Evolution of 3D Technology - Animated Films

Evolution of 3D technology - Animated Films.

Where it all started…

stino-san (2016)

A computer animated hand is one of the first three-dimensional animated (short) movie ever created using a digital program that Edwin Catmull (and Frederic Parke) made during his tenure at University of Utah, 1972 (shieldsdundee, 2011; see also Stanford, 2014; Loc, 2011). Catmull used his own left hand as the model, which he later drew polygons on to digitize the surface of the hand into the computer (Stanford, 2014), which is mentioned after 2:45 min in the YouTube video. A very interesting fact is that according to Catmull 3:47 min into the video, he claims that “And it was only those of us who actually ignored the existing software and wrote our own that stayed in computer graphics” (Stanford, 2014), which probably indicates that not only did he create one of the first 3D animated movie, but also with his complete own software. The world would see more to come by Catmull’s achievement.

Pixar (n.d.) made a huge breakthrough in 1995, with Catmull as an executive producer (stated in credits) (para.18), Toy story was produced by Pixar and Disney, and was the first feature movie ever created with only using three dimensional computer graphics (stated in awards) (para.19).

In the Toy Story YouTube video, Eben Ostby mentions the method of his technique in 3d modeling,  which is the computer capturing the points of the sculpted head of the character (for organics) with a device, so the points build up a facial structure as the character. Director John Lasseter explains that “every object you see on a screen has to be created from scratch, we start with blueprints, we call them modelpacks, and then that’s given to a modeler and they create the model within the computer” (Disney, 2016). How is the technology now though after all those year of 3D animated movies?

Almost as a rival to Pixar, Dreamworks’ engineers created a software to ease the workload for the animators, named Apollo. According to Simon Otto in the video, the previous software before Apollo was industry standard but also was “cutting edge” for its time, though taking lots of hours as a cost to creativity.  The biggest achievement seemed to be that the complexity for the animators was greatly reduced. Simon Otto comments on Apollo that “I’m not limited by technology, I’m limited by my own imagination” (DreamworksTV, 2014; see also Dreamworks, n.d.).        

 

Undare,M (2014)

Reference list:

Disney*Pixar. (2016, Oct 19). Modeling and Rigging |Toy Story | Disney*Pixar [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_FYmhkOf4Q

DreamworksTV. (2014, June 24). The Technology Behind How to Train Your Dragon 2. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepGUcvsWB0

Dreamworks. (n.d.). DreamWorks Animation. Retrieved November 8, 2018, from https://www.dreamworksanimation.com/technology/

Loc. (2011, December 28). 2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates. A Computer Animated Hand (1972). Retrieved November 8, 2018, from https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-11-240/

Pixar. (n.d). Toy Story. Retrived October 23, 2018, from https://www.pixar.com/feature-films/toy-story/#toy-story-main

shieldsdundee. (2011, December 29). ”A computer animated hand”-1972 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdedV81UQ5k

Stanford eCorner. (2014, May 5). Ed Catmull: Creativity, Inc. [Entire Talk] [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffixfwt654I/

stino-san. (2016). A Computer Animated Hand [Online image]. Retrieved from https://steemit.com/animation/@stino-san/-a-computer-animated-hand

Undare,M. (2014). How To Train Your Dragon [Online image]. Retrieved from https://www.deviantart.com/mahesh-undare/art/How-To-Train-Your-Dragon-498269105