History of computer animation
Encyclopedia
Researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ did some of the earliest computer animation in the early and mid 1960s. In 1963, Dr. Edward E. Zajac created a computer-animated movie showing a satellite orbiting the Earth. Around that time, Dr. Frank W. Sinden created a computer-animated movie showing the physics of planetary motion. In 1963, Dr. Kenneth C. Knowlton developed a programming language for moving blocks of pixels and used this language to create a computer-animated movie. Knowlton and Stan VanDerBeek created a computer-animated movie titled “Man and His World.”
A. Michael Noll
at Bell Labs created computer-generated stereographic movies in 1965.
One animation that Noll created was a random object consisting of lines changing their position in a 3D space. Noll also created computer animated stereoscopic movies of four-dimensional hyper-objects projected to three dimensions, a computer-generated ballet of stick figures moving on a stage, and various scientific data. Around 1967, Noll used the 4D animation technique to produce computer animated title sequences for the commercial film short “Incredible Machine” (produced by Bell Labs) and the TV special “The Unexplained” (produced by Walt DeFaria).
Some early computer animation was also done at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and by William Fetter at Boeing.
Another early step in the history of computer animation
was the 1973 movie Westworld
, a science-fiction film about a society in which robots live and work among humans, though the first use of 3D Wireframe imagery was in its sequel, Futureworld
(1976), which featured a computer-generated hand and face created by then University of Utah
graduate students Edwin Catmull
and Fred Parke
. The third movie to use this technology was Star Wars
(1977) for the scenes with the wireframe Death Star plans and the targeting computers in the X-wing
s and the Millennium Falcon
. The Black Hole
(1979) used raster wire-frame model rendering to depict a black hole. The science fiction-horror film Alien
of that same year also used a raster wire-frame model, in this case to render the image of navigation monitors in the sequence where a spaceship follows a beacon to a land on an unfamiliar planet.
In 1978, graduate students at the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab began work on what would have been the first full-length CGI film, The Works, and a trailer for it was shown at SIGGRAPH
1982, but the film was never completed. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
premiered a short CGI sequence called The Genesis Effect in June 1982. The first two films to make heavy investments in Solid 3D CGI, Tron
(1982) and The Last Starfighter
(1984), were commercial failures, causing most directors to relegate CGI to images that were supposed to look like they were created by a computer.
Another Star Trek movie - 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
- features a little-known use of CGI that would prove to be a major stepping stone for the technology in years to come. The dream-like sequence where Kirk and his crew (in a commandeered Klingon starship) travel back in time features computer-generated images of the crew's faces "morphing" into one another. Although the images look like clay sculptures, they represent the antecedents of the photo-realistic morphing that would become popular in the early 1990s, and the ILM team responsible would be sought out by James Cameron three years later (see below).
The first movie to feature photo-realistic CGI integrated seamlessly into scenes was The Abyss (1989). A five minute sequence featuring an animated water tentacle or "pseudopod" was created using groundbreaking new algorithms design by ILM, and supervised by Denis Muren for James Cameron's underwater action movie. It featured reflection, refraction and a short "morphing" sequence, taking on the facial forms of actors Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Although Cameron's subsequent movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, would be the one that brought CGI to the attention of the masses, it was The Abyss that represented the true technological milestone, and the foundation upon which the modern CGI industry would be built.
1991 could be considered the breakout year for the new CGI technology. Two huge hits, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Beauty and the Beast
, both made heavy use of CGI. These successes marked Hollywood’s transition from stop-motion animation and conventional optical effects to digital techniques. Beauty and the Beast
became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
In 1993, another affirmation of CGI came from Jurassic Park
where CGI dinosaurs were integrated into hydraulically-controlled life-sized puppets shot on-set. The palette of tools available from CGI was becoming larger. In 1994, CGI was used to create the special effects for Forrest Gump
. The most noteworthy effects shots were those that featured the digital removal of actor Gary Sinise
's legs. Other effects included a napalm
strike, the fast-moving Ping-Pong
balls, and the digital insertion of Tom Hanks
into several scenes of historical footage.
In 1993, Babylon 5
and SeaQuest became the first television series to use CGI as the primary method for their visual effects (rather than using hand-built models). It also marked the first TV use of virtual sets. That same year, Insektors
became the first full-length completely computer animated TV series. Soon after, in 1994, the hit Canadian CGI show ReBoot
aired.
In 1995, the first fully computer-generated feature film, Disney-Pixar
's Toy Story
, was a resounding commercial success. Additional digital animation studios such as Blue Sky Studios
(20th Century Fox
), DNA Productions
, O Entertainment
, Sony Pictures Animation
(Columbia Pictures
), Vanguard Animation
, Lions Gate Entertainment
and 20th Century Fox
), Big Idea Productions and FHE Pictures), Animal Logic
and Pacific Data Images
(Dreamworks SKG
) went into production, and existing animation companies, such as The Walt Disney Company, began to make a transition from traditional animation to CGI. Between 1995 and 2005 the average effects budget
for a wide-release feature film
skyrocketed from $5 million to $40 million. According to one studio executive, , more than half of feature films have significant effects. However, CGI has made up for the expenditures by grossing over 20% more than their real-life counterparts.
In the early 2000s, computer-generated imagery became the dominant form of special effects. The technology progressed to the point that it became possible to include virtual stunt doubles. Camera tracking
software was refined to allow increasingly complex visual effects developments that were previously impossible. Computer-generated extras also became used extensively in crowd scenes with advanced flocking
and crowd simulation software. Virtual sets, in which part or all of the background of a shot is digitally generated, also became commonplace. The timeline of CGI in film and television
shows a detailed list of pioneering uses of computer-generated imagery in film and television.
CGI for films is usually rendered at about 1.4–6 megapixels. Toy Story, for example, was rendered at 1536 × 922 (1.42MP). The time to render one frame is typically around 2–3 hours, with ten times that for the most complex scenes. This time has not changed much in the last decade, as image quality has progressed at the same rate as improvements in hardware, since with faster machines, more and more complexity becomes feasible. Exponential increases in GPUs
processing power, as well as massive increases in parallel CPU power, storage and memory speed and size have greatly increased CGI's potential.
In 2001, Square Pictures created the CGI film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
, which made headlines for attempting to create photo-realistic human actors. The film was not a box-office success. Some commentators have suggested this may be partly because the lead CGI characters had facial features which fell into the uncanny valley
. Square Pictures produced only two more films using a similar visual style Final Flight of the Osiris, a short film which served as a prologue to The Matrix Reloaded
and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
, based on their extremely popular video game series.
Developments in CGI technologies are reported each year at SIGGRAPH
, an annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, attended each year by tens of thousands of computer professionals. Developers of computer games and 3D video cards strive to achieve the same visual quality on personal computers in real-time as is possible for CGI films and animation. With the rapid advancement of real-time rendering quality, artists began to use game engine
s to render non-interactive movies. This art form is called machinima
.
A. Michael Noll
A. Michael Noll
A. Michael Noll is an American engineer, and professor emeritus at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He was a very early pioneer in digital computer art and 3D animation and tactile communication.- Biography :Noll has a B.S.E.E...
at Bell Labs created computer-generated stereographic movies in 1965.
One animation that Noll created was a random object consisting of lines changing their position in a 3D space. Noll also created computer animated stereoscopic movies of four-dimensional hyper-objects projected to three dimensions, a computer-generated ballet of stick figures moving on a stage, and various scientific data. Around 1967, Noll used the 4D animation technique to produce computer animated title sequences for the commercial film short “Incredible Machine” (produced by Bell Labs) and the TV special “The Unexplained” (produced by Walt DeFaria).
Some early computer animation was also done at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and by William Fetter at Boeing.
Another early step in the history of computer animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
was the 1973 movie Westworld
Westworld
Westworld is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and produced by Paul Lazarus III. It stars Yul Brynner as a lifelike robot in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.Westworld was the...
, a science-fiction film about a society in which robots live and work among humans, though the first use of 3D Wireframe imagery was in its sequel, Futureworld
Futureworld
Futureworld is a 1976 sequel to the 1973 science fiction film Westworld. It was written by George Schenk and Mayo Simon, and directed by Richard T. Heffron. The cast included Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, and Arthur Hill. There is also a cameo appearance by Yul Brynner in a dream sequence...
(1976), which featured a computer-generated hand and face created by then University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
graduate students Edwin Catmull
Edwin Catmull
Dr. Edwin Earl Catmull, Ph.D. is a computer scientist and current president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. As a computer scientist, Catmull has contributed to many important developments in computer graphics....
and Fred Parke
Fred Parke
Frederic Ira Parke graduated from the University of Utah with a BS degree in physics in 1965. He was then a graduate student of the University of Utah College of Engineering where he received his MS and PhD in computer science. Parke was the creator of the first CG physically modeled human face...
. The third movie to use this technology was Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
(1977) for the scenes with the wireframe Death Star plans and the targeting computers in the X-wing
X-wing
X-wings are fictional starfighters from the original Star Wars trilogy and the expanded universe. They are depicted as the primary interceptor and dogfighter of the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic...
s and the Millennium Falcon
Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon is a spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca...
. The Black Hole
The Black Hole
The Black Hole is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson for Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, and Ernest Borgnine, while the voices of the main robot characters are provided by Roddy...
(1979) used raster wire-frame model rendering to depict a black hole. The science fiction-horror film Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
of that same year also used a raster wire-frame model, in this case to render the image of navigation monitors in the sequence where a spaceship follows a beacon to a land on an unfamiliar planet.
In 1978, graduate students at the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab began work on what would have been the first full-length CGI film, The Works, and a trailer for it was shown at SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
1982, but the film was never completed. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...
premiered a short CGI sequence called The Genesis Effect in June 1982. The first two films to make heavy investments in Solid 3D CGI, Tron
Tron (film)
Tron is a 1982 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Lisberger, and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It stars Jeff Bridges as the protagonist Kevin Flynn; Bruce Boxleitner in a dual role as security program Tron and Tron's "User", computer programmer Alan Bradley; Cindy...
(1982) and The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan , an average teenage boy recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also featured Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Norman...
(1984), were commercial failures, causing most directors to relegate CGI to images that were supposed to look like they were created by a computer.
Another Star Trek movie - 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fourth feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series and completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The...
- features a little-known use of CGI that would prove to be a major stepping stone for the technology in years to come. The dream-like sequence where Kirk and his crew (in a commandeered Klingon starship) travel back in time features computer-generated images of the crew's faces "morphing" into one another. Although the images look like clay sculptures, they represent the antecedents of the photo-realistic morphing that would become popular in the early 1990s, and the ILM team responsible would be sought out by James Cameron three years later (see below).
The first movie to feature photo-realistic CGI integrated seamlessly into scenes was The Abyss (1989). A five minute sequence featuring an animated water tentacle or "pseudopod" was created using groundbreaking new algorithms design by ILM, and supervised by Denis Muren for James Cameron's underwater action movie. It featured reflection, refraction and a short "morphing" sequence, taking on the facial forms of actors Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Although Cameron's subsequent movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, would be the one that brought CGI to the attention of the masses, it was The Abyss that represented the true technological milestone, and the foundation upon which the modern CGI industry would be built.
1991 could be considered the breakout year for the new CGI technology. Two huge hits, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
, both made heavy use of CGI. These successes marked Hollywood’s transition from stop-motion animation and conventional optical effects to digital techniques. Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
In 1993, another affirmation of CGI came from Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
where CGI dinosaurs were integrated into hydraulically-controlled life-sized puppets shot on-set. The palette of tools available from CGI was becoming larger. In 1994, CGI was used to create the special effects for Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...
. The most noteworthy effects shots were those that featured the digital removal of actor Gary Sinise
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
's legs. Other effects included a napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
strike, the fast-moving Ping-Pong
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
balls, and the digital insertion of Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
into several scenes of historical footage.
In 1993, Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
and SeaQuest became the first television series to use CGI as the primary method for their visual effects (rather than using hand-built models). It also marked the first TV use of virtual sets. That same year, Insektors
Insektors
Insektors was a 1994 French animated TV series about a conflict between two tribes of anthropomorphic insects: the Joyces and the Yuks . Made in a small studio, Fantome, in France, it was the 1994 recipient of a "Children and Young People" Emmy Award...
became the first full-length completely computer animated TV series. Soon after, in 1994, the hit Canadian CGI show ReBoot
ReBoot
ReBoot is a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure cartoon series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based production company Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance Communications, BLT Productions and created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell and John Grace,...
aired.
In 1995, the first fully computer-generated feature film, Disney-Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
's Toy Story
Toy Story
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...
, was a resounding commercial success. Additional digital animation studios such as Blue Sky Studios
Blue Sky Studios
Blue Sky Studios is an American CGI-animation studio which specializes in high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. It is owned by 20th Century Fox and located in Greenwich, Connecticut...
(20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
), DNA Productions
DNA Productions
DNA Productions, Inc. was an animation studio in Dallas, Texas, founded by John A. Davis and Keith Alcorn in 1987. It was a full service animation company providing script to screen services for the commercial and corporate industry...
, O Entertainment
O Entertainment
O Entertainment is a production company founded by Steve Oedekerk in 1990. Among O Entertainment productions such as the Thumb series , Santa vs...
, Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation is an American computer-animated film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, founded in May 2002. It is working closely with Sony Pictures Imageworks, which takes care of the digital production...
(Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
), Vanguard Animation
Vanguard Animation
Vanguard Animation, LLC. is an American animation studio founded in 2004 by producer, John H. Williams. It produces computer animated films. Films produced include its debut film Valiant, Happily N'Ever After and Space Chimps....
, Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
and 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
), Big Idea Productions and FHE Pictures), Animal Logic
Animal Logic
Animal Logic is an Australian digital visual effects company based at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia and Santa Monica, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic's core business has traditionally been the design and production of high-end visual effects for commercials and television programs,...
and Pacific Data Images
Pacific Data Images
Pacific Data Images is a computer animation production company that was bought by DreamWorks SKG. The company is now known as PDI/DreamWorks and is half of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., the public company formed by merging PDI and the feature animation division of DreamWorks.-History:PDI was...
(Dreamworks SKG
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
) went into production, and existing animation companies, such as The Walt Disney Company, began to make a transition from traditional animation to CGI. Between 1995 and 2005 the average effects budget
Budget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
for a wide-release feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
skyrocketed from $5 million to $40 million. According to one studio executive, , more than half of feature films have significant effects. However, CGI has made up for the expenditures by grossing over 20% more than their real-life counterparts.
In the early 2000s, computer-generated imagery became the dominant form of special effects. The technology progressed to the point that it became possible to include virtual stunt doubles. Camera tracking
Match moving
In cinematography, match moving is a visual-effects, cinematic techniques that allows the insertion of computer graphics into live-action footage with correct position, scale, orientation, and motion relative to the photographed objects in the shot...
software was refined to allow increasingly complex visual effects developments that were previously impossible. Computer-generated extras also became used extensively in crowd scenes with advanced flocking
Flocking (behavior)
Flocking behavior is the behavior exhibited when a group of birds, called a flock, are foraging or in flight. There are parallels with the shoaling behavior of fish, the swarming behavior of insects, and herd behavior of land animals....
and crowd simulation software. Virtual sets, in which part or all of the background of a shot is digitally generated, also became commonplace. The timeline of CGI in film and television
Timeline of CGI in film and television
This is a chronological list of films and television programs that have been recognised as being pioneering in their use of computer animation.- 1960s :- 1970s :- 1980s :-1990s:- 2000s :-References:...
shows a detailed list of pioneering uses of computer-generated imagery in film and television.
CGI for films is usually rendered at about 1.4–6 megapixels. Toy Story, for example, was rendered at 1536 × 922 (1.42MP). The time to render one frame is typically around 2–3 hours, with ten times that for the most complex scenes. This time has not changed much in the last decade, as image quality has progressed at the same rate as improvements in hardware, since with faster machines, more and more complexity becomes feasible. Exponential increases in GPUs
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
processing power, as well as massive increases in parallel CPU power, storage and memory speed and size have greatly increased CGI's potential.
In 2001, Square Pictures created the CGI film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 Japanese-American computer animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing video games. It was the first photorealistic computer animated feature film and also holds the record for the most...
, which made headlines for attempting to create photo-realistic human actors. The film was not a box-office success. Some commentators have suggested this may be partly because the lead CGI characters had facial features which fell into the uncanny valley
Uncanny Valley
The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers...
. Square Pictures produced only two more films using a similar visual style Final Flight of the Osiris, a short film which served as a prologue to The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowskis. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15,...
and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
is a 2005 Japanese computer-animated science fiction film directed by Tetsuya Nomura, co-directed by Takeshi Nozue, and produced by Yoshinori Kitase and Shinji Hashimoto. It was written by Kazushige Nojima and the music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu...
, based on their extremely popular video game series.
Developments in CGI technologies are reported each year at SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
, an annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, attended each year by tens of thousands of computer professionals. Developers of computer games and 3D video cards strive to achieve the same visual quality on personal computers in real-time as is possible for CGI films and animation. With the rapid advancement of real-time rendering quality, artists began to use game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
s to render non-interactive movies. This art form is called machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
.