Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The TAG Interview: A Brief History of CGI -- Part I


TAG Interview with Tom Sito - 2

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

TAG's President Emeritus Tom Sito (who is also an animator, director, storyboard artist and college professor) has written a fine book on the history of Computer Generated Imagery:

Computer graphics (or CG) has changed the way we experience the art of moving images. Computer graphics is the difference between Steamboat Willie and Buzz Lightyear, between ping pong and PONG.

It began in 1963 when an MIT graduate student named Ivan Sutherland created the first true computer animation program. Instead of presenting a series of numbers, Sutherland's Sketchpad program drew lines that created recognizable images. Sutherland noted: "Since motion can be put into Sketchpad drawings, it might be exciting to try making cartoons." This book, the first full-length history of CG, shows us how Sutherland's seemingly offhand idea grew into a multibillion dollar industry.
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And Tom takes us through that long-ago beginning to right now. ...

This is Tom's second TAG podcast. The first covered his animation career, the second is centered on his just-released book and the history of CG.

(This audio interview is broken into three parts of thirty minutes each. Starting tomorrow, the video/YouTube versions -- each 45 minutes in length -- will appear. So choose your format.)

2 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

Interesting to learn about the Donkey Kong name origin again. Shigeru Miyamoto would get to do a Popeye game a few years later you might recall very well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpeJKiXb3S8

Donkey Kong though led to a lawsuit between Nintendo and Universal Pictures for a couple years over the "Donkey Kong" name itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_City_Studios,_Inc._v._Nintendo_Co.,_Ltd.

Chris Sobieniak said...

For more Nintendo rarities, might I suggest this cool blog to check out!
http://blog.beforemario.com/

This guy has a good one on arcade video game's early years...
http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/

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