3-D Computer Generated Imagery
By Mariko Nihonayangi
For Dr. Eric Tao
Major ProSeminar CST 300
December 13, 2007
Overview• Brief history• Major companies• Making a 3-D animated movie• Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) software• Improvements in rendering over the years• The current state of CGI in feature films
Brief History
• 3-D Computer Generated Imagery first was first widely used in a Hollywood production in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• It was latter used in the live action films Jurassic Park (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994)
• The first film to be fully animated on a computer was Toy Story in 1995
Major Companies
• Blue Sky Studios (Fox)• DNA Productions (Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.)• Omation Studios (Paramount Pictures)• Sony Pictures Animation (Columbia Pictures)• Vanguard Animation (Walt Disney Pictures, Lions Gate
Films and 20th Century Fox)• Big Idea Productions (Universal Pictures and FHE
Pictures)• Animal Logic (Warner Bros.)• Pacific Data Images (Dreamworks SKG)• Pixar (The Walt Disney Company)
Making a Movie Pixar Style• Development
– Story pitch
• Making the storyline– Storyboard is made based on “beat
outline”
• Pre-production– Voices are recorded
• Production– Drawings, sets, and models are
created
• Making the film– ‘Animation’, shading, lighting, and
rendering is done on the computer
• Post production– Musical score
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) Software• Some of the software
used includes Amorphium, Ray Dream Studio, Bryce, Maya, Lightwave, and Alice
• Other software used in Hollywood movies are Renderman (Pixar) and mental ray
Improvements in Rendering
• Every year at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference new improvements in the field are introduced– Creature Dynamics System
created in 2001– View Paint 3D Paint
System in 1996
• In 2006 Steve Marschner and Jonathan Moon improved the rendering of blond hair
The New Direction of CGI in Feature Films• Over the last decade the
use of CGI in films has increased dramatically
• CGI has been getting better and better as computer power increases
• So far CGI films have not achieved effective photorealistic humans– This is the future goal of
CGI film production
Summary
• Wide use of CGI in feature films is a relatively new thing
• It has quickly grown into a $40 billion industry
• As computers grow faster and more powerful the ability of 3-D CGI to mimic real life become more pronounced