAPH 2019. Get "Experience" or greater badge now. For YouTube watching, here is estimated URL: j.mp/VBW2019
[Entry] Company - https://j.mp/VBFF19Entry VTuber - https://j.mp/WVS19Entry Deadline 12th July

[Note] Starting time is moved as 16:00.

[Public playlist of World VTuber Showcase] bit.ly/WVS19

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"Virtual Beings World in SIGGRAPH 2019"

[Detail] http://j.mp/VBW19EB (this page)
[Date And Time] Mon, July 29, 2019, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM PDT (Add to Calendar)
[Live Streaming] http://j.mp/VRSYT
[Location] Room 309, "ACM SIGGRAPH Theater" in SIGGRAPH2019
Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015
[Public playlist of World VTuber Showcase] http://bit.ly/WVS19

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Virtual Beings, Fast Forward (VBFF) speakers list:

1 “Virtual Avatars: from Fashion, Gaming to Deep Fakes” - Koki Nagano, Jaewoo Seo, Hao Li, Pinscreen (USA)
2 “Anyone, Anywhere: Simplest Facial Mocap Solution” - Janna Jung, Raymond Mosco, Hyprsense (USA)
3 “Hand Expression for Virtual Beings” - Ben O'Brien, StretchSense Limited (New Zealand)
4 “Bringing Emotions to Virtual Being Faces” - Emilie Guy, Dynamixyz (France)
5 “Virtual Character R&D” - Eitaro iwabuchi, SQUARE ENIX (Japan)
6 “VIRTUAL BEINGS in the 5G and NTT DOCOMO 's Initiatives to Date” - Yoshitaka Soejima, NTT DOCOMO,INC (Japan)
7 “5G for VR & Virtual Beings” - Veronica Vanglin, VERIZON (USA)
8 “Virtual Music Performances and Digital Beings” - Adam Arrigo, WaveVR, Inc. (USA)
9 “Emerging Vtubers and Animation in China” - Tony S. Izumi, FRANKEN Animation (China)
10 “Digital Performers and Ownership” - Luc Schurgers, DNABlock (USA)
11 “Bilingual Vtubers for International Markets” - Hayata Nomura, YS MEDIA AGENCY INC inc. (Japan)
12 “Investing in Virtual Beings” - Marco DeMiroz, The Venture Reality Fund (USA)
13 “AI Virtual Characters for Social Media” - Ryan, Artie (USA)
14 “Develop the path for Virtual Beings in VR4.0 era” - Akihiko SHIRAI, Ph.D, GREE, Inc. (Japan)

World VTuber Showcase Finalists is announced. See latest and entire list on this URL(http://bit.ly/WVS19). Public live poll will be announced on this page.

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Motivation of this event

Virtual Beings World in SIGGRAPH 2019 is the first Birds of a Feather ("BoF") meeting to showcase the rapidly growing phenomena of “Virtual Beings” - a new category of digital performers that include: "VTubers", Virtual Influencers, Digital Doubles, Virtual Idols and Avatar Societies from all around the world.

This BoF will bring a diverse perspective on new frontiers for entertainment, education and social interaction: What are Virtual Beings? Must they be photo-realistic or not? Real-time or not? We will try to tackle all these questions. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet key contributors in this field and to explore the possibilities of human beings in this new virtual reality era.

The event will be held on Monday 29th July, 16:30-18:00 at ACM SIGGRAPH Theater (Room309) in SIGGRAPH 2019 (Los Angeles Convention Center). It will feature a round table discussion, a visual presentation of tools and technology entitled “Virtual Being, Fast Forward”, and a character driven short teaser for a “World VTuber Showcase”.

A performance of “VTuber Live” by GREE VR Studio in SIGGRAPH ASIA 2018 (FXGuide)

Program committee

Organizer

• Akihiko SHIRAI, Ph.D, GREE VR Studio Lab, Director/Digital Hollywood University (Japan)
  

• Scott Broock, Founder of Totem Networks -- a new global entertainment resource for digital performers/former EVP of Digital Strategy and Innovation at Illumination Entertainment, Global VR Evangelist at YouTube and early team member of VR pioneer, Jaunt (US)

• June Kim, ACM SIGGRAPH International Resources Committee Chair / SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 Art Gallery co-chair/ UNSW Art & Design (Australia)
  

Jury committee

• Geoffrey Gorisse, PhD, post-doc researcher Event Lab, University of Barcelona (Spain)

• Yingzi Yuan, Strategic Innovation Lab, Ubisoft (France)

• Mike Seymour, Real-Time Live! Chair, Sydney University (Australia)

Goal of this BoF

The goal of this event is "Sharing current latest trends in new human beings in computer graphics and interactive techniques”. Birds of a Feather (BoF) is part of SIGGRAPH official event, it is designed to be informal discussions and demonstrations led by conference attendees who share like-interests, goals, technologies, environments or backgrounds. This BoF event provide a casual atmosphere for conference attendees with different backgrounds from all over the world to meet, exchange ideas, and share information.

Collaboration and Contribution

The event is the first worldwide collaboration between various computer graphics and interactive related companies and/or individual activities to thrive in this new era. All contributors of this event must be open to collaboration. All rights are reserved but the content must be authorized for exhibition, slides and arts will be live streaming available via SIGGRAPH official YouTube channel. We can introduce this movement to a wider community.

(See a large picture @VRStudioLab)

Timeline and Deadlines

[Call for partner companies] 1st July 2019

[World VTuber Showcase] Open early June - Close at 12th July https://j.mp/WVS19Entry

[Virtual Being, Fast Forward] 25th June - Close at 12th July https://j.mp/VBFF19Entry

[Jurying] by program committee around 19th July
[Detailed Program] Google Slides 25th July (SIGGRAPH official)
[Live Stage] 16:30-18:00 Monday 29th July in ACM SIGGRAPH Theater, Room 309
YouTubeLive@GREE VR Studio Lab
YouTubeLive@ACM SIGGRAPH

[Call for Contribution] for partner company

- Thrive community by your company logomark and link as contributor of Virtual Beings (Web page, Slides, YouTube)

- If you have your Virtual Beings, you can provide your character picture for promotion of this event. (background transparent PNG for ease)

- "Virtual Being, Fast Forward": You can give a talk for 3 minutes on site.
By SIGGRAPH BoF regulation, it must be below:

• Related to computer graphics or interactive techniques
  

• Non-commercial in nature (BoF doesn't allow topics specific to one commercial product or company, but this event solves it)

• Free of recruitment, sales, product tutorials, or company promotion

• You can recommend contribution to "World VTuber Showcase" to related companies and production companies.

• You can provide a prize for the best project of “World VTuber Showcase”

• Free of charge

• You can join the committee on Discord https://discord.gg/Fq3Eh8z

[Deadlines for companies]

Deadline for logomark contribution: 1st July - https://j.mp/VBFF19Entry

Deadline for "Virtual Being, Fast Forward": 12th July - https://j.mp/VBFF19Entry

Deadline for "World VTuber Showcase": 12th July - https://j.mp/WVS19Entry

Jury for company prize: 12-19th Jury

Call for speakers - Virtual Being, Fast Forward

Present a 3 minutes talk or video describing your technologies which is related to the topics of virtual presence and embodiment. Mocap, middleware, face capture, computer vision, real time character, massive SNS service, new business… You can bring your live demo but not to the stage, all the presentations will be shared via Google Slides.

https://j.mp/VBFF19Entry

[Call for pitch] Virtual Being, Fast Forward

Present a 3 minutes talk or video describing your technologies which is related to the topics of “Virtual Beings”, presence, Influencers, digital doubles, avatar society and embodiment. Mocap, middleware, face capture, computer vision, real time character, massive SNS service, new business, etc....

The event will use one integrated Google Slides (http://j.mp/VBW19Slides). Eventually, it will be published by official Google Slides and SlideShare. Please propose your contents to be integrated on Google Slides (slides of 16: 9), as it does not matter if the work is in progress. Presenters can update it later (until a few days before the event). The pitch should be designed in 3 min. Don't expect you can talk 30 min. Recorded video is also good solution if presenter prefers to respect the duration. Embedded YouTube is recommended.

Call for teaser - World VTuber Showcase

We want to share your vision and performance for virtual beings! Send yourself as a digital character with a message to SIGGRAPH audiences via YouTube. 60 seconds or less, include "See you at World VTuber Showcase in SIGGRAPH 2019" in the end of video. Bring people to SIGGRAPH.

https://j.mp/WVS19Entry

[How to submit] World VTuber Showcase

Deadline: end of June → Extended to 12th July
60 sec Video message for SIGGRAPH participants

Reviewing concept: Selection by uniqueness of (1)Character design, (2)Message, (3)Technology, (4) expression, and (5) presence and influence.

Submitted YouTube videos can be public, early entry will have chance to expose with Twitter tags: #WorldVTuber #VirtualBeingsWorld #SIGGRAPH2019

Partners (agreed, A to Z)

“VRonWEBMEDIA” 81plus Inc. Japan

Dynamixyz, France

EXR inc., Japan

FXGuide.COM LLC, U.S.A

GFR Fund, LP., U.S.A

Hyprsense, U.S.A.

StretchSense Limited, New Zealand

The Venture Reality Fund, U.S.A.

WFLE (Wright Flyer Live Entertainment), Inc. Japan

Contact

Akihiko SHIRAI, Ph.D / GREE VR Studio Lab, Director / akihiko.shirai@gree.net
Twitter: @o_ob / @vrstudiolab

[Flow to contribute] https://twitter.com/VRStudioLab/status/1143378953874182145

Short link to latest version of detailed document http://bit.ly/VBW2019D

FAQs

Are there ID or minimum age requirements to enter the event?

It is based on SIGGRAPH Policy. All onsite participants need to register to SIGGRAPH 2019.

[Related link] https://twitter.com/o_ob/status/1136304151036551169

What can I bring into the event?

Everything you want to explain, however speaker should not expect live demo in this event.

You do submit your project to SIGGRAPH ASIA 2019 Real Time Live!
https://sa2019.siggraph.org/submissions/real-time-live
https://www.youtube.com/user/ACMSIGGRAPH

[FAQs for VTuber World Showcase]

Q: Is it possible to be publish the submitted video today?

A: Yes! We also love to share your submission on Twitter@VRStudioLab. If you do not prefer your submitted video as secret, please choose "I prefer to keep secret this submission, if it may not be selected as the final stage".

Q: Is it possible to speak in our language?

A: Yes, but please add subtitle in English. And please provide its script text must give on this form. It will be helpful for wider international audiences.

[FAQs for sponsoring]

Q: how to contribute? Can you tell the usage for the logo ? Where it will appear?

You can join via this Google Form (https://j.mp/VBFF19Entry) by using "Partner company contribution" before the deadline.

The logomark and company links will be shown as below:

(1) Submission forms
[Virtual Beings, Fast Foward] (VBFF) https://j.mp/VBFF19Entry
[World VTuber Showcase] (WVS) https://j.mp/WVS19Entry
It is also welcome to give a particular prize for VTubers.

(2) EventBrite
http://j.mp/VBW19EB

(3) Live Stage
16:30-18:00 Monday 29th July (PCT) in ACM SIGGRAPH Theater, Room 309
YouTubeLive@GREE VR Studio Lab - http://j.mp/VRSYT
YouTubeLive@ACM SIGGRAPH - https://www.youtube.com/user/ACMSIGGRAPH

This is voluntary offer of myself, and all exposing are "as is". Thanks for your cooperation.