Steer Studios, the global games studio arm of Savvy Games Group, held a company day at KAUST to recruit talent. Savvy Games Group aims to invest SAR 142 billion to establish 250 game companies in Saudi Arabia and create 39,000 jobs. Steer Studios representatives interviewed and networked with KAUST students, seeking skills in marketing, computer engineering, 3D art, animation, and game design. Why it matters: This event highlights Saudi Arabia's commitment to developing its gaming and esports sector, aligning with Vision 2030 and creating opportunities for local talent in a rapidly growing industry.
Nicu Sebe from the University of Trento presented recent work on video generation, focusing on animating objects in a source image using external information like labels, driving videos, or text. He introduced a Learnable Game Engine (LGE) trained from monocular annotated videos, which maintains states of scenes, objects, and agents to render controllable viewpoints. Why it matters: This talk highlights advancements in cross-modal AI, potentially enabling new applications in gaming, simulation, and content creation within the region.
Egor Zakharov from ETH Zurich AIT lab will present research on creating controllable and detailed 3D head avatars using data from consumer-grade devices. The presentation will cover high-fidelity image-based facial reconstruction/animation and video-based reconstruction of detailed structures like hairstyles. He will showcase integrating human-centric assets into virtual environments for real-time telepresence and entertainment. Why it matters: This research contributes to advancements in digital human modeling and telepresence, with applications in communication and gaming within the region.