HISTORY

Digitizing actors is a recent breakthrough technology.It has its roots in the 1970's.Back then the pioneers in computer animation were not asking "why?" They were asking "how?"There was no shrink wrapped software for special effects; they invented it as they went along.Ellen Poon, visual effects supervisor for George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic and senior technical director for "Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace got her start in advertising 20 years ago."We were doing flying logos," she says."The computer power wasn't good enough to do anything more complicated than that."
The technology's leap forward was visible in 1982 with "Tron" the fist film to incorporate computer graphics.At the time, the graphics were revolutionary:The plot, however, was revolting."We all thought `Tron' would open the floodgates for computer animation in feature films," recalls "Tron" animator Jeff Kleiser, co-director of the North Adams-based computer animation firm Kleiser-Walczak Construction Co."It didn't do well at the box office, so they said, `Oh, computer graphics don't work.'"Tron" set back computer graphics doesn't work."Tron" set back computer graphics a good decade."

Hollywood is driven by money not technology.So despite breakthroughs in technology over the years, the real push for digital animation didn't occur until the computer-generated "Toy Story" raked in millions at the box office in 1995- and made a small fortune with its lines of dolls and accessories.Shortly after the release, Pixar Animation Sudios, which made the film for Disney, went public, the stock soared, leaving founder Steve Jobs with more than $1 billion.Overnight the race to create digital humans intensified.

By now, computer-generated creatures-once the domain of special-effects masters who built miniatures and puppets and prosthetics-are fairly routine.They fill in regularly for extras and stuntmen, andusually the audience doesn't even notice.


 

Computer animation has come a long way since it was introduced to the screen with bouncing three-dimensional spheroids in "Tron."Here is a timeline sampling the breakthroughs.


 

1982:"Tron":The first film to user computer graphics, which took a young Jeff Bridges inside a video game.Billed as "a milestone in optical and light effects," it failed to light up the box office.


 

1991:"Terminator 2:Judgment Day":A cyborg morphs into liquid metal thanks to computer animation.


 

1993:"Jurassic Park":Vicious velociraptors and dinosaurs come to life in Spielberg's theme park thriller.


 

1995:"Judge Dredd":Digital stuntmen fill in for Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider in an airborne motorcycle chase.


 

1995:"Jumanji":A life-like lion is made from complex mechanical devices called animatronics, enhanced by computer-rendered hair and skin.

1995:"Toy Story":The first feature film, starring a wooden cowboy and plastic dolls, to be made entirely on a computer.


 

1997:"Men in Black":The aliens working side by side with humans are computer-generated creatures.


 

1997:"Titanic":The bodies sliding into the water aren't extras with hypothermia; they are digital actors.


 

1998:"Antz": Worker ants and wasps simulate complex emotions.


 

1998:"Mighty Joe Young":A computer-generated simian storms through Hollywood, much more realistically than his cousin King Kong.


 

1999:"The Mummy":The creature chews bugs along with scenery.


 

1999:"Star Wars:Episode I-The Phantom Menace":More animated  creatures than you could fit into a race car including a jarring alien named Jar Jar Binks.