電腦特效里程碑歷史年表

看板Disney (迪士尼)作者EwanMagic.時間23年前 (2002/03/01 18:20)推噓0(0推 0噓 0→)

留言0則, 0人參與討論串1/1

迪士尼也佔有一席地位，各位有興趣的話，合力把它翻譯出來吧，裡面有很多電腦專業術語，CCHO可否幫忙 History of Computer Graphics (CG) Milestones in Computer Graphics CG was first created as a visualization tool for scientists in University and government research centers in the 1950s, 60s and 70s at places such as Bell Labs, Ohio State University, University of Utah, Cornell, North Carolina and the New York Institute of Technology to name just a few... The early breakthroughs that took place in academic centers continued at research centers such as the famous Xerox PARC in the 1970Os. These efforts broke first into broadcast video graphics and then major motion pictures in the very late 70Os and early 1980Os. The field of computer graphic research continues today around the world, and are now joined by the research and development departments of entertainment and production companies. Companies such as George LucasOs Industrial Light and Magic are constantly redefining the cutting edge of computer graphic technology. 1940s The very first "computer assisted" graphics began in many different unrelated fields around the world. The very first radiosity image. While at MIT, Professors Moon and Spencer were using their field of applied mathematics to calculate highly accurate global lighting models that they called "interflection reflection". The image itself was created by painstakingly selecting Munsel paper samples that matched the output data of their mathematical model. The paper was cut out and ironed together by hand to create the image shown here in print for the first time in over 50 years. (The original image is still hanging in the office of Dr. Domina Spencer, University of Connecticut.) It was first presented at the 1946 National Technical Conference of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and published two years later (in color) in the book: Lighting Design by Moon, P., and D. E. Spencer. 1948. (Addison-Wesley. Cambridge, MA) The book was used for many years to teach lighting theory at MIT in the architecture curriculum there. Dr. Spencer went on to teach at Tufts, Brown, Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Connecticut where she remains active today. 1950s John Whitney Sr. devises his own computer assisted mechanisms to create some of his graphic artwork and short films. -see sidebar Pioneering artists Stan VanderBeck, Ken Knowlton, Michael Noll and others at Bell Labs in New Jersey created computer assisted graphics using analog computer devices and plotter output. Later, in the mid 1960s, digital computers and film recorders would be used. Bill Fetter experimented with early vector graphic CAD at Boeing (Seattle) in the late l950s using an IBM 7094 computer with punch card input and a Gerber plotter. 1950 Artist Ben Laposky uses analog computers to help him create oscilloscope artwork. 1951 Vectorscope-type graphics display on the Whirlwind computer at MIT. A device similar to a light pen allowed direct input to the screen. 1955 SAGE system at Lincoln Lab uses first light pen (Bert Sutherland) 1956 Lawrence Livermore National Labs connects graphics display to IBM 704; 1957 1st image-processed photo at National Bureau of Standards. The IBM 740-780 (paired with a separate IBM 704 computer system) generated a sequence of points on a CRT in order to represent lines or shapes. Time lapse film photography was used to capture the images as they were drawn on the screen. 1958 MITOs Lincoln Labs: Funded by the Air Force, Steven Coons, Ivan Sutherland, and Timothy Johnson begin working with the TX-2 computer system to manipulate drawn pictures. Ivan Sutherland later began refining the work into his famous Sketchpad system while a student at MIT. DEC later commercialized the TX-2 as the PDP-6. 1959 First film recorder - General Dynamics Stromberg Carlson 4020 1959 DAC-1 (Design Augmented by Computers): First computer aided drawing system. Created by Don Hart and Ed Jacks at General Motors Research Conference in Detroit in 1964.) 1960's "Computer assisted graphics" were being created as a new and unique art-form by people such as Charles Csuri, Ken Knowlton and John Whitley Sr. Many pioneering artistic films were created at Bell Labs from about 1963 to 1967 by artists and programmers such as E.E.Zajac, Kenneth C. Knowlton, A.M. Noll, Lilian Shwartz, and Stan Vanderbeek. An IBM 7094 computer ran a Stromberg-Calson 4020 film recorder, programmed in FORTRAN to run Ken Knowltons Beflix animation system The very first computer graphics company was formed in 1968 by two of the leading researchers of the day, Drs. David C. Evans and Ivan E. Sutherland. Aptly named Evans & Sutherland, it provided a system comprised of custom designed hardware and software previously available only to one of a kind, multi million dollar military sites. Herb Freeman had a school of CG development going on at NYU including Alvy Ray Smith in his first professor's job out of Stanford in 1969. Freeman and his students had already solved the hidden-line problem, a very big deal at the time. Nicholas Negroponte teaches Computer Aided Design (CAD) at M.I.T in the mid to late 60s, and develops the URBAN5 system. A light pen allows interaction directly on the CRT, in combination with keyboard instructions. Points and symbols are added in orthographic mode with a perspective option entered after the fact in order to view structures three-dimensionally. An "intelligent" system study, URBAN5 was abandoned by 1968 in favor of other projects. Ohio State info. University of Utah: Ed Catmull, Frank Crow, Fred Parke, Jim Blinn, Jim Clark, Lance Williams, Garland Stern, Ron Resch, Alan Kay, John Warnock, Patrick Baudelaire, Jim Kajiya, Christy Barton, Gary Watkins and lots of others. "The Society for Information Displays" is formed in the early 60s, publishing papers dealing mostly with military applications. At this same time, practical commercial and industrial use of computer graphics begins to take hold in many areas of design and manufacturing. Throughout the decade at Boeing, Robert Woodruff (Computing Technology Administrator) leads many important industrial applications of vector generated CG. Architectural and urban planning programs (typically written in FORTRAN on machines like the IBM 1130 or 1800) are used at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago and in the University of Texas School of Architecture. A sample workstation would consist of a Rand tablet providing input, with output to pen plotters such as the Calcomp. In the late 60s, the Electronics Laboratory of General Electric (Syracuse, NY) produces a prototype visualization system for NASA and the Office of Naval Research. The system produced real-time color raster graphics on a monitor as a training aid to astronauts going to land on the moon. This same system was used by Prof. Peter Kamnitzer of the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Planning to simulate urban development plans. 1960 William Fetter of Boeing coins the term "computer graphics" for his human factors cockpit drawings. John Whitney Sr. founds Motion Graphics, Inc. 1961/62 Spacewar: The first ever computer graphic video game written by students Steve Russell, Slug Russell, Shag Graetz, and Alan Kotok of MIT to run on the DEC PDP-1. (DEC's PDP-1 cost $120,000 and MITOs was one of only 50 ever built) The large round CRT display featured graphics controlled by primitive handmade joysticks. The object being to maneuver away from a gravitational "sun" force at the center, and avoid the other enemy ships, while trying to blast him with your own space torpedoes! The original source code (which ran on 4k of memory!) can still be found at www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/sources or ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/sim/sources/sim_2.3d.tar.Z There's also a copy of the PDP-1 manual at www.dbit.com/~greeng3/pdp1/pdp1.html 1963 "Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System" is presented by Ivan Sutherland as his Ph.D. thesis at MIT. The user could input simple lines and curves by drawing directly on the screen with a light pen. The computer, the TX-2, had a whopping 320 kilobytes of memory and a 9 inch monochromatic CRT. Charles Csuri created an analogue computer and used it to make transformations of a drawing. He completed a series of drawings based upon the paintings of old masters such as Durer, Goya, Ingres, Klee, Mondrian and Picasso Kenneth Knowlton's programs BEFLIX and EXPLOR are used to create early computer films at Bell Telephone Labs. 1st computer art competition, sponsored by Computers and Automation magazine. The Spring Joint Computer Conference has several people from MIT presenting papers on graphical display technology: Steven Coons, Ivan Sutherland, Tim Johnson, Bob Stotz, Doug Ross and Jorge Rodriquez. Edgar Horwood developed a computer graphic mapping system used by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. HUD publishes "Using Computer Graphics in Community Renewal" Frieder Nake at The Computer Institute of the Stuttgart Polytechnic uses the Graphomat Zuse Z 64 Drawing machine to produce 4 color plotter drawings. 1965 Dr. David Evans founds the Computer Science Department at University of Utah. Ohio State University CG program started by Charles Csuri. 1st computer art exhibition, at Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart 1st U.S. computer art exhibition, at Howard Wise Gallery in New York 196? First commercially available graphics computer: IBM 2250 (When was the DEC 338??) 1966 "Odyssey": The first consumer computer graphics games product by Ralph Baer of Sanders Associates. Later marketed at Magnavox. Permutations: With a grant from IBM and a Fortran programmer named Jack Citron(sp?), John Whitney Sr. made the first digital computer short film. An IBM 2250 Graphic Display Console created dot patterns which were then recorded onto black and white 35mm film. The filmed images were then further enhanced with a specially designed optical printer to add secondary motion and color. As Associate Professor at Harvard, Ivan Sutherland and his student, Bob Sproull, took earlier "Remote Reality" vision systems of the Bell Helicopter project, and turned it into "Virtual Reality" by replacing the camera with computer images. The first such computer environment was no more than a wire-frame room with the cardinal directions -- North, South, East, and West initialed on the walls. The viewer could "enter" the room by way of the West door, and turn to look out windows in the other three directions. Affectionately called "The Sword of Damocles" because of its ceiling mounted gear, what they called the "Head-Mounted Display," later became known as Virtual Reality. 1967 Cornell University's School of Architecture by Donald Greenberg. 2D morphing techniques used were started by Les Mezei at the University of Toronto MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies founded by Gyorgy Kepes The Computer Technique Group in Tokyo Japan is funded at the IBM Scientific Data Center. Engineers and designers create many beautiful and varied computer graphic art pieces, using image processing and geometric transformation. Members include Koji Fujino, Junichiro Kakizaki, Masao Komura, Fujio Niwa, Makoto Ohtake, Haruki Tsuchiya, and Kunio Yamanaka. 1968 Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts exhibition at London Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) The UK's Computer Arts Society (CAS) is founded by John Lansdown at the Royal College of Art. The EVENT ONE computer art exhibition is held at the Royal College of Art. The first computer animation in the UK was the FLEXIPEDE made by Tony Pritchett. Made at the Open University. Several computer art publications are available in Europe including Bit International out of Zagreb, and Page by the London Art Society, a monthly magazine which actually lasted until the mid 80s. Ivan Sutherland joins the Computer Science Department at University of Utah Evans & Sutherland (E&S) company founded by Dave Evans and Ivan Sutherland. Chuck Csuri's short film Hummingbird is purchased by Museum of Modern Art for permanent collection. (See Animation Chapter for more details.) Dicomed is founded as a manufacturer of hardware and software products to apply computer graphic technology to the field of radiology by scanning x-ray films, converting the information into digital data, enhancing it and redisplaying the processed image. (From their web site at www.dicomed.com ). Still in business 30 years later, providing professional high resolution digital image capturing technologies. Bill Fetter contributed to the first (vector based) computer generated television commercial in 1968 while at Boeing. 1969 Edward Zajec begins a long career of fine art aided by the computer, creating plotter output works using an IBM 60/20 at Carlton Collage in Minnisota. He would later spend 10 years as an Artis-In-Residence at the University of Triese in Italy. He returned to the united states to Syracuse University in 1980 to reinvigorate the CG program there which had begun in the early 70s. http://web.syr.edu/~ezajec/ez-plain.html The first major public Computer Art show is held in London. Cybernetic Serendipity also publishes a book of the same name. LDS-1 (Line Drawing System). The first commercial CAD wireframe graphics machine system released by E&S. Incorporated hardware design from Garry Watkins, designed input by Chuck Seitz (University of Utah faculty 1970-73), Bob Shumaker and others. John Warnok (University of Utah Ph.D. 1969) Developed the Warnock recursive subdivision algorithm for hidden surface elimination. Alan Kay (University of Utah Ph.D. 1969 ) Further developed the notion of a graphical user interface with the Alto project at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto, CA), which directly influenced the design of Apple MacIntosh computers. Bell Labs developed the first frame buffer for storing and displaying 3bit images. Gary Demos first becomes acquainted with computer assisted graphics with John Whitney Sr. at Cal Tech in California. An IBM 2250 ran a custom operating system, images where photographed in Ektachrome and printed on Kodachrome. 1970's Academic research in computer graphics was at the time led by places like the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) Computer Graphics Lab founded in 1974 by Alex Shure. Ed Catmull and Malcolm Blanchard (both from U.Utah) started the program and were soon joined by Alvy Ray Smith and David DiFrancesco, both fresh from Xerox PARC. Jim Blinn and Jim Clark were there briefly, as were Lance Williams and Garland Stern and many others. Much of the nation-wide university research conducted at the time was due in part to funding from the governmentOs "Advanced Research Project Agency" (ARPA). ARPA at the time took a very hands-off approach to funding. This allowed researchers an un-pressured environment in which to concentrate on the work, not the heavy bureaucracy, paperwork and political constraints more common today. Much to the benefit of researches was Ivan Sutherland who headed ARPA for a time. With good funding, little oversight and many brilliant young minds inspiring each other, it was a unique and special time that produced the very foundation of todayOs computer graphic tool sets. Widespread commercial use of this early technology did not begin until the 1970Os when early pioneers saw the potential in the broadcast video market for the new creative tools. Companies like Image West, Dolphin Productions (New York, President Alan Stanley) and Computer Image Corp (Denver, President Lee Harrison) used these realtime computer assisted video graphics machines to introduce new imagery to both broadcast clients and the viewers at home. [BIO SNIP] Lee Harrison, the inventor of analog video-based computer animation was the founder of Computer Image Corporation(1969) in Denver, CO.; where the (ANIMAC?), Scanimate, C.A.E.S.A.R., and System IV analog animation devices were developed. Won an Emmy for SCANIMATE in 1972. Relatively affordable frame buffers became available in the mid to late 70Os which opened up the commercial market for true CG production. The input for these earliest machines were banks of patch wires or punch cards, very different from today's mouse and graphic interfaces. These first million dollar commercial machines were capable of only limited, video resolution rater based graphics. Output was limited in most cases to videotaping or filming monitor screens, but they introduced the public at large to the new art form of computer graphics. By the end of the decade affordable raster technology far out paced the vector graphic mainstay. Michael Noll arranges some of the first public gallery showings of computer generated art in the United States. Pioneering work done by James F. Blinn at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena California (started in 1975 by Bob Holzman). David Em (who would work with Alvy Ray Smith at Xerox PARC on Dick Shoup's Superpaint system in about 1974 or so) also later joined Jim at JPL to create some of the early serious computer art in raster form. Nelson Max at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories uses CG to illustrate basic biologic research; the first "scientific visualizations". 1971 Gary Demos visits NASA AMES and Evans & Sutherland while researching a documentary film about computers for "Dimension Films" in LA. It is there that he first meets Ivan Sutherland and expresses his ambitious desire to create complex and realistic high resolution CG images for films. (Gary is only about 21 years old at the time!) Since most of the hardware and software technology that would make this possible does not yet exists, Gary joins E&S to begin to create these missing pieces. John Warnock ran the San Jose E&S office before going to NYIT, and Ivan himself was working on his own hidden surface solutions at the time. Gary helped develop a high precision "data table" (table not tablet because it was 4 feet by 5 feet) accurate to 100th of an inch for digitizing images. The table used two pens to define two simultaneous points in 3D space. Programming was done in assembly code on a PDP-11 with a Picture System 1 for vector display. Both Henry Gouroug and Bui Toi Phong worked on shading at E&S, so that area was well covered needless to say. Gary and the E&S team next tackled the challenge of building the first ever random access frame buffer. They began with the first 8 DRAM chips every produced, which came from a company in Texas called Mostek(sp?). 1972 PONG developed by Nolan Bushnell. (Later founder of Atari) First feature film appearance of CG: West World. A "block pix" scene done at Information International Inc. (III; aka "Triple I") Led by John Whitney Jr., digitally processed film was used to portray a pixelated android point of view. 1973 The first ACM/SIGGRAPH conference held in ??. Just over 1000 attendees. Edwin Catmull (Ph.D. 1974 University of Utah) develops both the Z-buffer algorithm and the concept of texture mapping in 1973-74. (Texture mapping techniques were later refined by Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith, Tom Duff, Lance Williams, and Paul Heckbert at NYIT. First physical structure designed entirely with computer-aided geometric modeling software: A large Easter egg which is still standing in Vegreville, Alberta, Canada. "The Easter Egg Capitol of the World". By Ronald Resch, pioneer in the field of computer art, and member of the Computer Science Faculty at University of Utah from 1970-1979. The programmer that worked with Resch was Robert McDermott who got his PhD from the work at U. of Utah). Frank Crow (University of Utah Ph.D. 1975) Developed anti-aliasing methods for edge smoothing. 1974 New York Institute of Technology In 1974 Alex Schure, a wealthy entrepreneur, began to assemble the Computer Graphics Laboratory (CGL) at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). His vision was to create a feature length animated film, with the aid of the days most sophisticated computer graphics techniques. NYIT itself was founded by AlexOs father, whoOs grounds encompassed numerous estates situated in the beautiful wooded hillsides of Westbury New York. Some of these estates were owned by members of the Rockafeller family, who also happened to have a seat on the board of Evans & Sutherland. Because of the close association of E&S with the University of Utah, Dave Evans recommended to Alex to seek out Edwin Catmull to head the new CGL. Ed Catmull had just finished his Ph.D. at Utah and taken a job at a CAD/CAM company called Applicon. It was not a hard sell to get Ed to leave Applicon for NYIT however, so he and fellow Utah graduate Malcolm Blanchard packed their bags for New York. Alvy Ray Smith and David Difrancisco (fresh from Xerox PARC) joined the team a few months later, having heard of AlexOs plans from Martin Newall (whom Alex had just hired as a consulant from Utah). Alex had recently come through Utah and literally ordered "one of everything" to jump start his NYIT project. Some of this equipment included a DEC PDP-11, a new E&S LDS-1 and the first random access frame buffer also from E&S. Later, the CGL group would also receive the very first commercial VAX. [SIDEBAR] VAX ALMOST SMASHED! In fact, the VAX almost never made it inside the building, if not for Alvy Ray SmithOs quick actions. It seems that when the computer was just lowered off the back of the delivery truck, another truck parked behind and uphill had itOs brakes slip, which started it rolling towards the brand new machine. Alvy quickly jumped in the driver-less truck and stopped it just before it could smash the VAX back into the very truck it was just unloaded from. The CGL quickly attracted other technology experts and artists, including Tom Duff, Lance Williams, Fred Parke, Garland Stern, Ralph Guggenheim, Ed Emshwiller, and many others. Throughout the 1970s, the people of the CGL thrived in a pioneering spirit, creating milestones in many areas of graphic software. The atmosphere at the CGL was also very open, with many invited tours coming through the lab all year-round. Other universities like Cornell, and companies such as Quantel were among those to visit and take notes about what was being developed. Ed CatmullOs Tween, Alvy Ray SmithOs Paint program, and the 2D animation program SoftCel, all were in keeping with the original charter of the CGL, which was 2D CG. There were also many breakthroughs in image techniques involving fractals, morphing, image compositing, and Mip-Map texture mapping and many others. Key to this pioneering effort was the seemingly unlimited financing evidenced by Alex Shure. One such example took place when Alvy Ray Smith spoke with Alex about how good it might be to have not just the one, but three frame buffers. This way, Alvy explained, the three 8bit buffers could be combined to create the first RGB color frame buffer ever! Sometime later Alex not only delivered the two additional frame buffers, but an additional 3, which gave the CGL team a grand total of 6. ("Enough for two of those RGB things" said Alex.) At $60,000 each (plus the $80,000 for the first) what this meant in todayOs dollars was that on a simple request, Alex had just delivered about $2million worth of equipment. More Utah people joined the CGL, including Garland Stern who would write the vector animation system BBOP. David DiFrancisco would also begin what would be turn out to be a long association with film recording at this time. [SIDEBAR] TUBY THE TUBA! At this same time as the CGL was up and running, Alex had about 100 traditional animators working on a film called "Tuby The Tuba". Unfortunately, after two years when the film finally screened, everyoneOs worst fears were realizedEit was worse than awful. Several different department also existed at NYIT by now, in different neighboring mansions; an audio group, a video/post production lab, and a computer science department as well. One project that was successfully completed, was a half hour video (2" with a single frame recorder) called "Measure for Measure", which combined conventional cell animation with TWEEN imagery. In 1979 when Ed Catmull left to start the Computer Graphics Division at Lucasfilm, everyone wanted to come with him. In fact, Alvy, Tom Duff, and David DiFransisco all left and went elsewhere while waiting to join Ed in California when the time was right. Ralph had promised to stay at NYIT a full year, and he honored that commitment, even turning down an offer from Alex Shure to head the CGL group so that he would be free to leave one that year was up. A New York City commercial office was established to market and sell the technology developed in Westbury. Known as CGL Inc., it was home to people such as Pat Hanrahan and Glen Maguire. Commercials included for Volkswagon, Chevrolette and "Live From Lincoln Center" (which is still showing today!) [THE WORKS!] A great deal of effort at NYIT went into the development of the film "The Works", which was written by Lance Williams. For many reasons, including a lack of film-making expertise, it was never completed. Sequences from the work in progress still stand as some of the most astounding animated imagery of the time. Phong Bui-Toung developes the Phong shading method at Utah. Later become a professor at Stanford. Dr. Ivan Sutherland and associate Glen Flex start a Hollywood company called Picture Design Group with John Whitney Jr. and Gary Demos. One of the first test they do is for a feature film proposed by Walter Films and Carl Sagan, called "Cosmos". Using an E&SPicture System at UC San Diego Demos began tests on one-million-star galaxy simulations. Operating on a clunky front system that crashed every fifteen minutes, it forced him to wait 5 minutes to boot, for 5 minutes to work and 5 minutes to back up data before the system would crash again. They did other work for educational films, and the Museum of Science and Industry, but after about 9 months Ivan wanted to give in favor of going back to academia. Demos and Whitney then go to Triple-I. 1975 Hunger by Peter Foldes: "First fully animated figurative film every made using computer techniques." (Computer Interpolation or inbetweening). Like CsuriOs work, some of the first geometric interpolation or "Morphing" techniques. Also "Metadata"(date?) The venerable icon of early computer graphics, the famous "Utah Teapot" is designed by Martin Newell at the University of Utah. The TWEEN animation system is developed by Dr. Edwin Catmull at NYIT. Originally written in assembler language (Ed hated Fortran), TWEEN was re-written completely in C to run on UNIX about a year later (It took up 32megs of memory on a PDP-11). He actually renamed the program "MO-TRUCK" for "motion trucking-thru-the-frames" but no one would use the new nameEso TWEEN it stayed. After 20 years of research Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot publishes his seminal paper: "A Theory of Fractal Sets." The study of fractal geometry is revealed to the popular press. John Whitney Jr. and Gary Demos form the Motion Picture Project Group at Triple-I. 1976 Future World: Gary Demos, John Whitey Jr and a team at Triple-I creates the first feature film appearance of 3D CG; a 3D polygonal representation of actor Peter FondaOs head. was rendered and filmed out at 3000 pixel resolution. Also the first time such high resolution was used work a motion picture. Nelson Max's sphere inversion film shown at SIGGRAPH? James Blinn develops bump mapping, and environment (reflection) mapping at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California [SIDEBAR] Close Encounters CGEALMOST! Bo Gehring, founder of Bo Gehring Associates of Venice, California, produced computer animation tests for Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The tests did not result in any production work on the film. 1977 Star Wars (Twentieth Century Fox) The Death Star simulation was designed and created by pioneering algorithmic artist Larry Cuba. George Lucas was impressed both by CubaOs early abstract CG film First Fig(1974) and the fact that he had worked with another pioneer of motion control and computer graphics John Whitney Sr. Ben Burt, the films sound designer, had been tasked to get the word out around town and track down bids for the work. Cuba designed storyboards from the description of the scene in the script, and worked on the job at the University of Illinois Chicago. A 2D drawing program that Cuba designed with the GRASS language was modified to allow input of a third Z axis for every point entered on the digitizing tablet, creating the 3D representation of the Death Star surface. Using the Vector General based GRASS graphics system designed by Tom DeFanti, Larry worked night and day for 12 weeks to produce 2 minutes of film of which 40 seconds appeared in the final film sequence. [RENDER TIME QUOTE] "(While the GRASS system was capable of real time animation) the real time capability came from the Vector General's hardware implementation of basic transformations, like translation, rotation and scaling. also the projection transformation that turns a 3D object into a 2D drawing, but it was only capable of a parallel projection (that is, no 'true perspective'). Since I needed perspective for this project, I was back to using software for the projection and therefore *not* able to animate the scene in real time. I was getting a frame rate of about two minutes of computation per frame and so the whole shot took about 12 hours." -Larry Cuba (A rented Mitchell camera filmed the imagery off of the computer monitor) The finished footage was originally intended to be shot as a rear projected element live on stage with the actors in London, but greatly reduced production deadlines made that impossible. The full story as told by Larry Cuba himself: There was traditional hand animation done for the final four seconds of the bomb entering the death star exhaust port and exploding; completed by John Wash at Image West. Other computer graphic and video display images were created for Star Wars by several different people. John Wash, Jay Teitzell and Dan OOBannon at Image West created many electronic video graphic effects for the targeting computers and background tactical displays. Larry Cuba also completed several graphics seen in the DeathStar guard room when R2 and C3PO first tap into the central computer. [SIGGRAPH FACTOID] The 1977 SIGGRAPH convention Electronic Film Show also ended with Larry CubaOs work, although not as planned. Halfway through his film "First Fig" all the power went out in the hotel bringing it, and the show to a premature ending. 1978 James Blinn produces the first in his series of animations for the The Mechanical Universe 1979 Catmull leaves NYIT to head the Lucasfilm Computer Development Division. He is soon joined by Alvy Ray Smith, David Di Francesco, Tom Duff and Ralph Guggenheim. [QUOTE] "In 1979, the most significant artistic event of my career occurred: Ed Emshwiller and I created Sunstone. It is primarily his piece, but we worked very closely on this piece and I am still extremely proud of it. It is in several museum collections of the world, including MOMA. Lance Williams and Garland Stern also helped some on it." -Alvy Ray Smith The Black Hole (Disney): Opening grid/black hole simulation. By John Hughes (Rythm and Hues) et al. at Robert Abel & Associates. Alien: Alan Sutcliffe at Systems Simulation Ltd. Of London created a computer monitor sequence showing a 3D terrain fly-over, rendering computer-generated mountains as wireframe images, with hidden line removal. Meteor has vector graphics created by Triple-I Julien Gomez developes TWIXT at Ohio State software used at Cranston Csuri Productions. Raytracing developed at Bell Labs & Cornell University. Turner Whitted published a paper for SIGGRAPH 79 describing raytracing techniques. 1980's The first digital computers used in CG as we know it today were introduced in the early 1980s by companies such as Apple Computer and Silicon Graphics Inc. The consumer market began with the Macintosh personal computer and its MacDraw and MacPaint software. Commercial CG production was boosted by new digital machines such as the (MORE INFO!) and the early Silicon Graphics workstations such as the IRIS 3130 in 1989. At the same time, third party companies began providing specialized software to run on these new graphic platforms. For 2D graphic design and image processing, Photoshop was introduced for the Mac in 198?. Early 3D animation software for the higher end market included Wavefront(1987), Intelligent Light(198?), and Alias v1.0(1984). The mid 1980Os to early 1990Os were a time of tremendous advances in technology and stunning creative breakthroughs. Companies such as Robert Abel and Associates, III, Magi, Omnibus, and Digital Productions created such memorable images as Sexy Robot (ABEL), Chromosaurs (PDI), and the Benson & Hedges(Digital Productions) commercials. The U.S. National Science Foundation began to provide supercomputer access to university research programs, including the University of Illinois Supercomputing Center. 1980 LOOKER: Triple-I produces seven minutes of computer graphics under the Direction of Richard Taylor et al. Polygonal models of a complete human body were created. Loren Carpenter at Lucasfilm's Games Group & Atari created "Rescue From Fractalus!" Chris Briscoe and Paul Brown co-founded Digital Pictures as the UK's first specialist computer animation company 1981 Nelson Max begins making computer graphics for the IMAX film format at Lawrence Livermore National Labs. Computer Assisted Animation Stand(CAAS) at NYIT Computer Graphics Lab. Adam Powers (The juggling tuxedo guy): Part of Information International Inc. (III) demo reel shown at SIGGRAPH that year. Nintendo introduces the Donkey Kong video game 1982 Tom Brigham (NYIT) introduces the first full raster "morf" technique at the 1982 SIGGRAPH conference. Silicon Graphics Inc. formed by Jim Clark (University of Utah 197?) For lots of details see the "Companies" chapter. Autodesk formed by Dan Drake and John Walker, release Auto-CAD v1.0 at COMDEX. The first all digital computer generated image sequence for a motion picture film: Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan/genesis sequence. First use of fractal geometry and particle systems, based on Tom DefantiOs work from his "Vol Libre" film (completed while at Boeing). Bill Reeves fire, Tom Porters stars, Loren Carpenters fractals, Tom Duffs moon. Tron (Disney): First extensive use of 3D CGI animation for a feature film. Robert Abel & Associates created the title sequence for the film, and the entry to the digital computer world. Digital Effects created the little bit character. Mathematical Applications Group Inc. (MAGI) created the light cycles and most of the recognizers. Information International Inc. (Triple-I) created SarkOs carrier, the solar sailer, and the MCP character sequences near he end of the film. In total, there was only about 15 minutes of computer generated imagery created. The majority of effects were accomplished by traditional animation techniques involving tens of thousands of hand rotoscoped individual frames of artwork. 1982/83 Where the Wild Things Are (Test done at MAGI): The first instance of digital compositing for motion picture work. The character animation was done at Disney (lead by Glen Keane,) and the cg backgrounds, rendering, painting, and compositing was done at Magi/Synthavision. Jon Lasseter was the official Disney-Magi liaison. Ken Perlin supervised the project, with the CG work lead by Chris Wedge and Jan Carlee (both now at Blue Sky.). Software was by Ken Perlin, Christine Chang, Gene Miller, and Josh Pines. Look for many more details in the Companies Chapter! 1983 The Bosch FGS-4000 (the first true turnkey 3-D System) is introduced at NAB in 1983. Cube Quest(Simutrek Inc.): Early 3D graphics video game. Return Of The Jedi (Twentieth Century-Fox/LucasFilm Ltd.): Holographic Endor moon sequence by the LucasFilm Computer Graphics Group. Bill Reeves and John Lasseter did it using vector graphics to simulate raster graphics! 1984 Synthavision, a division of MAGI, is sold off to a Canadian investment company. Silicon Graphics releases itOs first commercial product, the IRIS 1000 terminal (which ran off a VAX host). Wavefront software company formed in Santa Barbera, CA by Bill Kovacks et al E LOTS MORE A modern global illumination rendering technique called Radiosity is presented by a team led by Don Greenberg at Cornell University. The Apple Macintosh computer is released. The first personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). The Adventures Of Andre And Wally B. LucasFilm Computer Graphics Division. Alvy Ray Smith directed John Lasseter in his first CG short animated film. [SIDEBAR NOT!] Dune: Cool 3D CGI body armor. NOT! (Traditional animation done by Jeff Burks while at Van derVeer Photo Effects.) The Last Starfighter (Lorimar): The first CG project by the new Digital Productions formed by Gary Demos and John Whitney Jr. after having just left Triple-I. 2010: Odyssey Two: Digital Productions worked with Boss Film Corp.Os Richard Edlund. Larry Yaeger, Craig Upson, Neil Krepela, et al. combined computational fluid dynamics with CGI to create the planet Jupiter. 1985 DisneyOs The Black Cauldron is the first use of 3D computer graphic elements in an animated film. (true?) The first ever Academy award recognition for computer graphics achievement: John Whitney Jr. and Gary Demos of Digital Productions receive The Scientific and Engineering Award was for "the practical simulation of motion picture photography by means of computer generated images (1984). Bob AbelOs Sexy Robot completed for the Canned Food Council. The animated short film Tony de Peltrie by Phillipe Bergeron shows at SIGGRAPH 85. Using digitized clay models, and the new user friendly TAARNA 3D animation system (From U.Toronto) along with additional keyframe interpolating algorithms by Kochanek described at the previous years SIGGRAPH. (Phillipe also did hero animation on the Symbolics short Stanley and Stella in 19??) [SIDEBAR NOT!] Max headroom was NOT computer generated. (Really, take my word for it.) Beginning with the 1985 British music video show and TV pilot, he was portrayed by actor Matt Frewer in stylized makeup with added video editing effects. The US TV series produced in 1987 did feature some other on screen CG (created with an Amiga) but never Max himself. (BTW, 10 years later actor Matt Frewer later stared in the LawnmowerMan II sequelEinfinately less good than Max IMO) For all things Max visit: http://www.maxheadroom.com/altfaq.html Commodore introduces the Amiga color personal computer. Playland (Atari Corp.): Bill Kovacs. Los Alamos National Lab: The Ultra-High Speed Graphics Project is started. It pioneers animation as a visualization tool and requires gigabit-per-second communication capacity. An early massively parallel (128-node) Intel computer is installed. Young Sherlock Holmes Stained glass knight sequence: First CG Character in a feature film and also the First computer generated images in a feature film to be exposed directly onto the film with a laser. By the PIXAR Animation Group, A Division of LucasFilm LTD. [FACTOID] David DiFrancesco built the laser scanner that was used for Young Sherlok Holmes. The former video artist would later (in 1999) receive his second Technical Academy Award for this achievement. Money For Nothing MTV video by Dire Straits.(Steve Barron director) Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson created the animation at Rushes Post production in London, done on the Bosch FGS-4000. The Quantel effects were done by Viv Scott. Ian and Gavin now own and run a company in Vancouver called Mainframe, out of which they produced Reboot(1994). Cranston-Csuri produces many national broadcast network graphics, but closes in 1987. Many of its employees go on to later form MetroLight Studios (1987). [BIO] Gary Demos: (studied under Ivan Sutherland at Utah?) E Cal Tech, went to work at E&S in 1972 and met John Whitney Jr. Began working on projects with III then went with Whitney to III to form the "Motion Picture Design Group" in 1974. Left III just before Tron production, again with Whitney, to form there own company Digital Productions. DP filed for chapter 11 in 198? But was then continued as Optimistic by Whitney. Demos the formed his own company, which still exists today: DemoGraFX. 1986 SoftImage founded in Montreal by Daniel Langois. Mick Jagger's Hard Woman music video. Digital Productions Brad deGraf, Bill Kroyer, Kevin Rafferty. Et al. CG Co-Produced by Nancy St.John and Alan Peach. "The Juggler": An Amiga demo by Eric Graham. Digital Productions create the three minute opening sequence for the feature film Labyrinth. Complex 2D vector graphics character animation was produced by Digital Productions for the Mick Jagger music video Hard Woman. PIXAR formed by Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Division pioneers Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith along with about 35 others including John Lasseter, Ralph Guggenheim, Bill Reeves, et al. Purchased from George Lucas by Steve Jobs (Apple/NeXT) for $10 million. Luxo Jr. (PIXAR Animation Studios): First CG Short Animated Film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Animated Film Flight of the Navigator: Omnibus Computer Graphics creates the silvery reflective spaceship. (Jeff Kleiser?) The Great Mouse Detective: Disney first use of 3D computer graphic elements in an animated film. (Or was it The Black Cauldron in 1985?) Howard the Duck: first digital wire removal for a feature film. Painted by Bruce Wallace at ILM with proprietary "Layerpaint" software on a Pixar Image computer. Layerpaint code originally written by Mark Leather and modified by Jonathan Luskin and Doug Smythe. Star Trek IV: First use of Cyberware 3D scanner for film Digital Productions is purchased, then also Robert Abel & Associates, by Omnibus Computer Graphics in 1986. Omnibus goes out of business one year later in 1987. 1987 Rhythm and Hues formed by ex-Abel staffers in a formaer dentist office. Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future The first television series to include characters that were done entirely with computer animation. It went on the air (September) in North America. Soaron and Blastarr were two CG robots that appeared in the 22 episode series. The computer animation was produced by Arcca Animation in Toronto. [SYNTHAVISION FACTOID] "Arcca was the reformation of Sythavision staff and software to do the Captain Power series that was a creation of Landmark Entertainment (Hollywood) and financed by Mattel. The show featured toys that were interactive with the television show by registering blast hits on the toy (via a 30hz flicker on TV) or on the TV show character (via a trigger pull during a 15hz flicker from the TV)." -Paul Griffin About four minutes of computer graphics was animated for each episode every week using two SGI 3130 workstations running Wavefront software. The motion was then ported over to Sythavision data. Rendering was done on 13 Sun Workstations that ran a proprietary job control system, that would pick up new frames in a sequence as they were completed, which may have been the first render farm of its time. The work for the show won Arcca a Gemini Award (the pinnacle in Canadian film production) for Technical Achievement in 1988. The producer was Bob Robbins. The art director was Earl Huddleston. Paul Griffin(ILM) was Animation Director, Andy Varty, Sylvia Wong(Rhythm & Hues, ILM), Les Major (ILM, Pixar). Paintbox work by Rob Smith and Mike Huffman. Jenniffer Julich was in charge of storyboards. Rob Coleman, was Arcca's onset liason/line producer. Mark Mayerson now directs Monster by Mistake on DisneyTV and YTV (Canada). On the live action production side, Doug Netter (Rattlesnake Productions) and Larry Dittillo(sp?) (the writer) went on to develop Babyon 5. 1988 Fruit Machine (Wonder World): The first all digital film composite for a feature film by Computer Film Company (CFC)/London. The first time multiple film elements were scanned into a computer, 100% digitally composited, and filmed back out again. Jim Henson and Digital Productions create a real-time 3D digital character for the Jim Henson Hour. The first of its kind. Steve Whitmeyer(sp?) was the puppeteer and voice. Thad Bier(PDI/Hammerhead) and Grahm Walters and Rex, shipped all the equipment up to Toronto one week before SIGGRAPH. The opening to the show was done by Jamie Dixon(PDI/Hammerhead). Mike the Talking Head The first real-time character (aka motion-capture, vactor, performance animation). Michael Wahrman and Brad deGraf did it at deGraf/Wahrman live at the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre in Atlanta. ( Mike was a virtual caricature of the late Mike Gribble, the host of that show, and the Mike of Spike and Mike's animation festival.) Willow (MGM/Lucasfilm Ltd.): First feature film use of digital morphing technology. CAPS(Computer Animation Paint System) developed jointly between Pixar and Disney. Tin Toy (PIXAR Animation Studios): First CG Short Animated Film to win an Oscar for Best Short Animated Film 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Lucasfilm Ltd. /Paramount): The first all digital composite for a major US feature film, the "DonovanOs destruction" sequence by ILM. Multiple film elements were scanned into a computer, digitally composited, and then scanned back out to film. The Abyss (GJP Productions/Twentieth Century-Fox): Water Pseudopod. 1990's The entertainment world as we know it began to change in the 1980s when motion picture images in Tron, Star Trek II, The Last Starfighter, and Young Sherlock Holmes gave the audience a taste of the future. Now, George LucasOs Industrial Light + Magic began to continuously raise the popular standard by which all CG was judged by creating such images as the water pseudopod in James CameronOs film The Abyss (1989) and the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1990). In 1993 ILM smashed all previous conceptions about computer graphics when Jurassic ParkOs photo-real dinosaurs took center stage in theaters around the world. 1990 deGraf/Wahrman did The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, the first CG ridefilm. It was a fully 3D chase/ride through Bedrock and Scooby-Doo's castle, with cel animated characters, for Universal Studios Florida. (Additional CG work by Rhythm and Hues) Robocop 2 (Also by deGraf/Wahrman) was the first use in feature films of Performance AnimationEamong those who also contributed were Ken Cope(animation) and Gregory Ercolano(TD). The Rescuers Down Under: The first complete feature film to be "completely digital". The CAPS system digitally ink and paints every frame of the film. Die Hard 2:Die Harder (Twentieth Century-Fox): The first digitally manipulated matte painting created at Industrial Light & Magic. Matte department supervisor was Bruce Walters, Paul Huston and Michael McAllister helped in design and composition and Yusei Uesugi was the matte painter extraordinare. Four separate images were digitized from the painting (13 feet wide by 5 feet tall), decreasing in resolution from the center outward. The images were assembled in a MacII computer, and manipulated by Uesugi using Photoshop. The image was combined with numerous live-action elements of people, lights and steam with a camera move programmed by Pat Myers. NewTek releases the Amiga based Video Toaster. 1991 Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Carolco): T-1000 liquid metal cyborgBeautiful all CG commercials by PIXAR for Listerine, Life Savers and Tropicana set s new standard for broadcast excellence. DisneyOs Beauty And The Beast ballroom sequence is a major new direction in feature length animated films. 1992 Death Becomes Her (Universal): Photoreal human skin and body replacement. 1993 Wavefront acquires the TDI software company from Thompson Corp of France. In exchange Wavefront receives a major capital investment from Thompson PDI opens a Hollywood production office. This office would close in a short few years. Marc Scaparro, Eric Gregory and Brad deGraf did Moxy for the Cartoon Network at Colossal Pictures. Produced by Anne Brilz. It was the first live broadcast of a virtual character. Jurassic Park (Amblin/Universal): Photo-real 3D Digital Dinosaurs 1994 Reboot: the first 100% CGI television series airs on ABC from Mainframe Entertainment Inc. Microsoft acquires Softimage Forrest Gump (Paramount): Photoreal/invisible 3D and 2D digital effects blending new footage with old, changing archive footage, and removing Gary Sinese(sp?) legs! By ILM of course. Flintstones (Universal): First feature film digital hair developed for the saber toothed tiger. 1995 Silicon Graphics, Inc. acquires both Alias and Wavefront, merging the two companies. Toy Story (PIXAR Animation Studios): First full length CG Animated feature film. Director John Lasseter wins a Special Achievement Academy Award. Judge Dredd (Cinergi): Early examples of fully 3D digital stunt people by the Kleiser-Walzack Construction Company for Mass-Illusion. Casino (Dir. Martin Scorsese): Matte World Digital utilizes LightScape software to seamlessly integrate a 1970s virtual Las Vegas strip into present day live action footage. The first time radiosity lighting was used in a feature film. Batman Forever (Warner Brothers): Early example of 3D realistic digital stuntman by Warner Brother Imaging Technology (W.B.I.T.)and Pacific Data Images. Also a very realistic, fully 3D cityscape by W.B.I.T. Casper (Amblin/Universal): Record number of on screen shots with a digital character. 400+ Jumanji (Tri-Star): Further development of particle based digital hair technology for Lion sequence. 1996 Alvy Ray Smith, Ed Catmull, Tom Porter, and Tom Duff receive a Technical Academy Award for digital image compositing (ie the alpha channel) Dragonheart (Universal): Breakthrough 3D CGI character animation and lip-synch dialog. Twister: Breakthrough realistic tornadoes and weather effects by Industrial Light and Magic using WavefrontOs Dynamation.. 1997 Floops (done at Protozoa by Brad deGraf, Emre Yilmaz, Steve Rein and others) was the first character distributed as 3D (VRML), the first episodic cartoon on the Web, and the first significant animation on the web (30 minutes worth). Star Wars/Special Edition (Twentieth Century-Fox/LucasFilm Ltd.): Restored and enhanced 20 year old film footage. About 350 shots were added or modified for all three films. Spawn: Photo-real fully 3D creature transformations, full screen digital stunt doubles, and dynamic simulated cape. All with bone-cracking, digital-drool slinging realism. Titanic: Large scale use of motion-capture and 3D digital crowd extras. 1998 Alvy Ray Smith and Dick Shoup receive a Technical Academy Award for digital painting. Geri's Game (Pixar): Academy Award winning animated short film showcases the newly rediscovered modeling technique of "subdivision surfaces". Antz (PDI/Dreamworks) A Bug's Life (Pixar/Disney) 1999 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The first film contains 2000 digital effect shots. It's a whole new record for a feature film. A whole lot of every types of digital effects in each frame. -- ▌ ▁▌ ▌▁ ▌|情報員標號: u46-74.u203-204.giga.net.tw |局中| ◤ ▌ ▌ ▌▃ ▌|隸屬☆單位: 中央情報局 (bbs.e-cia.net) |邑情| ◣