Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
You thought TRON was the first movie with CGI?
That morphing first appeared in cinemas with Willow?
That Pixar only made shorts before Toy Story?
That Disney were the first to use CGI in an animated feature?
Fools!
Welcome to CGM, the show that traces back for you the beginning of CGI in movies!
At the end of TRON's production
The balance is severe for the CGI industry
The weak enthusiasm for the film, combined with horrendous critics
Seems to have dealt a major blow to the development of CGI in movies
And unfortunately, one company will have to face the consequencies of such a half failure
Information International Inc
Responsible of the most advanced VFX on Steven Lisberger's movie
Triple I decides, as early as 1982
To stop CGI production for movies
The loss of this major asset, which pioneered 3D CGI animation since 1976
Reflects as a monstrous blow for the industry
Yet, when you look a bit closer, this break-up is completely logical
Why?
Well, because Triple I's cinema's branch just lost its two founders
Gary Demos and John Whitney Jr
And what are about to create those two men, the same year
Will challenge the very wildest expectations on CGI
The name of their baby?
Digital Productions
We are at the dawn of the 1980s
And Gary Demos and John Whitney Jr have but one goal in mind
To prove that CGI has the capabilities to really look photorealistic
But that, since CGM's episode 4 on LOOKER
You just know that it is completely doable on a 1981 computer
So what does our duo seek?
Simply to shackle the very foundations of CGI in movies, which did not evolved since 1973
That CGI is only used as to reshape reality, to reinterpret it according to a machine sense
And if look at the first decade of CGI in movies
There's just nothing else
Just think about it
WestWorld simulated a robot's vision
FutureWorld, parts of the human body on screen
Demon Seed, an earthquake
Star Wars, the attack of the Death Star's trench
Superman, its logo
Alien, the landing on LV-426
The Black Hole, a black hole
Escape From New York, one of the WTC's rooftop
LOOKER, a scanned woman
Star Trek II, its genesis effect
TRON, its virtual world
The Return of the Jedi, Endor's moon and the Death Star
WarGames, NORAD's tactical map
Superman III and Nightmares, a videogame
In fact, in a decade
Not a single movie used CGI to picture anything else
BUT CGI!
Yeah, OK, there's still Golgo 13 in 1983
But it's not what's important here!
And to breathe new life into the possibilities of CGI
Overriding at the same time TRON's technical limitations undergone at Triple I
Whitney and Demos will take the decision to provide their company with Cray supercomputers
A first contract is then signed in 1982 for the lease of a Cray 1-S/1300
While waiting for the reception of a Cray X-MP
What's a Cray X-MP? Oh…
Not much!
Only the fastest supercomputer available between 1983 and 1985!
But at the time, the cost of a Cray in its most advanced configuration
With 4 processors and not less than 64 MB of RAM
Was about $15M…
Don't worry!
Digital Productions did not go so far
No!
They got the model just a bit below
With 2 processors and as much RAM!
How much? Well…
Nothing, really!
$10.5M!
In adjusted dollars?
$25M!
All these costs clearly being a tad bit too much for the young company
We should feel right as to ask how all of these equipment were financed?
Well, in fact…
Digital Productions was completely dependent on an IBM's challenger funds
Control Data Corporation
Which did possess massive amounts of financial assets in the early 1980s
Besides, it's from that company that emerged a few years earlier
A certain Seymour Cray, who created Cray Research
The financial part not being a problem
Remained the hardware mastering
An uncharted territory
Since no 3D rendering software were written for the Cray at the time!
But since Digital Productions' crew were working with a VAX 11/782 software
Decision was taken as to get a certain Larry Yaeger to work on a port for the Cray 1-S
And aim to get it to work on the X-MP too, when it would arrive
But wait…
What were Digital Productions doing with that VAX?
Must I really answer that question?
In fact…
They were already working on the first Starfighter draft, the iconic ship of the movie
Yeah
Even before the first computer entered Digital Productions
You have to know that The Last Sarfighter movie was already in talks
John Whitney Jr did not want to repeat the same mistake with TRON
Namely, to put VFX before the story
And was looking for a good enough script to draw more audience than Disney's movie
Ironically, the movie would generate less money than TRON at the box office
Although with a lower budget, that is to say
And that budget
Allocated by Lorimar and Universal Pictures jointly
Was to test Digital Productions abilities with a proof of concept
A difficult task for creative director
Ron Cobb
Since the fact that the VAX's power
Only a simple montage of 3D geometric shapes was technically possible
And with a limited amount of polygons on top of it!
Inevitably with half the power Triple I had on TRON…
But that proof on concept paved the way for Digital Productions with Lorimar
Obviously convinced by the potential of CGI
To replace traditional FX à la Star Wars'
With miniatures and blue screen
But in fact…
Not at all!
Let's make a time jump
In fact, between the moment the Starfighter proof of concept is showed
And the end of principal photography
Only one movie has used CGI to a significant extent
TRON
A profitable movie
But which did not meet its studio's expectations
Disney
But where the shoe pinches
It's because TRON's CGI…
Well, it was used only to portrait… CGI
Admittedly justified
with a computer universe
A ghost in the shell
But still, CGI
To be honest
TRON's lightcycles
Could you picture it in stop motion?
But the case of The Last Starfighter is different
Since CGI is not used to portrait impossible things this time around
But to replace what's been done in years
And won an Oscar plethora to such films as Star Wars
So, how Digital Productions did manage to convince of the viability of their project?
Considering they only had a simple flight test
That their technique was still under research and development
And, more importantly, that there were time constraints to meet
A shared vision: to simply show what had never been done before
This is how Digital Productions' work was sold ahead
A dream to put CGI under the spotlights for good
And finally give some real credibility to the technique
Yet, all the good will in the world couldn't compete against the hard reality
The promised giant footstep with CGI
Was not to be delivered in the requested amount of time
Jeffrey Okun, then VFX supervisor
Was charged with a heavy responsibility
To finish Digital Productions' work at any event
Even if more traditional FX companies could have done the job
And still get it done on time
A long discussion then began with director Nick Castle to check all shots
But also with a certain Brad deGraf
Who was to create, a few years later, the first real-time animated CGI face
Which inspired filmmakers in 1990 for RoboCop 2
His help proved to be very useful
Since it allowed Jeff Okun to define which sequences were the most difficult to render in CGI
And above all, why
That gigantic brainstorming done
He came back to Digital Productions to announce the terrible news
VFX shots…
Were to be simplified
Fortunately, at this point in development…
The Starfighter was already digitized
With the success of Larry Yaeger at porting the 3D software to the Cray
The encoding team had digitized a Starfighter 3D model far more complex
Than the one in the 1982 test
Within 3 months
The combined efforts of none less than 30 people
Put the iconic starship of the movie
At the incredible number of one million of polygons for its utmost complex configuration
The one called "Death Blossom"
In comparison with the 15000 polygons of the Solar Sailer in TRON
It's chilling!
But with a closer look
Absolutely every single 3D model puts TRON back to the Paleolithic era, in reality
If we take the mother ship of the Ko-Dan armada for instance
Easily the largest 3D element in the movie
It's a whopping 480,000 polygons!
Half the Starfighter (in DB mode)
So
What did really suffer from the effects simplification
If not the 3D models?
Not the final rendering definition in any case
Since this one still remains greater than the 1080p
Available on Blu-ray Disc
So what?
Well, when looking at the movie today
You can easily notice what's been affected
But hey, be kind, the movie came out in 1984!
It is actually the explosions
Which were digitized
And the fractal-generated terrains
Whose look suggests
According to Ron Cobb himself
Melted ice cream!
If the team could have had more time
The asteroid caves might have look more realistic, when Alex Rogan
The movie's hero, played by Lance Guest
Destroys his first live target
But above all
ABOVE ALL
It could have avoided some dubious transparency at a key moment of the story…
It should be noted that the Starfighter video game images
Visible on the arcade Alex plays with at the beginning of the movie
Had to be rendered during principal photography
And not in post-production
A real Starfighter video game
Developed by Atari
Was to be made for the arcades
But never made it in the end
Exactly like the Atari 5200 versions of Superman III and of Cloak & Dagger
And you know that plastic look of the movie's ships?
Yeah?
Well, it was intentional!
Sadly yes…
Because the studio
Afraid to depart from the genre blockbusters
Randomly, Star Wars
Strictly forbid Digital Productions crew from giving a metallic look to their 3D models
Just so that they could remains like usual, real miniatures: in plastic
And the worst part here
It's the fact that this metallic look would not have increase the Cray rendering cycles
Just picture the Starfighter
Or even Centauri's space car!
Played by the greatly missed Robert Preston
With such a look…
What a waste…
Finally
Between digitizing Ron Cobb's starships blueprints dot by dot
Scanning the textures, because yes there are a few of them on the planets of the film
Design
Animation
Dynamic lights management
Particles
Reflections
But also final rendering and printing images on film
It took Digital Productions at least a year of work
To make The Last Starfighter's CGI
A reality
Yet, the film will underperform TRON at the box-office
Success whall not be at the rendezvous
But Digital Productions' bet
Would indeed pay off
The Last Starfighter's CGI
Just proved that the technique could be used not only to portrait CGI
And Digital Productions were to uphold CGI's potential only 5 months later
With another space-themed movie
2010: The Year We Make Contact
Huuuuuu no…
That is Outland, from the same director
Let's try it again, shall we?
Like its name bears it
2010: The Year We Make Contact
Is the sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Which came out 16 years earlier
Directed by Peter Hyams
Of Timecop's and Outland "fame"
The movie tells the story of a soviet-american crew on a mission to Jupiter
To shed some light on the HAL 9000 computer malfunction
Wrapped up in a cold war setting
Those Russians, so evil!
Speaking of computers, by the way
Note that the original author
The famous and late Arthur C Clarke
Closely worked with director Peter Hyams and his crews
On many aspects of the film
Via an e-mail messaging system
Between 1983 and 1984
We were not ready for this, don't overthink it
But let me read you an extract of these exchanges
It is astonishing
I looked at it… and told them it needed a good deal of work…
And there were problems with color… however, I thought it had possibilities
I lied through my pointy teeth. It is amazing
I simply don't want them to know how excited I am
But what was Arthur C Clarke talking about?
Well
Let's take a look together
This is Jupiter, simulated in CGI by Digital Productions in 1984
Of course, shown strip bare
And because Lucasfilm's Computer Division had already done something similar
In 1982 with Star Trek II
And in 1983 with The Return of the Jedi
We could think this is not impressive at all
And yet, it was a true revolution
Alright, some backstory?
In 1968, when 2001: A Space Odyssey comes out in cinemas
No unmanned probe was already sent to observe Jupiter at close range
And the general public is but mostly ignorant on the subject
Nonetheless
Everything will be challenged in the decade that is to follow
Thanks to the huge discoveries of the Pioneer and Voyager probes
Between 1973 and 1979
From there on
No simple photos can ever be used like in Kubrick's picture again
Jupiter is now known to everyone as a gas giant
And, in this sense, with no surface as we're accustomed to it
From that point on, even for space operas
Depict the planet in movies becomes a daunting task
So, try to just imagine what it is for a production with such an emphasis on realism
Like 2010…
Then, why was this "video"
Showing Voyager 1 approaching Jupiter, never used?
For a time, it was to be used by Digital Productions alright
Until a NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory meeting
Where the crew became aware of the harsh truth
On the one hand, Jupiter's and Pioneer's media were quite limited
Both in quantity and definition
And on the other hand, they were very noisy, with visual artifacts
Like moons in the shots or missing, fragmented parts
Do you begin to understand the headache for Digital Productions?
Fortunately
A technique was imagined by Craig Upson and Larry Yaeger
Using algorithms that were able to recreate a fluid dynamics model
So that it could simulate the clouds wavering on Jupiter's surface
To be blunt, with this method, the texture could be animated
But remained a source problem to create the texture
The probes pictures were too imprecise?
Not a problem, they were to be used for the movie anyway
But only as canvas for Digital Productions' texture!
This basis was a large blowup taken from a mosaic of pictures by Voyager 2
Printed on 8-foot long surface
So that an artist could paint missing details over, using the airbrush technique
When finished, the painting was vertically captured on 65mm film
So that more details would be captured
Before being digitized in four pieces by the Cray X-MP
With a definition of 2560 by 2048 pixels by piece
Even an iPad doesn't display that nowadays!
But in order to create this fluid dynamics model that I talked to you about earlier
And simulate the floating clouds giving that peculiar aspect to the gas giant
A simple texture was insufficient
So, the scanned painting was then divided… into particles!
From 5 to 10 millions particles to be precise
Those particles, coupled with a program to simulate the ripples of Jupiter's atmosphere
Gave movement to the texture
So that it could deliver a believable animation of the gas giant
But then came the memory problems of the Cray X-MP
That forced the animators to lower the texture quality to 1400 by 1000 pixels for rendering
Problems that were fixed by using non-linear textures
With compressed parts in order to stretch naturally on the final 3D sphere
In total, some 3600 images were rendered using a very impressive definition for its time
6400 by 3240 pixels, before being finally recorded on film at 3200 by 1620 pixels
2 minutes were then required to render each frame
So, just imagine for the whole 3600!
Thankfully, the final movie will give a large part to Digital Productions' work
Even if we can clearly notice some continuity problems
Thus, when Jupiter is being absorbed by the monoliths
You can clearly see that it's the same animation pasted over
While the soviet ship Leonov changes its position between two shots
But the result, in any case, will be astonishing
In only 2 movies, the company founded by Gary Demos and John Whitney Jr
had revolutionized the way CGI was used in movies
And proved that the technique was capable of overriding traditional VFX
30 years ago, it was only a first step
And we would see Jupiter rendered many times in CGI within the years that follow
Notably in 1997, with Robert Zemeckis' Contact
Or in 2014, with the Wachowsky's upcoming Jupiter Ascending
But that is another story!
Because in the next episode of CGM…
We will go back to 1983 and 1984
With a focus on Golgo 13 and Lensman
The two very first japanese animated features using CGI
And not only for spaceships!
By then, don't hesitate to follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more on CGM
Share the video around you
And, most importantly, to leave me your comments!
And as we would say on Rylos…