The 2019 AG’s Life Time Achievement Award was presented to Prof. Sung Yong Shin, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), for his contributions in computer animation, image processing and computational geometry, and his lifetime contributions in educating the leaders in the field of computer graphics.

Prof. Sung Yong Shin has steadily published papers over the last three decades at top-tier graphics conferences and journals. Of the many exciting technical contributions, he has made significant contributions to image processing, particularly in the areas of image morphing, warping, and multilevel B-splines. He began to investigate the motion capture techniques as a means to produce character animation since 1995. He led research projects that explored interactive motion editing, computer puppetry, rhythmic motion synthesis, locomotion generation and planning. His efforts contributed to the emergence of a new research field, data-driven animation back in the early 2000s.

His academic research has been transferred to industry to create a virtual character PangPang, which appeared regularly in a television show in 2000. Another virtual character Aliang showed in a national television news to demonstrate the advance of computer graphics technology.

In addition to performing groundbreaking research, Prof. Sung Yong Shin cofounded Pacific Graphics in 1993, which is well-established now as the most influential graphics conference in the Asia/Pacific region. He also founded Korea Computer Graphics Society (KCGS), which has evolved to become a community of researcher, filmmakers, and business professionals who share interests in computer graphics and interactive techniques.