The secret to publish a SIGGRAPH paper

You are making this harder than it needs to be. There is one simple secret to
getting in to the papers program, and that is to pick a topic that no one has
interested in, and then make a really polished paper and video about it.

Here is a practical step-by-step formula for easy paper acceptance:

1. Scan CVPR, ECCV/ICCV, or NIPS for the algorithms they use. Pick one that
the SIGGRAPH audience has not heard of yet. This is not too difficult, CVPR
is huge.

2. (This is the creative step)
INVENT A “CUTE PROBLEM” THAT IS HAS NO PRACTICAL VALUE. It does not even need
to be a problem in graphics. But if you choose an area in graphics that has
possible practical value, the reviewers will kill it in a second. We’re smart
and can easily detect any true relevance, and we want to save those problems
for ourself.

Example: do texture synthesis on some sort of spline or manifold that is
little used. Apply someone’s vision segmentation code to make a system that
would allow even your grandmother to make a video of a virtual fishtank from
clips downloaded from the web. Build a clever device for capturing the BRDF
of some phenomenon that is of little interest.

I’m not going to give you any better examples, because I have to admit that
this step is not trivial. But by definition it is not as difficult as getting
a relevant paper accepted to SIGGRAPH, since that is impossible.

3. Download the Matlab code from the identified CVPR or NIPS papers.

4. Add a scale parameter. Now you have an innovative new algorithm.

5. Apply it to the bunny and the dragon.

6. Put ATTITUDE into the video narration. The tone of voice in the video
should convey how both clever you were to download that Matlab code, and how
effortless it was. Make it seem so simple that anyone can do it, yet so
clever that only a SIGGRAPH author could have thought of it.

I have had papers rejected, and one accepted. Trust me, it does work.