Shiny metal dinosaurs race across a barren landscape.
Looking at early CGI is like looking at early film when the pioneers were trying to figure out what to do. Just as film had its forebears in still photography and Magic Lanterns, so did CGI have its own, with film and animation. Would it become a way of supplementing live action, a means of reviving animation as computing costs dropped or would it find something entirely new to do?
First, though, it would have to find out what it could do. Douglas Trumbull had demonstrated that computers could be used to guide camera movements fifteen years earlier. Disney had used wire frame animation in the opening sequence of THE BLACK HOLE in 1979. This short effort, less than a minute in length, showed that CGI could portray lifelike movement.... at least for shiny metal dinosaurs.
Looking at early CGI is like looking at early film when the pioneers were trying to figure out what to do. Just as film had its forebears in still photography and Magic Lanterns, so did CGI have its own, with film and animation. Would it become a way of supplementing live action, a means of reviving animation as computing costs dropped or would it find something entirely new to do?
First, though, it would have to find out what it could do. Douglas Trumbull had demonstrated that computers could be used to guide camera movements fifteen years earlier. Disney had used wire frame animation in the opening sequence of THE BLACK HOLE in 1979. This short effort, less than a minute in length, showed that CGI could portray lifelike movement.... at least for shiny metal dinosaurs.