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