Guest Post by Olivia Lennox:
When it comes to entertainment, no medium really comes close to the success of cinema. Since the early 20th Century, we’ve packed theatres across the world for a glimpse at the next big blockbuster film. With this popularity has come a natural evolution in the way that we make films, too. It’s no longer a simple case of pointing a camera and shooting (unless you want it to be, of course), rather there are countless means of capturing the world around us in cinematic form. One type of film that has really taken the world by storm is CGI, or computer generated imaging.
Head over to your local cinema and you’re bound to see at least one or two films that have been rendered in three dimensions on the screen via a computer (usually involving a cast of cute animals). Computer animation has eclipsed the use of more traditional methods of animation, and you only need to look at Disney for living proof of that fact. CGI movies, from studios like Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks, have had viewers glued to their contemporary leather sofa for more than fifteen years – and show no sign of slowing down. So where did this trend come from, and where is it going? Let’s take a few moments to explore the history of computer generated animation.
Where it all began
The earliest known example of computer animation is widely believed to have originated at Bell Telephone Labs during the 1960s. Dr Edward Zajac was able to create an animation of a satellite orbiting the Earth using only computers and no hand-drawn elements. Little did they know at the time that this small breakthrough would create a revolution in cinema. After this first example, more scientists started to use computer animation to show the movement of planets in the solar system. Much like the internet, it seems CGI animation was created by scientists and gifted to the world.
Computer animation in film
The 1970s were a time when the film industry boomed – particularly the science fiction genre. Because of this popularity, studios and film makers were looking for new ways to create eye-popping space-age special effects. Computer animation first came into the fold in 1973′s Westworld and its sequel Futureworld in 1976. Both of these films utilised the traditional ‘wireframe’ style computer animation that you’ll see in many films from the time. You can also see this effect used in the world-famous Star Wars; it’s used to represent the targeting computers during the Death Star attack finale. These examples are all quite minor additions, although it must be said that they were cutting edge effects at the time. The first ‘photo realistic’ use of CGI in a film was in the 1989 film The Abyss. A scene featuring an animated tentacle was five minutes in length and the longest piece of CGI yet seen in film.
Pure CGI animated films
We can’t discuss CGI animated film without mentioning the ‘big daddy’, the forefather of the genre, 1995′s Toy Story. Pixar’s debut feature length film, Toy Story took the world by storm with its new take on animation. We all stared with amazement as a full 90 minute film was created on a computer. There is no doubt that Toy Story paved the way for every single CGI movie you see these days. Its star-studded cast didn’t hurt either, making it one of the biggest successes of the 1990s – and spawning two sequels. Since the 1990s we’ve seen all sorts of CGI feature films, including those that blend the real and computer generated worlds into the same feature. Examples of this included the Star Wars prequels (famously criticised for ‘overdoing it’) and 2009′s blockbuster Avatar.
Where to next?
At present it seems that CGI is heading the same way as traditional film: into the third dimension. 3D movies are everywhere, bringing an all-new perspective to film making and the viewing experience. With technology accelerating so fast, it’s amazing to wonder where it will go next. Perhaps photo-realism is the goal; in which case we should be seeing some quite thrilling examples over the next five to ten years. Fingers crossed.
