Aristotle’s Rainbow: The Path of Computer Animation to First Digital Special Effects in Film
Abstract
The appearance of the first computer-generated special effects in the 1970s has forever changed the face of world cinema. This breakthrough had been made possible by the work of the engineers, programmers and experimental filmmakers, who for the preceding two decades developed graphic algorithms and explored the artistic potential of new digital visuals. This period was characterized by a unique atmosphere of creativity gained through the cooperation of so many different artistic and scientific circles. The process of shaping this relationship can be traced back to the achievements of the Whitney brothers, Ch. Csuri, P. Foldes and staff of research centres (such as K. Knowlton, H. Gouraud, E. Catmull et al.). It appears that early digital animations, which fascinated viewers, such as for example Michael Crichton’s Westworld (1971), George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977), and Gary Nelson’s Black Hole (1979), are the descendants of the innovations made by the film makers, who since the 1950s, explored the domain of computer animation.
Keywords:
special effects, computer animation, digital animationReferences
Alves, Bill. „Digital Harmony of Sound and Light”, Computer Music Journal, Winter (2005), 46-47.
Google Scholar
Century, Michael. „Exact imagination and distributed creativity: a lesson from the history of animation”. In: C&C `07 Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity &&cognition, 87, ACM: New York, 2007,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1254960.1254972
Google Scholar
Csuri, Charles A. „Beyond Boundaries”. In . Beyond Boundaries 1963 – present, ed. J. M. Glowski, . 21, Ohio State University Press: Boston, 2006.
Google Scholar
Dietrich, Frank. „Visual Intelligence; The First Decade of Computer Art. (1965-1975)”. Leonardo, vol. 19, no 2 (1986): 159-160
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1578284
Google Scholar
Frisvad, Jeppe Revall; Christensen, Niels; Falster, Viggo. „The Aristotelian Rainbow: From Philosophy to Computer Graphics”. In: Proceedings of GRAPHITE 2007: 5th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and Southeast Asia, ACM 2007. www.orbit.dtu.dk/files/4165202/imm5480.pdf (access: 14.04.2016.).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1321261.1321282
Google Scholar
http://www.kenknowlton.com/pages/05collab.htm (accessed: 20.04.2016).
Google Scholar
Knowlton, Ken; Machover, Carl. „On the Frustrations of Collaborating With Artists”. In Newsletter ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, vol. 35. Issue 3, August 2001, 20-22.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/601782.601789
Google Scholar
Moritz, William. „Film absolutny”, w: Widok. WRO Media Art. Reader. Numer 1. Od kina absolutnego do filmu przyszłości, ed V. Kutlubasis-Krajewska, P. Krajewski, WroArt: Wrocław, 2009, 64.
Google Scholar
Noll, Michael. „The digital computer as a creative medium”, IEEE Spectrum, vol. 4, no 10, October (1967), 90.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.1967.5217127
Google Scholar
Reichardt, Jasia. Introduction. In Cybernetic Serendipity – The Computer and The Arts, edited by Jasia Reichardt, 5, London – New York: Studio International, 1968,
Google Scholar
Whitney, John. Digital Harmony. On the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art, 38, McGraw-Hill Inc.: New York, 1980.
Google Scholar
Youngblood, Gene. Expanded Cinema, 207, EP Dutton: New York, 1970.
Google Scholar
Authors
Piotr Aptacykwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
University of Silesia Poland
Dr, adiunkt w Zakładzie Filmoznawstwa i Wiedzy o Mediach Instytutu Nauk o Kulturze i Studiów Interdyscyplinarnych Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Jego zainteresowania skupiają się wokół zjawisk komunikacyjnych, społecznych i kulturowych generowanych (współcześnie i w kontekście historycznym) przez technologie cyfrowe.
Statistics
Abstract views: 43PDF downloads: 26
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Piotr Aptacy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
