Ever wonder what films were key in the history of CGI? There are a lot of them. So many, in fact, that any time someone posts a Top Ten list, each item is hotly debated. This list will make no such promises. Instead, we offer ten key moments in the development of CGI special effects, and a description of the software used to create them.
10. Westworld (1973)
Westworld is widely touted as the first major film to make use of 2D computer-generated images. Scenes showing the point of view of the robotic gunslinger make use of rasterized graphics, which were created by Gary Demos and John Whitney Jr. using equipment from Information International, Inc. (often referred to as Triple-i). They claim to have used some pretty fancy equipment for the graphics, but if you ask me they trained a camera on someone's old Atari games. This one makes the list because Atari-type graphics were pretty impressive for the time!
9. Tron (1982)
Tron was one of the first movies to make extensive use of computer animation. While many people think much of the animation was done with computers, in truth only about 15-20 minutes worth of material involves actual CGI. These graphics were created in part by Triple-i using the computational engine, called the F-1 (often referred to as the Super Foonly). Only one F-1 was ever built, so enjoy those Tron graphics! Or, if you're like some people and find them lacking compared to today's, thank your lucky stars they only built one Super Foonly.
8. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Young Sherlock Holmes is an important film in CGI history because it's the first film to use CGI to create a photorealistic character - a "stained glass knight". While it was likely a bummer for everyone involved that the knight is all anyone remembers about this movie, at least we remember it for something. Renderman was the tool used to create this work.
7. Willow (1988)
While morphing was used in a variety of films, including Eddie Murphy's The Golden Child, Willow was the first film to make use of photorealistic, detailed morphing. And yes, that IS a polite way of saying it's the first film to make use of GOOD morphing. Effects where one creature morphs into another were crafted using grid warping techniques created by Tom Brigham and Doug Smythe at Industrial Light and Magic. Willow was revolutionary in the world of CGI because it was the first film to indicate that live action can be converted from digital film to a format that could be manipulated on a computer system, then printed back onto film. It is largely due to Willow that CGI became extremely popular.
6. The Abyss (1989)
The CGI used to create a tentacle of water in The Abyss represent the first instance of the use of 3D digital water effects. Fun fact: No one was sure the tentacle would look very good, so the scene where it emerges from a moon pool was written in such a way that it could be deleted if it didn't turn out well! Renderman was again used for the effects.
5. Terminator 2 (1991)
As with Willow, Terminator 2 makes use of morphing techniques, but they are further refined and combined with another technique known as warping. Most of the warping and morphing effects in this film are created by Industrial Light and Magic using PowerAnimator, also referred to as Alias. At the time, PowerAnimator ran natively on IRIX and AIX operating systems. PowerAnimator is the same software used to make notable videogames such as Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
4. Jurassic Park (1993)
Jurassic Park is the first movie to offer photorealistic CGI creatures. The dinosaurs are created using a combination of Alias Studio for modeling, Softimage for animation, and PhotoRealistic Renderman for rendering.
3. Toy Story (1995)
In the world of CGI, Toy Story is an amazing achievement because it is the first completely CGI feature-length animation. The film was created using RenderMan, powerful animation software whose fall 2008 release is fully compatible with 64-bit Windows, both the HPC Server 2008 and ? shudder ? Windows Vista desktop. Okay, who decided to make it compatible with Vista?! My guess is it took at least a little bit of effort to pull this off ? effort that could have easily been put into productive activities, like watching paint dry. Or maybe something useful, like stabbing oneself in the ear with a pen.
2. The Matrix (1999)
It's hard to deny how influential the The Matrix trilogy has been to filmmaking (yes, even if you too thought they spiralled downhill after the first one). It's the first film that made bullet time effects (moments where a character freezes or slows down while the camera pans around him/her) look really amazing by using CGI interpolation. The CGI work for The Matrix trilogy was done using Mental Ray, a rendering application developed by Mental Images. The tools available in Mental Ray are on par with those offered by RenderMan.
1. The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003)
There are many interesting CGI effects in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what makes this series a standout is that it's the first set of films to use artificial intelligence (AI) for digital actors. CGI work was done using Maya, a powerful 3D modeling, animation, and rendering system developed by Alias from older software called PowerAnimator. The AI for digital actors was created using Massive. Apparently the AI had to be repeatedly dumbed down, though, as digital characters repeatedly determined the best course of action for survival in battle scenes was to run away. Who says machines can't be as clever as humans?
