color and comp lecture 12 story of computer graphics movie

when was SAGE developed, why, and its importance

• August 1949 russia made a nuclear bomb = new form of war → the cold war, and SAGE was the computer used to program this, a computer so big ppl could fit inside it

• SAGE → when one computer inside of it was working, the other computer would receive data

• Lincoln laboratory at MIT was where the majority of SAGE work happened

• ^^^ This is also where CAD projects were developed 

Ivan Sutherland

• Ivan Sutherland at MIT showed the world how to draw on a computer —> a software called sketchpad

• What gets drawn on the paper getting translated onto a screen was brand new, with no guidance!

• This is where the first graphic systems was born to incorporate real time graphics drawing

  • You made a sketch, the computer applied some rules, and the computer finished it for you

  • Changes were easy to make!

Pierre Bezier

• developed a method to draw complex curves and shapes on the computer 

  • Design to the actual manufacturing of parts

  • made Bezier curves possible in computer software

  • Put in location of data points you want, and the flatbed would show how it would look, allowing for adjustments to be made to the drawing

what is CAD —> CAM

• creates a product 

• Early benefit of bringing in computers brought design and manufacturing closer together ! 

  • Architects saw the value as well

  • People appreciated visualization and art!

  • Also made it ideal for animation

james and john witney (brothers)

• Pursuit of connection between abstract visuals and music

• Created sophisticated pattern that kept shutter open while artwork was moved 

• Used his technique to create the stargate sequence 

• Using animation to create abstract designs that are visualizations of music 

• Music truned into rose curves and easily recognizable shapes and curves → leads to idea of visual harmony

where was CGI first researched and main reason why

• at Bell Labs to assure the future of communications

what was the Stromberg carlson microfilm plotter

• Used to make scientific diagrams or print out text → used to make movies 

what is hypercube

• showed 4D objects 

• Goal of these technologies was to create new modes of communication!

Ken knowlton & who did he collaborate with

• made BFlix or BellFlix

  • Collaborated with Lilian Shwartz (a designer of some kind) for use of color! 

Charles Csuri

• demonstrated a computer could be used to deconstruct and manipulate an existing image → showed a better way compared to traditional cell animations

  • Uses a computer to fill in frames between keyframes

The film “Hunger” by peter folds importance due to what technique?

was one of the first to use keyframes and won many awards

Jim Blinn & The phases of computer graphics

• Used a teapot to seat computer graphics bc it has complex shapes like sharp creases, negative curves, etc.

• Phases: 

  • Wireframing, opaque surfaces, lighting and shadows, highlights, texture mapping, reflections of objects

Turner Whitted

• Pursued ray tracing (?) ideas 

• Made a global lumination model as a movie to show off the algorithm model 

Donald Greenberg

• goal was to create pictures that are indistinguishable from real world images 

  • Radiosity

  • ^^^ a global lumination model to make light reflect and diffuse more realistically

Fiat Lux & what is it and who is it by

• by Paul Debevec

• one of the first shortfilms that used CGI in a way that was able to reflect light and shapes so well and looked super realistic

The frame buffer

• crossover of computer technology and video technology, a memory where every memory location corresponds to a pixel or picture element on the screen 

• The graphics engine updates the frame buffer with the next image to be displayed on the screen. 

  • Raster technology was able to shrink down the frame buffer to a stereo size, a board, and now a chip

Richard shoup and what did he make

• Made super paint

• Let video in and out and used 8BIT color 

• First serious paint program

Ed Catmulll made what with who

• Made 24 Bit frame buffer to create a 24bit paint program with richard shoup at NYIT

Yoichiro kawagachi

• An artist who used CAD and 3D design tech to make optical illusion types of 3D video art

when did CGI enter commercials and what did it use specifically

• 70s and 80s

  • Did this by using the tecnology used to simulate nuclear radiator → light reflections 

Robert Abel & Associates

• did work for Tron and the Star Trek movies

• CGI made the invisible, visible

• “created groundbreaking computer-generated graphics for television commercials, movies, and video games, including early advancements in ray-tracing and fluid character animation; he is considered a founding father of computer-based animation and special effects”

John witney jr & what company did he make

• Wanted to bring computer graphics into entertainment

• Made III (triple-I) (information international inc)

  • Disney made the movie TRON → used CGI to create intro sequence at start of the film to depict the hero’s entrance into the computer

  • But tron was not well accepted by the public

  • Led to 100s of people losing jobs due to hollywood turning away from computer graphics

• Created some of the first CGI in feature films

how is CGI used in offices

for producing high quality presentation materials

Douglas englebart & what did he make

• Developed the computer mouse!

• Increased the quality of printer material and communication

  • Goal of publishing was to allow images to be a digital piece of paper → image representation to be as close as possible to what will be on paper 

Steve Jobs & The Macintosh

• Goal of publishing was to allow images to be a digital piece of paper → image representation to be as close as possible to what will be on paper 

  • he believed it was the key to the future

Jim clark & what companies and items did he make

• Wanted to design a custom silicon chip set to accelerate chipsets

• Used a built in frame buffer ad graphic interface to manipulate wireframe 3D objects

• Had 3D motion and color graphics 

• Could output video from it

• Wavefront —> a comapny primarily known for developing 3D animation software.

Jim blinn and space related work

• Make database of spacecraft moving towards jupiter

• Grandfather of much of computer graphics and mission planning for space!

• Invented “what u see is what ur going to get!”

• Made a radar system that could look at the surface and make a map of the surface of a planet by using image data → 3D model of the planet venus !

Donna cox

• Scientific simulation is representing natural phenomena 

• Can help predict and control the aftermath of natural disasters like tornadoes and fires → predictive models (ex of smoke plumes)

Medical images & CGI

• allow to see deep structures without disturbing the surrounding tissue

  • Digitizing human cadavers in one mm sections allowing for virtual surgery = can try out new procedures in an anatomically accurate environment

  • Allows to understanding viruses like AIDS, its structures = design of drugs is more effective

  • Allows for individualized treatment of patients

3 basic approaches to animating motion

• Keyframe animation

  • Key postions are strung tofetehr to create motion

• Motion capture

  • Live performer is instrumented to create digital synthetic character of them

  • Real time playback of the real person moving but digitally

• Procedural Synthesis

  • The computer moves characters based on studies of physics and anatomical motion

  • Skeleton animation system

The end

a film that animates motion

George lucas

• Wanted to push the creative process to make movies, but knew computers were the route there

• star wars based on Star trek movies ! (im pretty sure)

• Morphing a tiger into a person using computer graphics in the movie willow → first time this happened

Silicon graphics what did they found

founding PIXAR Motion

Jurassic park importance

was one of the first movies to use majority CGI & Accomplished photoreal creatures 

Luxo Jr

was a milestone pixar piece of 2 lamps interacting (an adult and a child) → a pixar film (the breakthrough piece)

Red’s Dream and tin toy

were two more key pixar films that used CGI

who did pixar collaborate with to make toy story

Pixar collaborated with disney

James H Clark

key figure in CGI

• founded Geometry Engine software for CGI

• founded Silicon Graphics, a CGI company

• Cofounded Netscape, a navigation browser

• launched Healtheon/WebMD

John Warnock

• co founder of adobe systems in 1982 - aiding in creating PostScript, photoshop, illustrator, and acrobat

• inventor of the pdf

• pioneered desktop publishing (enabling ppl to print books and things straight from their computers), with software he made called postscript

Industrial, Light, and Magic (ILM)

• key visual effects company responsible for the majority of the special effects in star wars films

• created visual effects for over 500 feature films and television projects

Tippett Studios

• did jurassic park visuals

• developed a digital input device for character models and effects

• a visual studio effects company specializing for films, and tv commercials

• founded by Phil Tippett

University of Utah

• David C. Evans & Ivan Sutherland were from here

• developed foundational techniques like texture mapping, Gouraud shading (interpolation shading method for smooth gradients), and 3D rendering

• - The Utah Teapot

  - The Blinn-Phong reflection model (shading model in CGI)

Alvy Ray Smith

• Co-founder of Pixar and Lucasfilm's Computer Division

• Co-invented the alpha channel - results in the combining multiple 2D images into a single, final image.

• First true-color raster graphics editor and HSV color space

rendering

taking info stored on a harddrive or disk and turning it into what is seen on screen

rasterization - not on final review sheet

• used on real time 3D graphics, like games

  • rasterizer looks at thousands of triangles in the 3D screen and determines which are visible in the scene, and then analyzes the light sources and environment to add light and color to each triangle’s pixels

ray tracing

• used for creating photo-realistic images from 3D scenes

• it calculates the path of every ray of light by following it through the scene until it reaches the camera = can create v accurate reflections and refractions

• creates a ray per pixel displayed on screen, then the path of each ray is traced from the camera back through the scene to the original light source

• too complicated for real time imaging

radiosity

• focuses on global lighting, and tracks the way light spreads and diffuses around a scene

• simulates the effect of light bouncing around a room, good for recreating natural shading

MIT

developed Whirlwind computer