To create the spirals seen in the opening credit sequence of his film, Alfred Hitchcock hired John Whitney, who used a WWII anti-aircraft targeting computer called "The M5 gun director" mounted on a rotating platform with a pendulum hanging above it that it tracked. Its scope was filmed to create the various spiral elements used in the opening sequence. The raw footage was curated with aid from graphic designer Saul Bass, and the final near two minute long sequence became the first computer animation in a feature film.[1][2]
1960s
Film
Year
Notes
Rendering of a planned highway
1961
In 1961, a 49-second vector animation of a car traveling up a planned highway at 110 km/h (70 mph) was created at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology on the BESK computer. The short animation was broadcast on November 9, 1961, on national television.[3][4]
Simulation of a Two-Gyro Gravity-Gradient Attitude Control System
1963
Edward E. Zajac, a researcher at Bell Labs, used an IBM computer to create a short showing a communication satellite orbiting Earth.[5]
Boeing Man
1964
William Fetter, a graphic designer working for Boeing, created the first wireframe animation.[6]
Hummingbird
1967
A ten-minute computer-animated film by Charles Csuri and James Shaffer. This was awarded a prize at the 4th annual International Experimental Film Competition in Brussels, Belgium and in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York City. The subject was a line drawing of a hummingbird for which a sequence of movements appropriate to the bird were programmed. Over 30,000 images comprising some 25 motion sequences were generated by the computer.[7][8]
Flexipede
The first entertainment cartoon. Made by Tony Pritchett on the Atlas Computer Laboratory near Oxford and first shown publicly at the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition in 1968.
Kitty
1968
A group of Soviet mathematicians and physicists headed by Nikolay Konstantinov created a mathematically computable model of the physics of a moving cat. The algorithms were programmed on the BESM-4 computer. The computer then printed hundreds of frames to be later converted to film.[9][10][11] An accompanying scientific paper describes the foundation of the employed physics simulation techniques that nowadays are commonly applied to animation films and computer games.[12]
1970s
Film
Year
Notes
Metadata
1971
This is an experimental 2-D animated short drawn on a data tablet by Peter Foldes, who used the world's first key-frame animation software, invented by Nestor Burtnyk and Marceli Wein.[13][14][15][16]
First use of digital rendering within a feature film. A diagram of the underground laboratory was created using 2-D planes and a complex wireframe cylindrical core.[17]
Produced by Charles McGhie, some early computer-generated imagery techniques were combined with stop-motion and real-time visual effects to create the opening title sequence for the show's fourth and final series.
First use of Scanimate in a feature film. The analog computer animation system was used to create sing-along segments for the Oompa Loompa song after Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salt get their comeuppance for their respective vices.[18]
Produced by Ed Catmull, the short demonstrates a computer-animated hand, as well as human faces. Added to the United States National Film Registry in 2011.
First use of digital 2-D computer animation in a significant entertainment feature film. The point of view of Yul Brynner's gunslinger was achieved with raster graphics.[19][17]
First use of digital 3-D computer graphics for animated hand and face. Used 2-D digital compositing to materialize characters over a background.[17]
Hobart Street Scene
First use of a 3-D hidden-line removal movie depicting an architectural street scene.[22][23] It shows the planned Crown Courts in Hobart in 1976 and was used for planning approval. The buildings exist today.
ILM computer graphics division develops "Genesis Effect", the first use of a fractal-generated landscape in a film.[26] Bill Reeves leads the Genesis Effect programming team, and creates a new graphics technique called "Particle Systems".
First extensive use of CGI including the Light Cycle sequence.[27] Also includes very early facial animation (for the Master Control Program). A sequence of 15 minutes of the film was fully computer-generated.
First Star Wars film to use shaded CGI. Translucent shaded models were used for the holographic diagram of the second Death Star orbiting Endor during the Rebel briefing sequence. Added to the United States National Film Registry in 2021.
First Japanese animated film to incorporate CGI sequences.[29] Entirely digital models of revolvers, skeletons, helicopters, and skyscrapers (created by Toyo Links Corporation and Osaka University's CG division) are used in the film's title sequence and part of the climax; the remainder of the film is traditionally animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha.
Uses CGI for all spaceship shots, replacing traditional models. First use of "integrated CGI" where the effects are supposed to represent real world objects.[28]
Lucasfilm's computer animation division creates an all-CGI-animated short. The first CGI animation with motion blur effects and squash and stretch motion.
First use of shadows in CGI, made with the specially developed software Photorealistic Renderman. First Pixar film, and first CGI film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Added to the United States National Film Registry in 2014.
CGI is used to animate the pattern indicator, and to plot the paths of falling objects, model parallax effects on backgrounds, and tweak lighting and lens flares.[29]
Use of motion capture for CGI characters. This primitive form of motion capture involved tracing the animation of CGI skeleton models by hand over footage of the performers.
First realistic human movements on a CGI character.[35] The first partially computer-generated main character and the first blockbuster movie to feature multiple morphing effects.[36] First use of a personal computer to create major movie 3-D effects. Inducted to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Pentagon
First use of photorealistic CGI architectural fly-through. First use of human movement on a CGI character[36]
Second feature-length CGI animation and first CGI feature film not to use scanned models for heads. First Brazilian CGI feature animation. Produced and released by NDR Filmes.
First wide-release feature film with CGI elements rendered under the open-sourceLinux operating system.[42] Also included a number of advances, specifically in the rendering of flowing water.
First photogrammetry based virtual cinematography scenes, including the first bullet time sex scene with fully naked body renderings of body doubles for Helena Bonham Carter and Brad Pitt; renderings of different settings with both extreme close-ups and wide shots; and the first very photorealistic close-up rendering of a human face - which also belongs to a famous actor in a leading role (Edward Norton) - with detailed facial deformation and extreme close-ups (starting at the cell-level of the brain, flying through the different layers of tissues, a follicle and the skin with sweat droplets).
First film to have a fully CGI-rendered supporting character using performance footage captured on-set, pioneering this commonly used technique. Extensive use of CGI for thousands of shots, including backgrounds, visual effects, vehicles, and crowds.
First CGI feature-length digital film to be made based on photorealism and live-action principles. The first theatrically released feature film to utilize motion capture for all of its characters actions.[43]
First CGI short movie released as completely open source. Made with open-source software, theatrical and DVD release under Creative Commons License.[47] Unique that all 3D models, animatics and software are included on the DVD free for any use.
First CGI feature-length movie made using open source/free software for all 3-D models, animation, lighting and render process, under Linux operating system.
First full-length movie made using motion capture to create photorealistic 3-D characters and to feature a fully CG 3-D photorealistic world. The first virtual art department and complete virtual production pipeline was developed by director James Cameron and team to create the film in real-time.
^"What Is CGI?". Nashville Film Institute. NFI. 4 October 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
^Du Rietz, Peter (20 December 2016). "Svensk datorhistoria – 1960-talet" [Swedish computer history - 1960s]. Tekniska museet (in Swedish). Retrieved 17 January 2017.
^Konstantinov, N.N.; Minachin, V.V.; Ponomarenko, V.Y. (1974). "Программа, моделирующая механизм и рисующая мультфильм о нем" [The program that simulates the mechanism and draws a cartoon about it]. Проблемы кибернетики (in Russian) (28). Moscow, USSR: Наука: 193–209. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
^Netzley, Patricia D (2001). Encyclopedia of Movie Special Effects. Checkmark Books. p. 49.
^Pegoraro, Rob (June 29, 2008). "Incredibles, Inc; The story of how computer programmers transformed the art of movie animation". The Washington Post. p. W8.
^Created in 1993. 2nd Prize for the category 3D Animation Imagina in 1993 for the episode "Some Flowers for Bakrakra" [1]Archived 2008-08-20 at the Wayback Machine
