The History of 3D animation Introduction The first of computer renderings came from a designer named William Fetter in 1960.

He attempted to maximize the efficiency of the layout inside Boeings airplane cockpits. As a result, he generated this image of the human form. 3D rendering technology has managed to find its way into the lives of millions of people worldwide. Be it a gaming console connected to a television, animation software on a workstation or the latest special effects blockbuster at the movies, we use and experience 3D rendering and harness its power without giving any thought about the marvelous technology behind it. In part one of this feature series, CGNetworks takes a look at the history of 3D rendering, from the first line algorithm to current technologies, we pay tribute to the scientists who made rendering possible. So next time you hit the render button for your latest blockbuster creation, think about what happens behind the scenes with the histories and developments that push the boundaries of current rendering technology.

Figure 1 - Computer Graphics in the 1960's - William Fetter

F Figure 2

The first 3D images, during the 1960s, were extremely rudimentary by todays standards and consisted of wire frame representations of various geometric shapes. A man named Ivan Sutherland and his colleagues advanced 3D rendering by devising the Scan line HSR (Hidden Surface Removal) algorithm to render solid objects. As a result, viewers could only see what was in front of an object and nothing behind.

Retrieved February 27, 2011, from: http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=1647&page=2 Now that computers were able to render solid objects, the next issue was how to increase the apparent complexity of a scene without increasing the amounts of geometry. Basically, developers were trying to achieve a smooth appearance on low geometry meshes. Henry Gouraud developed his own shading model, which works by finding the normal vectors of the meshs vertices, calculating the colors at those points, and linearly interpolating those colors across all the faces. The problem with these renders was that they still left jagged edges.

Retrieved February 27, 2011, from: http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=1647&page=2

Phong Bui-Tuong fixed this problem by creating a shader that calculates the normal at each pixel instead of vertex, thus smoothing out meshes even more. The only drawback was the 8X increase in render times.

Then began the ongoing battle between quality and speed. Several more advances in 3D rendering demonstrated this conflict. Regarding textures, Jim Blinn created the first of todays bump mapping, which explored the idea of disturbing surface normals. Soon after, displacement mapping further developed that idea, but required longer render times.

Retrieved February 27, 2011, from: http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=1647&page=2 Just remember that simple advances in 3D rendering during the 60s, 70s, and 80s have made current 3D graphics possible through experimentation and the desire to see better quality renderings.

http://renderfaster4maya.wordpress.com/category/history-2/

3D models

Frederic Parke created 3D human face model in 1972

Human facial expression has been the subject of scientific investigation for more than one hundred years. Computer based facial expression modeling and animation is not a new endeavor [1]. Initial efforts in this area go back well over 25 years. Increasingly complex computer animated characters demand expressive, articulate faces. It is interesting that most of the currently employed techniques involve principles developed in the research community some years ago---in some cases, several decades ago. The earliest work with computer based facial representation was done in the early 1970's. In 1971 Chernoff proposed the use of two-dimensional faces as a way to represent kdimensional data. The first three-dimensional facial animation was created by Parke in 1972. In 1973 Gillenson developed in interactive system to assemble and edit line drawn facial images. And in 1974, Parke developed a parameterized three-dimensional facial model.

Figure 3 The early 1980's saw the development of the first physically based muscle-controlled face model by Platt and the development of techniques for facial caricatures by Brennan. In 1985, the short animated film ``Tony de Peltrie'' was a landmark for facial animation. In it for the first time computer facial expression and speech animation were a fundamental part of telling the story.

The late 1980's saw the development of a new muscle based model by Waters, the development of an abstract muscle action model by Magnenat-Thalmann and colleagues, and approaches to automatic speech synchronization by Lewis and by Hill. The 1990's have seen increasing activity in the development of facial animation techniques and the use of computer facial animation as a key story telling component as illustrated in the recent film ``Toy Story.'' If past trends are a valid indicator of future developments, the next decade should be a very exciting time to be involved in computer facial animation. Driven by increases in computational power, the development of more effective modeling and animation techniques, and the insatiable need of animation production companies for ever more capable computer animated characters, the quantity and quality of facial animation will increase many fold. http://mambo.ucsc.edu/psl/sig97/siggraph97-panel.html

Futureworld

Edwin Catmull and Frederic Parke worked on movie called Futureworld in 1976 First major feature film to use computer generated images (CGI) Featured 3D human face and hand

Edwin Catmull Computer scientist contributed to many important developments in computer graphics 2001 - became president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios

Star Wars 1977, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope George Lucas used 3D graphics to enhance film Success of film helped heighten 3D animation in cinema

Old Pixar Footage Discovered: First Appearance of 3D Computer Animation

Newly found lost Pixar footage shows the origins of the computer animation studio. The discovered footage doesnt feature any cute robots or toy cowboys. Instead it shows some of the first film experiments in 3D computer-based animation experiments that would help launch the the worlds foremost computer animation studio, Pixar. The seeds of computer 3D animation. The footage was incorporated into the 1976 film Futureworld, which was the first movie to use 3D computer animation.

The experimental archival footage dates back nearly 40 years ago to 1972, when Univ. of Utah grad student Ed Catmull (who now oversees Pixars and Walt Disneys Animation Studios) and a partner filmed a few basic examples of 3D computer animation. The clips show a 3D hand, face and working heart, all mapped with polygons. Pixar Presents Pixar has dominated the box office during the last two decades. A quick list of Pixars successes includes modern classics such as the entire Toy Story trilogy (1995, 1999, 2010), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008) and Up (2009). Pixars films have earned more than $6.3 billion worldwide, and the studios average feature makes $602 million. Toy Story 3, on the other hand, is now considered the highest-grossing animated film of all time, grossing more than $1 billion. Pixars films have received critical acclaim as well. The studio has won 26 Oscars, including six Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature. Two of its animated features (Toy Story 3 and Up) were considered so good that they even transcended the Animation category and were nominated for Best Picture.

Up won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and was even nominated for Best Picture.

Before those masterworks started appearing on the animation landscape, Pixar was first represented by three short computer-animated films that were produced in the early 1990s. Back then, the closest thing to a star that Pixar had was Luxo, an animated desk lamp that showed more personality than many animated creatures of the day, despite Luxos lack of facial features. These early shorts were a revelation to animation fans of the day, and pointed the way to todays 3D animation. The look of the animation was perfectly clean, the backgrounds were richly detailed, and by then, Pixar had mastered its system of interpolation, so character motion was energetic but smoothly rendered.

3D Animation Origins The newly posted video predates Luxo by a good two decades, and looks as primitive as Walt Disneys early animation experiments. Shot in a grainy black and white, the video shows several examples of polygon-based 3D animation, each containing a few movements and motions to give a hint of what could be achieved.

The first clip shows a plaster hand which has been mapped with polygons. Then we see the hand rotate. Other clips show 3D faces, as well as the simulated workings of a heart valve. The clip contains no narrative audiojust a jazzy rendition of the classic song Stardust, and the video image (which started out on primitive 8mm film) shows it age and the original medium. Nonetheless, this brief film is a historic document that capably predicted the coming tidal wave of 3D computer animation.

Pixars first starring character was Luxo. The lamp is incorporated into Pixars logo.

Pixar has been turning out blockbusters for years, but how do they do it? How do they manage to make every film a hit? When the people of Pixar sit down to plan their next film, its an incredibly creative process that involves numerous steps. Pixars process includes brainstorming, developing a script and then actually shooting the action. If youre interested in making the next Toy Story, start learning 3D animation skills nowbecause the future is computer-animated.