Management Information Systems And ConceptsCASE ANALYSISPixar
Management Information Systems and Concepts
CASE ANALYSIS
Pixar: Creating Computerized
Animations*
Pixar Animation Studios is a leader in threedimensional computer animation. In 1995 it produced the first fully computer animated feature film, Toy Story, which won an Academy Award.
That entire film was produced using RenderMan,
Pixar’s software tool kit for creating realistic visual effects. The process of creating an animation using software of this type differs vastly from the highly manual process that was used to create traditional cartoons and Disney features. The traditional animation process involved a huge number of individual drawings created by animation artists. It started with a story board providing a visual outline of the action and dialog, but required artists to fill enough pictures to create the illusion of smooth action when the pictures were projected on a screen at 24 frames per second.
Computerized animation also starts with storyboard sketches and dialog but proceeds with the creation of computerized models. The 112,000 frames in Toy Story contained more than 400 separate three-dimensional models of characters, props, and sets. These models describe the shape of the object as well as the motion controls that animators use to create movement and expressions.
Toy Story’s characters were animated using more than 700 controls, such as separate controls for moving different parts of a character’s eyebrow.
Next is the animation step, in which choreographers place the models in key frames or poses and the computer uses interpolation methods to create the frames between the poses that make the animation seem smooth. If necessary, an animator can modify the computer generated frames. Next comes the shading step, in which the computer adds colors, finishes, and textures to the surface of every object in the scene. The computer programs that do this are called shaders. The
112,000 complex, realistic frames in Toy Story contained more than 400 models,
CASE ANALYSIS
Pixar: Creating Computerized
Animations*
Pixar Animation Studios is a leader in threedimensional computer animation. In 1995 it produced the first fully computer animated feature film, Toy Story, which won an Academy Award.
That entire film was produced using RenderMan,
Pixar’s software tool kit for creating realistic visual effects. The process of creating an animation using software of this type differs vastly from the highly manual process that was used to create traditional cartoons and Disney features. The traditional animation process involved a huge number of individual drawings created by animation artists. It started with a story board providing a visual outline of the action and dialog, but required artists to fill enough pictures to create the illusion of smooth action when the pictures were projected on a screen at 24 frames per second.
Computerized animation also starts with storyboard sketches and dialog but proceeds with the creation of computerized models. The 112,000 frames in Toy Story contained more than 400 separate three-dimensional models of characters, props, and sets. These models describe the shape of the object as well as the motion controls that animators use to create movement and expressions.
Toy Story’s characters were animated using more than 700 controls, such as separate controls for moving different parts of a character’s eyebrow.
Next is the animation step, in which choreographers place the models in key frames or poses and the computer uses interpolation methods to create the frames between the poses that make the animation seem smooth. If necessary, an animator can modify the computer generated frames. Next comes the shading step, in which the computer adds colors, finishes, and textures to the surface of every object in the scene. The computer programs that do this are called shaders. The
112,000 complex, realistic frames in Toy Story contained more than 400 models,