A History of CGRG/ACCAD at
The Ohio State University

CGRG continued to advance, concurrently with the efforts at Cranston/Csuri Productions across the lobby in the 1501 Neil Avenue building. In 1987 Tom Linehan and Chuck Csuri converted the Computer Graphics Research Group into The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, with funding from a long-term Ohio Board of Regents Academic Challenge grant. ACCAD was established to provide computer animation resources in teaching, research and production for all departments in the College of the Arts at Ohio State.

During this period, significant research and production was done in the area of animation by many faculty, staff and students, including Joan Staveley (Windlight), James Hahn (rigid dynamics - George Washington University), David Haumann (flexible dynamics - Pixar), Chris Wedge, Brian Guenter (parallel graphics - Microsoft), Doug Roble (compositing - Digital Domain), Paul MacDougal (levels of detail - Integrated Device Technology), Scott Whitman (Parallel algorithms - Equator), Beth Hofer (facial animation - Pacific Data Images), Susan Amkraut and Michael Girard (flocking and human locomotion - Unreal Pictures), Midori Kitagawa (Boolean operations - ACCAD), John Chadwick (layered skeleton control of human motion), David Ebert (from CIS, procedural animation - Purdue University), Jim Kent (3D object morphing - Sony), Rob Rosenblum (from CIS, rendering and animation of hair - Disney), and Ferdie Scheepers (animation and modeling of human musculature- Pixar).

There were also many arts and design students who were involved in award-winning computer animations, and who are now very important educators or animators for the industry. These include Marla Schweppe (Rochester Institute of Technology), Tom Benoist (founder of Interactive Effects), Chitra Shriram (Xaos), Robert Lurye (Rhythm and Hues), Aliza Corson (Disney), Isabell LeBois, Craig Caldwell (University of Arizona), Ruedy Leeman, Kevin Geiger (Disney), Roberta Brandao (Xaos), Ed Cheetham (Ringling), Tony Lupidi (Electronic Arts), Wen Hwa Seun (Digital Domain), John Warren (Pixar), Janet LuCroy (Pixar), and many others.

ACCAD was established as an interdisciplinary research center, and was instrumental in many research investigations around computer graphics, animation, visualization, multimedia, etc. A partial listing of the projects and funding can be found on the research section of their website at
http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/research/research.htm

Wayne Carlson became the Director of ACCAD in 1991 after Csuri retired. In 2000, Maria Palazzi returned to Ohio State as Associate Director, and in 2001 assumed the Directorship when Carlson became the Chair of the Department of Design at OSU.

ACCAD Logo
The ACCAD logo was designed by a student in the Department of Design, and was meant to convey the dual mission of technology (depicted by the array of rectangles that appear like monitor screens) and art (the paint stroke in the background.) The logo has recently been updated.

CGRG Facilities
Located at 1501 Neil in Columbus.

Images from student projects

Images from research projects

Coredump

Fantasy Spring

A more complete list of the alumni of the program and their current affiliations can be found at our web site at

http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/people/people_alumni.php

Also find a compilation of the publications, dissertations and technical reports, and film/video productions that have been generated by faculty, staff and students at CGRG and ACCAD at

http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/accad/research.html and at

http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/accad/gallery/films.html

and for more current work, at the ACCAD web site at

http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu