3D Computer Animation - We Can Thank Pixar For It's Popularity!
There's not much doubt that 3D computer animation has been one of the greatest advances in film making in the past 30 years. Although first used in the late 1970’s, 3D computer animation or CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), as it is more commonly known, came to prominence with the release of Pixar’s Toy story in 1995. CGI uses computer generated models to produce a series of still frames, all slightly different. When this series is played back at a speed higher than 12 frames per second, the human eye and brain perceive it as a continual movement. The faster the frame rate the smoother the film will look.
Pixar started life as a computer manufacturer and software developer creating high end animation systems. They initially struggled to sell enough units to make a profit, and so the animation department started to create short films and advertisements for commercial customers. This later led to the full length Toy Story film, which took the animation and film worlds by storm. They have since been at the forefront of 3d animation development and were recently acquired by Walt Disney Corp for 7.4 billion dollars, making Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Pixar (and current CEO at Apple Computer) the largest individual Disney stockholder. It is probably worth noting here that Steve Jobs paid George Lucas $10 million for Pixar back in 1986.
3d animation is a four stage process. First, the models are created, usually a wire frame model. Polygons are used to provide a basic shape. Following this, the models are textured, which provides them with a more solid form. The final two stages, animation and rendering, are the most time consuming. To animate the now textured models, moveable features such as limbs, mouths or eyes are assigned animation variables (avars). Each of these avars has a range of possible movements. Woody, the lead character in Toy Story, is rumored to have had over 170 animated variables, 70 of which were in his face alone. Once all the movements have been made, the animation then needs to be rendered which adds all the lighting, shading, reflections and everything else that contributes to making the completed animation look as natural as possible.
In order to run most 3d computer animation programs you will require a very powerful PC. It can take several hours to render various scenes only to find that there is a small problem and changes need to be made. The more detail incorporated in the animation the longer the rendering will take. High level graphics cards, CPU’s and generous memory can help reduce the time, but rendering has always caused a bottleneck in animation production. Large animation companies spend millions of dollars on hardware and have a constant update cycle. The more powerful that computers become, the quicker that 3d animation will move to the next level.
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