Some History on Computer Animation

Ivan Sutherland using Sketchpad in 1962

Sutherland's demonstrating Sketchpad

   














 
     Created by the MIT Lincoln laboratory, Sketchpad was a program developed by Ivan Sutherland as a design tool. Sketchpad became the first program ever to utilize a complete user interface, paving the way for human computer interaction. One of the breakthrough features of the program was that it utilized geometric constraints which allowed the user to easily change geometric properties of a drawing such as being able to change the length and angle between two lines.


Humming Bird 

Created by Charles Csuri in 1967, Humming Bird became one of the first computer animations to include digital morphing.

CCP demo

Csuri quickly became one of the first people to discover the computers potential for making art and in 1971 he established a computer graphics research group at Ohio State University. By 1981 he established Cranston/Csuri Productions after teaming up with an investment firm called the Cranston group. They became a computer animation production group that animated logos for channels such as abc news, abc sports, nbc, and many others.

Csuri Project Website

By the late 1980s, computer animations had begun to take a shift from being made on expensive mainframe computers to cheaper desktop computers with 3D capabilities, a change that helped spring many competing production houses. With Alias being one of the new breakthrough programs, animators were now able to render photo realistic animations into their films such as the t1000 from Terminator 2 and the Jurassic Park dinosaurs

Bonus:
Slow death of flash 


Throughout my childhood and elementary school days i remember there being a time where it seemed like flash games ruled the world. With websites like Crazy Monkey games, addicting games, gamesloth, new grounds, mini clip, etc, It almost seemed like flash games were all over the place at one point. What set these games apart from all others was the fact that the people making them weren't game developers by any means. They were ordinary people like you and me who had the passion and curiosity of making a game for themselves. Nowadays the massive growth of handheld devices and apps have caused many to stray away from flash games. But that doesn't mean we can't still appreciate them and the great times they've brought to our lives.