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The Power of One
A short list of some individuals who has defined today's world of 3D
graphics and
CG.
Evans and Sutherland:
Founders of Evans And Sutherland, a CG firm specializing in high-end
graphic workstations, applications and accelerators for CAD/CAM and CGI
development, the two pioneered the field of CAD/CAM design and realistic
computer based simulation. They were the first to develop true three dimensional
visualization tools (hard and software).
Ed Catmule:
“The
godfather of CGI”, He formed the world's first Computer Graphics unit at
Lucasfilm in 1979 and has been breaking ground ever since. Joined Pixar and
Pioneered the cutting edge graphics technology called subdivision surface
algorithm, which uses a control mesh with as many sides as desired to quickly
produce complicated and realistic shapes. The technology has been used Pixar’s
“Toy Story” series and “A Bug’s Life”.
John Whitney Sr
John Whitney worked as an illustrator
and animator through 1950’s and 1960s, founding the company Motion Graphics
Incorporated, arguably the world’s first CGI animation firm. Whitney invented
an analogue computational system for animation and produced many films using the
technique. His most famous work, Arabesque,
completed in 1975 and sponsored by IBM was a short, 7 minute film of pure
“Digital Harmony”. The first digital movie coordinated with music to be ever
made.
George Locus
The famous creator of the Star Wars series and the
founder of the Industrial Lights and Magic (ILM) computer graphics firm. ILM
under the direction of locus has produced stunning special effect sequences for
famous movies including the Star Wars, Star Trek, Blade Runner and Terminator
series. ILM’s contribution to the field of CG is unparalleled.
Robert Abel
Another pioneer in digital animation, Robert Abel, founder of the Robert
Abel Associates helped to produce the milestone Disney movie "TRON"
in 1982, the first feature film to make extensive use of 3D computer graphics.
Able and his company have since produced CGI elements for movies including Star
Wars, Spawn and the stunning IMAX film Fantastic Voyages.
Jim Binn
Computer graphic designer,
Jim Blinn has fused his scientific knowledge and artistic abilities to
foster the growth of the computer graphics field. Major contributions include
the Voyager Fly-by animations of space missions to Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus;
The Mechanical Universe, a 52-part course of animated physics; and the computer
animation of the PBS series Cosmos. In addition, Blinn has also developed many
widely used graphics techniques, including environmental bump mapping and blobby
modeling.
Dr. Alvy Ray Smith
Graphics pioneer at the Xerox PARC,
confounded four CG firms before Joining Microsoft as the senior graphics fellow.
Major contributions included the Altamira Composer, which introduced the
concept of image sprites, the direction of the first use of full computer
graphics in a successful major motion picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
and The Adventures of Andre & Wally B. Helped in Pixar’s development of
Tin Toy, the first computer animation ever to win an Academy Award, and the
first completely computer-generated film, Toy Story.
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