Theodore Kim

There has NEVER been paper at #SIGGRAPH on Black, Afro-textured hair in its entire 50 year history.

UNTIL NOW.

We introduce CURLY-CUE: GEOMETRIC METHODS FOR HIGHLY COILED HAIR. When you STOP assuming straight hair is a universal baseline, lots of new science opens up.
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Oct 9, 2024 at 9:43pmWeb
Show threadTheodore KimOct 9, 2024

We identify three geometric phenomena unique to highly coiled hair: phase locking, switchbacks, and period skipping.

These phenomena do NOT appear in straight hair, and thus have been ignored at #SIGGRAPH, and CGI in general, for half a century.
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Show threadTheodore KimOct 9, 2024

This is NOT another paper that shows one sad curly example after a dozen pages of straight hair. Those are *obviously* straight hair algorithms.

We treat hair as curly from the beginning. As a high-frequency helix, not a half-parabola.
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https://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/wu-haomiao/publication/curlyCue.html

Curly-Cue: Geometric Methods for Highly Coiled Hair

In Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia, 2024

Show threadTheodore KimOct 9, 2024

We will present this paper at #SIGGRAPHAsia2024. More info in the Yale press release.

This work was with A.M. Darke, Alvin Shi, and Haomiao Wu.

Thanks to the Bungie Foundation, Kareem Shuman, H.D. Harris, Carvell Wallace, Elijah Richmond, and most of all, Jet Appling for making this work possible.
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https://seas.yale.edu/news-events/news/researchers-publish-landmark-study-hair-animation

Researchers Publish Landmark Study in Hair Animation

We have grown accustomed to seeing many aspects of our everyday world depicted using computer graphics, but some phenomena remain difficult for even the most experienced animators. Hair, specifically

Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science
Show threadNicolas HolzschuchOct 10, 2024
@TheodoreKim congratulations !
Show threadIvanDSMOct 11, 2024
@TheodoreKim This is great work!! Congratulations! :D
Show threadJohnMasheyOct 13, 2024
@TheodoreKim
Very cool! I haven’t been to SIGGRAPH since my 1990s SGI days… when hair and fur were always talked about (but indeed not curly hair).
Show threadLikely Jan LukasOct 13, 2024

@TheodoreKim

This looks amazing! I'm not well enough to read the paper atm but have saved it to do so when I can.

Alas, I haven't the abstract mathematical knowledge to follow formulae very well, but it looks like you've included lots of visual examples demonstrating the visible geometry, which I do tend to understand.

Thank you for exploring this. 🙂 Amazed and saddened that it hadn't been approached previously in your field.

Show threadDoug Baker - Elbows Up! 🇨🇦Oct 14, 2024
@TheodoreKim Is that you, #TheOnion?
Show threadQuentin Stafford-FraserOct 10, 2024
@TheodoreKim Love it. Congratulations.
Show threadPeter DrakeOct 13, 2024
@TheodoreKim #alt4u Computer modeling of the head of a Black man with medium-length, tightly-curled hair, black hinting to gray.
Show threadTheodore KimOct 13, 2024
@peterdrake Added. Thanks!
Show threadPierreOct 13, 2024
@TheodoreKim super interesting. Thank you. Also you reminded me of this: https://blog.camposanto.com/post/171638832704/zora-is-one-of-the-two-main-characters-in-our
Campo Santo

Zora is one of the two main characters in our second game, In the Valley of Gods. Quite a few people remarked on Zora’s character design, in particular her hair, when they saw our announcement...

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Show threadKevinOct 14, 2024
@maccatalan @TheodoreKim Finding out Campo Santo was working on a new game, then that they got acquired, and that the game development is on hold until "2029" was a rollercoaster of emotions :/
Show threadLuna ROct 13, 2024

@TheodoreKim HECK YES!!!

So far I've skimmed the paper, and this is absolutely fantastic work! Huge congratulations to you and your team!

Show threadSt. ChrisOct 13, 2024

@TheodoreKim I remember when Pixar was talking about the new hair algorithms they developed for The Incredibles — for Violet’s perfectly straight hair. That was twenty years ago.

Beautiful work. This looks amazing.

Show threadTheodore KimOct 13, 2024
@FormerlyStC Now we know why Frozone was bald.
Show threadSt. ChrisOct 14, 2024
@TheodoreKim And we never got to see Honey.
Show threadvandorb12Oct 14, 2024
@FormerlyStC @TheodoreKim the Pixar team also showed the struggles they had with Brave hair tech for their protagonist, however the curl density was never at this level as described in the paper. I can only imagine if this tech was available when Soul was being animated how their characters would look.
Show threadTheodore KimOct 14, 2024
@vandorb12 @FormerlyStC The curly hair algorithm my Pixar colleagues developed for "Brave" was rejected from SIGGRAPH, even though it had already been successfully used in the film. The bias that the conference has shown towards straight hair has been entrenched for a long time.
Show threadAli SchwarzerOct 13, 2024
@TheodoreKim Oh, wow!
Show threadCeolafOct 13, 2024

@TheodoreKim @siracusa it is so fucking awesome that you did that.

So horrible that no one else has written/presented in that before.

Thank you for moving the ball forward.