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Chapter 4 : A HISTORY OF COMPUTER ANIMATION 3/20/92 2 2 of clear core high contrast kodalith cels mounted on pegbar and backlit . A high resolution (1000 line) television camera captured this image and displayed it on a corresponding high resolution monitor where it be manipulated by the computer animator . The high resolution monitor was rescanned by a standard NTSC or PAL black and white camera, that is, the television camera was simply pointed at the high resolution screen and captured the image on it . Finally, the black and white video signal was quantized into five grey levels and colorized .] (fig . 47) . "Programming" the Scanimate involved neither keyboard, menu, nor language, but was accomplished by connecting the various modules together with patch cords . The high resolution display monitor was equipped with special deflection coils driven by a variety of oscillators, summing amps, multipliers, biases and other analog modules which twisted the monitor's raster electronics so that the image could literally be tied into knots . Basic source modules produced waveforms included sinewaves, sawtooth, square wave, and trangulars . Pulses could be generated of arbitrary frequency and duration . Temporal control-that is how the raster breathed-was provided by independent analog ramps which defined starting and end voltages and duration times ; these were patched into the oscillators et al to control them . Throughout the 1970s Harrison's CIC functioned both as a media producer and an equipment manufacturer . CIC's first commercial clients arrived in the late 1960's . [and add in example from Filmography .] Noteable artistic work included the films Growing (1970), and Scape-mates, made in 1972 by Ed Emshwiller (fig . 48) . In the production industry Scanimate became part of the emerging video production industry ; major production houses who installed Scanimate included Dolphin Productions in New York, Image West in Los Angeles, Far East in Tokyo, and RTL in Luxemberg . 47 . Video synthesizer block diagram . Backlit artwork is scanned by high resolution camera and displayed on hirez black and white monitor . The deflection controls, greatly simplified in the drawing, control special deflection yokes in the monitor . The hirez monitor is in turn rescanned by an ordinary television camera, routed thru a colorizer, and recorded . An alternate input is black and white video to the hirez monitor . [illustration in hypercard ; consists of two cards] . 48 . Analog computer animation . These frames from Scape-mates by Ed Emshwiller were made on a Scanimate machine and demonstrate its potential for rich organic form . [locate]
Chapter 4 : A HISTORY OF COMPUTER ANIMATION 3/20/92 23 Scanimate may be the first widely used video imaging device that does not emulate a preexistant film technique and the first moving picture product to be successfully market as "computer animation ." [move] One thing the new houses had to do (DEI, III, Magi, Able) was to distinguish themselves from Scanimate, which was also "computer animation ." The difference was that they were digital . In the early 1970s the concept of a video artist specializing in synthetic image (often synchronized to music) became a reality for many people . Some, like director Ron Hays, employed a variety of systems to formulate work . Many others resorted to building their own video synthesizers, both to process preexistent video imagery as well to generate totally abstract imagery (fig . 49) . Strategies included magnets (by video art pioneer Nam June Paik), colorizers and feedback devices (Paik and Shuya Abe, Dan Sandin), rescan (Steve Rutt and Bill Etra), and digital approaches (by Steven Beck, Eric Segal, the Vasulkas, Tom Dewitt, Vibeke Sorensen, and Carl Geiger) . These digital video art approaches varied widely, from digital controls of key parameters to special purpose logic circuits designed to manipulate the video signal . Forays by Lee Harrison to advance the video synthesizer into the realm of an electronic cel style technology resulted in CIC's Caesar and System IV (1975), but the approach never emerged as a popular technology, probably because by this time it was easier to employ the more general purpose digital computer and frame buffer for the task . But it was not until the late 1980's that the last of the Scanimates would stop operating, effectively ending an era . Mechanical Analog Computer Animation The use of mechanical systems to make computer animation are closely allied to a cinema form called motion graphics . The development in motion graphics occured during the 1960s when experimental filmmakers began using repeatable equipment to construct sequences of abstract images . The brothers John and James Whitney Brothers employed mechanical gunnery clockwork which rotated small backlit metal patterns, which were gelled to give color . These in turn were photographed in multiple exposure to produce producing kalidoscopic effects . Using this "analog 49 . Video synthesis . The real time artform of playing a video synthesizer . A delux unit should include rescan, video feedback, colorization, video inputs, audio frequency inputs, waveform generators, plus all the digital futures . This pictures by ?? is made ?? . [fill hole color]
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Chapter 4: A HISTORY OF COMPUTER ANIMATION ... - Vasulka.org

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