Introduction - Computer Animation: Algorithms and Techniques - page 25

companies to use three-dimensional computer animation was the Mathematical Application Group
Inc. (MAGI), which used a ray-casting algorithm to provide scientific visualizations. MAGI also
adapted its technique to produce early commercials for television.
1.5.2 The middle years (the 1980s)
The 1980s saw a more serious move by entrepreneurs into commercial animation. Computer hardware
advanced significantly with the introduction of the VAX computer in the 1970s and the IBM PC at the
beginning of the 1980s. Hardware z-buffers were produced by companies such as Raster Tech and
Ikonas, Silicon Graphics was formed, and flight simulators based on digital technology were taking
off because of efforts by the Evans and Sutherland Corporation. These hardware developments were
making the promise of cost-effective computer animation to venture capitalists. At the same time,
graphics software was getting more sophisticated: Turner Whitted introduced anti-aliased ray tracing
( The Compleat Angler , 1980), Loren Carpenter produced a flyby of fractal terrain ( Vol Libre , 1980),
and Nelson Max produced several films about molecules as well as one of the first films animating
waves ( Carla's Island , 1981). Companies such as Alias, Wavefront, and TDI were starting to produce
sophisticated software tools making advanced rendering and animation available off-the-shelf for the
first time.
Animation houses specializing in three-dimensional computer animation started to appear. Televi-
sion commercials, initially in the form of flying logos, provided a profitable area where companies
could hone their skills. Demo reels appeared at SIGGRAPH produced by the first wave of computer
graphics companies such as Information International Inc. (III, or triple-I), Digital Effects, MAGI,
Robert Abel and Associates, and Real Time Design (ZGRASS).
The first four companies combined to produce the digital imagery in Disney's TRON (1982), which
was a landmark movie for its (relatively) extensive use of a computer-generated environment in which
graphical objects were animated. Previously, the predominant use of computer graphics in movies had
been to show a monitor (or simulated projection) of something that was supposed to be a computer
graphics display ( Futureworld , 1976; Star Wars , 1977; Alien , 1979; Looker , 1981). Still, in TRON ,
the computer-generated imagery was not meant to simulate reality; the action takes place inside a com-
puter, so a computer-generated look was consistent with the story line.
At the same time that computer graphics were starting to find their way into the movies it was
becoming a more popular tool for generating television commercials. As a result, more computer
graphics companies surfaced, including Digital Pictures, Image West, Cranston-Csuri Productions,
Pacific Data Images, Lucasfilm, Marks and Marks, Digital Productions, and Omnibus Computer
Graphics.
Most early use of synthetic imagery in movies was incorporated with the intent that it would appear
as if computer generated. The other use of computer animation during this period was to “do anima-
tion.” That is, the animations were meant not to fool the eye into thinking that what was being seen was
real but rather to replace the look and feel of two-dimensional conventional animation with that of
three-dimensional computer animation. Of special note are the award-winning animations produced
by Lucasfilm and, later, by Pixar:
The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (1984)—first computer animation demonstrating
motion blur
Luxo Jr. (1986)—nominated for an Academy Award