JOURNEY OF ILLUSION

3D World charts the milestones in digital visual effects and animation since our first edition was launched in 2000

On 3 February 1986, the late Steve Jobs of Apple was quoted in a press release announcing that he had bought a ‘start-up’ company called Pixar, which had begun as a division of Lucasfilm. “Image computing will explode during the next few years,” Jobs said.

Look at the credits on the poster for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and you’ll see a notable credit: visual effects and animation by Industrial Light & Magic. That was a sign of intent: to recognise these disciplines had reached a critical mass. To paraphrase George Lucas, speaking in the late 90s, VFX had established its move from the aesthetics and processes of optical photography to that of painting digitally.

Jobs’ prediction proved true. Along with the deep impact of ‘image computing’ (AKA digital), the brave new world proved incredibly fast-moving. It’s worth noting, however, that 1986 did not initiate the digital era. For that we need to look back to 1972 when computer scientists Ed Catmull and Fred Parke worked on what was to become a watershed in filmmaking and, more specifically, animation. They had constructed an image of a digital hand and animated it in simple but compelling ways so a finger was flexed.

First, a clay model of Catmull’s left hand was made and marked up into polygons drawn directly onto the model. These polygons of intersecting lines were then scanned into the computer, creating a mesh version of the hand. It’s the earliest rendered 3D animation, and the short film presents this realisation and also includes images of a digitally rendered human face. It indicates, too, the possibility of applying the technology and new creativity to the world of medicine.