Computer Animation History

Flashcards covering the vocabulary terms in the lecture notes.

Motion Picture

An industrialized art form requiring hundreds of artists and technicians to create big movie blockbusters.

Paramount Decision

A 1948 Supreme Court decision that declared the movie business a monopoly that should be broken up

Oskar Fischinger

German abstract-expressionist artist and filmmaker who fled Hitler in the 1930s and settled in Hollywood.

John Whitney

Considered the earliest computer graphics in a major motion picture in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Vertigo and is called the Father of Computer Graphics

Oscillons

Early images created by Iowa sign painter Ben Laposky using old oscilloscopes and bending light waves.

Hunger

One of the first narrative films created by Peter Foldes using breakthrough software. It was the first CG film nominated for an Academy Award.

Larry Cuba

Experimental filmmaker hired by George Lucas to create computer imagery for the first Star Wars film, A New Hope (1977)

Blue Sky Research

Scientific research that may not seem to have immediate practical purpose, but creates benefits long term.

Project Whirlwind

MIT project that developed the first multi-purpose computers called the TX series, or “Tixos.”

ARPA

Advanced Research Projects Agency, created to focus on defense technology after the launch of Sputnik.

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the renamed ARPA.

Project SAGE

Semi-automatic Ground Enhancement, a new computer early warning radar system that used an early light pen stylus and the first modems.

Sketchpad

The first software for computer animation, written by Ivan Sutherland in 1962.

William Fetter

Coined the term Computer Graphics while trying to design ergonomically comfortable cockpit seats for fighter pilots.

Father of Silicon Valley

Fred Terman, Bush’s student, became dean of engineering at Stanford University and encouraged the school to lease its land holdings at a discount only to start up companies doing tech work; called the Father of Silicon Valley

Superpaint

An early surfacing system for digital images, developed by Dick Shoup and Alvy Ray Smith.

SIGGRAPH

ACM SIGGRAPH, Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics; the first national association of computer graphics enthusiasts.

Loren Carpenter

Boeing engineer who debuted his personal film Vol Libre, showcasing his breakthroughs in fractals, allowing rendering of irregular and more organic surfaces.

SpaceWar!

the first retailed computer game

Rotoscope

Invented in 1917 by NY animators Max and Dave Fleischer. Max filmed his brother Dave in a clown suit. The film was then blown up and projected frame by frame in a light box and traced off by animation cartoonists. The live action basis gave the character Koko the Clown, a believable fluid movement.

Alexander Schure

self made millionaire who created the New York Institute of Technology.

Georg Melies

French magician who went to see the Lumiere Bros first screening of a movie in Paris in 1895 and inspired him to create magic effects for the movie screen; is called the Father of Visual Effects

Willis O’Brien

The first Claymation dinosaurs

Scanimate

An early video distortion program done on a computer. It was used for the original Willy Wonka and th Chocolate Factory.(1971)

The Last Starfighter

the first major motion picture where all the visual effects were created digitally. No models, no clay, no painted backdrops.

The 1980s- The Wild West of CG

The basic tools of CGI were developed between 1976-1982. The next ten years were about increasing computational memory, and refiningthe tools to be user friendly enough for artists and filmmakers to use.

Motion Capture (mocap)

Is a method where the actions of a real actor or dancer are recorded on a computer, and that data becomes the basis for the movement of the computer generated character.

The official birth of Motion Capture

the character Waldo C. Graphic appeared on the Jim Henson Hour