CGI Historical Timeline

1200

1617

1450

1687

Chinese Abacus

Napier's bones

Gutenberg press

Principia Mathematica - Isaac Newton

1801

1811

1826

1830

1842

1843

1864

1877

1884

1885

1887

1888

1888

1888

1890

1891

1898

Jacquard loom

Luddites riot

Photography (Niepce)

Babbage Analytical Engine designed

FAX (Alexander Bain)

Morse's telegraph installed between Philadelphia and Washington

Maxwell electromagnetic wave theory becomes basis for radio wave propagation

Edison invents phonograph

Nipkow (Germany) devises scanner for scanning and transmitting images

CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)

Edison patents motion picture camera

Edison and Dickson design Kinetoscope - (motion pictures from successive photos on a cylinder)

Berliner invents gramophone

Oberlin Smith publishes basics of magnetic recording

Hollerith introduces an automated punch-card driven tabulation device for the Census Bureau

Dickson uses Edison's kinetograph to record motion pictures

Poulsen invents the Telegraphone, the first magnetic recording device

1905

1905

1906

1923

1926

1926

1927

1927

1928

1929

Fleming electron tube

Einstein's Theory of Relativity

de Forest develops Audion vacuum tube amplifier

Zworykin develops Iconoscope at Westinghouse

First television (J.L. Baird)

1st teleconference - between Washington and New York

Philo Farnsworth invents fully electronic TV (First all electronic TV is made by RCA in 1932)

Motion picture film standardized at 24 fps

Hollerith introduces the 80-column "punch card"

BBC begins broadcasting

1930

1931

1936

1938

1939

1941

1941

1945

1946

1948

1947

1949

1949

Philo Farnsworth receives patents for transmitting images by electronic means

1st stereo recordings

the Magnetophone is 1st true magnetic tape recorder

Valensi proposes color TV

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard design the Audio Oscillator

First U.S. regular TV broadcast

1st TV commercial (for Bulova watches)

Whirlwind computer project starts at MIT

ENIAC computer built at University of Pennsylvania

cable TV is installed

Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain of Bell Labs invent transistors ("transfer resistance")

John Whitney enters first International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium

Williams tube (CRT storage tube); Whirlwind computer built; core memory developed by Wang of Harvard

Cybernetics and Society - Norbert Weiner (MIT)

Ben Laposky uses oscilloscope to display waveforms which were photographed as artwork

Mr. Potato Head invented; later starred in "Toy Story"

Air Force Project Blue Book organized to categorize UFO sightings

FCC authorizes color TV broadcast

FORTRAN - John Backus

Disneyland opens

SAGE system at Lincoln Lab uses first light pen (Bert Sutherland)

Lawrence Livermore National Labs connects graphics display to IBM 704; use film recorder for color images

Ray Dolby, Charles Ginsberg and Charles Anderson of Ampex develop the first videotape recorder

Alex Poniatoff (Ampex) introduces the VR1000 videotape recorder (2"tape) - the first practical broadcast quality VTR

1st image-processed photo at National Bureau of Standards

Max Mathews demonstrates first computer (IBM 704) synthesis of music (Music I) at Bell Labs

Digital Equipment Corporation founded

Numerical controlled digital drafting machines, APT II (Automated Programming Tools)- MIT

CalComp 565 drum plotter

Saul Bass creates titles for Hitchcock's Vertigo

Integrated circuit (IC, or Chip) invented by Jack St. Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Electronics

John Whitney Sr. uses analog computer to make art

First film recorder - General Dynamics Stromberg Carlson 4020 (uses Charactron tube)

TX-2 computer at MIT uses graphics console

Béla Julesz creates "random-dot stereogram"

GM begins DAC program

William Fetter of Boeing coins the term "computer graphics" for his human factors cockpit drawings

John Whitney Sr. founds Motion Graphics, Inc.

LISP developed by John McCarthy

DEC PDP-1 introduced

Catalogue (John Whitney)

Information International Inc. (Triple I) founded

Itek begins Electronic Drafting Machine project

Mr. Computer Image ABC produced on Scanimate by Lee Harrison

1st computer art competition, sponsored by Computers and Automation

Sketchpad developed beginning in 1961 by Ivan Sutherland at MIT is unveiled (Ref: Sutherland, Ivan E. Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System. Proceedings of the AFIPS Spring Joint Computer Conference Washington, D.C.: 1963, p. 329-346.)

Mouse invented by Doug Englebart of SRI

Coons' patches

1st (?) computer generated film by Edward Zajac (Bell Labs)

BEFLIX developed at Bell Labs by Ken Knowlton

Charles Csuri makes his first computer generated artwork

DAC-1, first commercial CAD system, developed in 1959 by IBM for General Motors is shown at JCC

Lockheed Georgia starts graphics activity (Chase Chasen)

Michael Noll (Bell Labs) starts his Gaussian Quadratic series of artwork

Roberts hidden line algorithm (MIT)

The Society for Information Display established

Fetter of Boeing creates the "First Man" digital human for cockpit studies

Project MAC (MIT)

IBM 2250 console ($125,000) introduced with IBM 360 computer

Poem Field by Stan Vanderbeek and Ken Knowlton

Itek Digigraphic Program (later Control Data graphics system)

The BASIC programming language developed by Kurtz and Kemeny

Ruth Weiss introduces drawing software that performs hidden line elimination (Ref: Weiss, Ruth E. BE VISION, a Package of IBM 7090 FORTRAN Programs to Drive Views of Combinations of Plane and Quadric Surfaces. Journal of the ACM 13(4) April 1966, p. 194-204. )

RAND tablet input device (commercially known as Grafacon)

compact cassette tape (Phillips)

New York World's Fair

Electronic character generator

1st computer art exhibition, at Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart

1st U.S. computer art exhibition, at Howard Wise Gallery in New York

Dolby Laboratories founded by Ray Dolby, inventor of the first videotape recorder (1956)

Adage founded

Roberts introduces homogeneous coordinates (Ref: Roberts, Lawrence G. 1965. Homogenous Matrix Representation and Manipulation of N-Dimensional Constructs, MS-1505. MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Mass. )

Utah computer science department founded

Bresenham Algorithm for plotting lines (Ref: Bresenham, J. E. Algorithm for Computer Control of a Digital Plotter. IBM Systems Journal 4(1) 1965, p. 25-30.)

Tektronix Direct View Storage Tube (DVST)

CADAM developed at Lockheed; CADD developed at McDonnell Douglas

Project DEMAND consortium (IBM, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell, TRW, Rolls Royce)

BBN Teleputer uses Tektronix CRT

Odyssey, home video game developed by Ralph Baer of Sanders Assoc., is 1st consumer CG product

Group 1 FAX machines (using CCITT compression)

Lincoln Wand developed

Plasma Panel introduced (first developed at Illinois in 1964 as part of the PLATO project)

Studies in Perception I by Ken Knowlton and Leon Harmon (Bell Labs)

MAGI founded by Phil Mittleman

Joint Defense Department / Industry symposium on CAD/NC held in Oklahoma City

IBM awards Artist-in-Residence to John Whitney, Sr.

Loutrel hidden line algorithm

Appel hidden line algorithm (Ref: Appel, Arthur. The Notion of Quantitative Invisibility and the Machine Rendering of Solids. Proceedings of the ACM National Conference 1967, p. 387-393.)

Steven Coons publishes his surface patch "little red book" (Ref: Coons, Steven A. 1967. Surfaces for Computer-aided Design of Space Forms , Project MAC Report MAC-TR-41. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.)

Sine Curve Man and Hummingbird created by Chuck Csuri

Adage real time 3D line drawing system

Lee Harrison's ANIMAC graphic device

GE introduces first full color real time interactive flight simulator for NASA - Rod Rougelet

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) started in New York by artist Robert Rauschenberg and Bell Labs engineer Billy Klüver

MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies founded by Gyorgy Kepes

Instant replay and Slo-Mo introduced using Ampex HS-100 disc recorder

Cornell's program started in Architecture by Don Greenberg

1/2 inch open reel video tape recorder

DEC 338 intelligent graphics terminal

Tektronix 4010

Intel founded

University of Utah asks Dave Evans to form a CG department in computer science

Warnock algorithm

Watkins algorithm

Edsger Dijkstra writes article Go To Statement Considered Harmful which signals beginning of structured programming

Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts exhibition at London Institute of Contemporary Arts

Csuri's Hummingbird purchased by Museum of Modern Art for permanent collection

Permutations - John Whitney, Sr.

Sutherland Head Mounted Display (Sword of Damocles), developed in 1966, shown (AFIPS Conference) (Ref: Sutherland, Ivan E. A Head-Mounted Three-Dimensional Display. Proceedings of the AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference Washington, D.C.: Thompson Books, 1968, p. 757-764. )

Evans & Sutherland Calma, Computek, Houston Instrument, Imlac founded

ARDS terminal, Computek 400 terminal

LDS-1 ($250,000) from E&S introduces line clipping

Computer Image Corporation founded

UNIX developed by Thompson and Ritchie at Bell Labs (in PDP-7 assembly code)

SCANIMATE commercialized - Lee Harrison

Genesys animation system - Ron Baecker

GRAIL  (Graphics Input Language) developed at Rand

Computer Space arcade game built by Nolan Bushnell

Xerox PARC founded

Lee Harrison's CAESAR animation system

Bell Labs builds first framebuffer (3 bits)

Sony U-Matic 3/4" video cassette

Intel introduces the 1 KB RAM chip

1st use of CGI for commercials - MAGI for IBM

Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed by Xerox (Alan Kay)

SIGGRAPH formed (began as special interest committee in 1967 by Sam Matsa and Andy vanDam)

ComputerVision, Applicon, Vector General founded

ARPANET is born

Sonic Pen 3-D input device

ISSCO (Integrated Software Systems Corporation ) founded (marketed DISSPLA software) by Peter Preuss

Watkins algorithm for visible surfaces

Lillian Schwartz produces "Pixellation" at Bell Labs

Pascal programming language developed by Wirth

Imlac PDS-1 programmable graphics computer marketed

John Staudhammer starts NCSU Graphics Lab at NC State

Pierre Bezier from Renault develops Bezier freeform curve representation

Gouraud shading (Ref: Gouraud, Henri. Continuous Shading of Curved Surfaces. IEEE Transactions on Computers C-20(6), June 1971, p. 623-29. )

Ramtek founded

GINO (graphics input output specification) - Cambridge University

Intel 4004 4-bit processor

Interactive Graphics for Computer-Aided Design (Prince) published

MCS (Manufacturing and Consulting Services) founded by Patrick Hanratty, considered the "father" of mechanical CAD/CAM - introduces ADAM CAD software, which is the heart of many modern software systems

Robert Abel and Associates founded

Floppy disk (8") - IBM

MAGI Synthevision started (Bo Gehring)

CGRG founded at Ohio State

NASA IPAD (Integrated Program for Aerospace Vehicle Design) initiative started

Graphics Standards Planning Committee organized by ACM-SIGGRAPH

The @ symbol selected for email addresses by BBN

C language developed by Ritchie

Emmy awarded to Lee Harrison for SCANIMATE

Alto computer introduced by Xerox PARC (Alan Kay)

Intel 8008 8-bit processor

Megatek, Summagraphics, Computervision, Applicon founded

Utah hand (Catmull) and face (Parke) animations produced (Ref: Catmull, Edwin. A System for Computer Generated Movies. Proceedings of the ACM National Conference August 1972, p. 422-431. and Parke, Frederic I. Computer Generated Animation of Faces. Proceedings of the ACM National Conference 1972, p. 451-457.)

Computer Graphics and Image Processing journal begins publication

8-bit frame buffer developed by Dick Shoup at Xerox PARC

Sandin Image Processor - Dan Sandin, Univ. Illinois-Chicago Circle

Atari formed (Nolan Bushnell)

Newell, Newell and Sancha visible surface algorithm (Ref: Newell, M. E., R. G. Newell and T. L. Sancha. A Solution to the Hidden Surface Problem. Proceedings of the ACM National Conference 1972, p. 443-450)

video game Pong developed for Atari

Graphics Symbiosis System (GRASS) developed at Ohio State by Tom DeFanti

E&S begins marketing first commercial frame buffer

Ethernet - Bob Metcalf (Harvard)

Quantel founded

Westworld - uses 2D graphics

Circle Graphics Habitat founded at Univ. Illinois Chicago (Tom DeFanti & Dan Sandin)

Moore's Law (the number of transistors on a microchip will double every year and a half) by Intel’s chairman, Mr. Gordon Moore

Nolan Bushnell's video game Computer Space appears in movie Soylent Green

first SIGGRAPH conference (Boulder)

3/4 inch portapack replaces 16mm film for news gathering

Richard Shoup develops PARC raster display

Rich Riesenfeld (Syracuse) introduces b-splines for geometric design (Ref: R.F. Riesenfeld. Applicatoins of B-Spline Approximation to Geometric Problems of Computer Aided Design. PhD Dissertation, Syracuse University , 1973. )

Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics (Newman and Sproull) first comprehensive graphics textbook is published

Motion Pictures Product Group formed at III by John Whitney, Jr. and Gary Demos

Alex Schure opens CGL at NYIT, with Ed Catmull as Director

Barnhill and Riesenfeld introduce the name "Computer-Aided Geometric Design" (CAGD)

SuperPaint developed by Dick Shoup and Alvy Ray Smith

TCP protocol (Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn)

DEC VT52 incorporated the first addressable cursor in a graphics display terminal

Intel (Zilog) 8080

z-buffer developed by Ed Catmull (University of Utah) (Ref: E. Catmull. A Subdivision Algorithm for Computer Display of Curved Surfaces, Ph.D. Thesis, Report UTEC-CSc-74-133, Computer Science Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 1974)

Futureworld (sequel to Westworld) uses 3D CGI (III)

Hunger produced by Peter Foldes at National Research Council of Canada; wins Cannes Film Festival Prix de Jury award for animation

Phong shading - Bui-Toung Phong (University of Utah) (Ref: Bui-Tuong, Phong. Illumination for Computer Generated Pictures. Communications of the ACM 18(6) June 1975, p. 311-317.)

Sony Betamax recorder

USAF ICAM (Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing) initiative started

Cray 1 introduced

Altair 8800 computer

fractals - Benoit Mandelbrot (IBM)

Winged edge polyhedra representation (Bruce Baumgart)

Catmull curved surface rendering algorithm (Ref: Catmull, Edwin. Computer Display of Curved Surfaces. Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Graphics, Pattern Recognition and Data Structures (IEEE Cat. No. 75CH0981-1C) 1975, p. 11-17. )

Bill Gates starts Microsoft

Quantel (QUANtized TELevision) introduces the DFS3000 Digital Framestore

Martin Newell (Utah) develops CGI teapot (physical teapot now in the Computer Museum in Boston)

JPL Graphics Lab developed (Bob Holzman)

Arabesque completed (John Whitney)

Anima animation system developed at CGRG at Ohio State (Csuri)

MITs Visible Language Workshop founded by Muriel Cooper

Ed Catmull develops "tweening" software (NYIT)

Jim Clark's Hierarchical model for visible surface detection [Ref: J. H. Clark. Hierarchical geometric models for visible surface algorithms. Communications of the ACM, 19(10):547-- 554, 1976.)

N. Burtnyk , M. Wein, Interactive skeleton techniques for enhancing motion dynamics in key frame animation, CACM, V19, #10, Oct 1976, 564-569

Dolby sound

Jim Blinn develops reflectance and environment mapping (University of Utah)

Nelson Max's sphere inversion film

Ukrainian Pysanka Egg erected in Vegraville, Canada by Ron Resch (University of Utah) to commemorate the RCMP

Sony Beta home video

Floppy disk (5 1/4")

Apple 1 (Wozniak)

IFIP (The Internation Federation of Information Processing) conference at Seillac in France on "The Methodology of Computer Graphics" begins standardization process

Computer Graphics Newsletter started by Joel Orr; becomes Computer Graphics World in 1978

Peter Fonda's head digitized and rendered by III for Futureworld

Ampex VPR-1 Type C 1" video recorder

Wang word processing

"Artist and Computer", by Ruth Leavitt

Mathematical Elements for Computer Graphics (David Rogers) published

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple computer.

Apple Computer incorporated

VHS (Video Home System) format - Matsushita

JVC VHS home video

Apple II released

TRS-80 introduced

Frank Crow introduces antialiasing (Ref: Franklin C. Crow, The aliasing problem in computer-generated shaded images, Communications of the ACM, v.20 n.11, p.799-805, Nov. 1977 )

Jim Blinn introduces a new illumination model that considers surface "facets" (Ref: Models of light reflection for computer synthesized pictures, James F. Blinn , Proceedings of the 4th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques July 1977, V11, #2, pp192-198)

Computer Graphics World begins publication (started by Joel and N'omi Orr as Computer Graphics Newsletter)

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences introduces Visual Effects category for Oscars

Nelson Max joins LLL; Jim Blinn joins JPL

R/Greenberg founded (Richard and Robert Greenberg)

SIGGRAPH CORE Graphics standard

Ampex ESS^TM (Electronic Still Store) system introduced for network sports slo-mo;adapted for use as animation sequetial storage device

GKS (Graphical Kernal System) graphics standard introduced

Fuchs multiprocessor visible surface algorithm (Ref: Fuchs, Henry. Distributing A Visible Surface Algorithm Over Multiple Processors. Proceedings of the ACM National Conference 1977, p. 449-451. )

Larry Cuba produces Death Star simulation for Star Wars using Grass at UICC developed by Tom DeFanti at Ohio State

Tom DeFanti's GRASS system rewritten for Bally home computer (Zgrass)

E&S goes public

AT&T and Canadian Telidon introduce videotex graphics standard (NAPLPS)

Digital Effects founded (Judson Rosebush, Jeff Kleiser, et al)

Lance Williams curved shadows paper (Ref: Lance Williams, Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces, Proceedings of the 5th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.270-274, August 23-25, 1978 )

Ikonas frame buffer - England/Whitton

Leroy Neiman uses Ampex AVA-1^TM video art system to draw (on air) football players in Super Bowl XII

1st CGI film title - Superman (R. Greenberg)

Computer Graphics World begins publication

James Blinn produces the first of a series of animations titled The Mechanical Universe

DEC VAX 11/780 introduced

video laser disc

Bump mapping introduced (Blinn) (Ref: Simulation of wrinkled surfaces, James F. Blinn, Proceedings of the 5th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques August 1978, V12, #3, pp 286-292.)

National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA) organized by Peter Preuss of ISSCO and Joel Orr

IGES graphics file format specified

IBM 3279 color terminal

E&S PS-300

Motorola 68000 32-bit processor

Atari 8-bit computers introduced

Disney produces The Black Hole using CGI for the opening

Sunstone - Ed Emshwiller (NYIT)

George Lucas hires Ed Catmull, Ralph Guggenheim and Alvy Ray Smith to form Lucasfilm

Vol Libre - Loren Carpenter of Boeing

Apollo Computer founded - introduces the 68000 based workstation

Turner Whitted of Bell Labs publishes ray tracing paper (Ref: Turner Whitted, An improved illumination model for shaded display, Communications of the ACM, v.23 n.6, p.343-349, June 1980 )

First NCGA conference - Arlington, Virginia - Steven Levine, President

Donkey Kong introduced by Nintendo (Mario named in US release)

IBM licenses DOS from Microsoft

Apple Computer IPO - 4.6M shares @ $22

Aurora Systems founded by Richard Shoup

SIGGRAPH Core standard reorganized as ANSC X3H3.1 (PHIGS)

EUROGRAPHICS (The European Association for Computer Graphics) formed; first conference at Geneva

Disney contracts Abel, III, MAGI and DE for computer graphics for the movie Tron

MIT Media Lab founded by Nicholas Negroponte

Pacific Data Images founded by Carl Rosendahl

Computer hard disk drive - Seagate

Hanna-Barbera, largest producer of animation in the U.S.,begins implementation of computer automation of animation process

Sony Walkman

Quantel introduces Paintbox

Sony Betacam

Tom DeFanti expands GRASS to Bally Z-50 machine (ZGRASS) - University Illinois - Chicago Circle

IBM introduces the first IBM PC (16 bit 8088 chip)

DEC introduces VT100

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications published by IEEE Computer Society and NCGA

Ampex ADO^® system introduced; garners an Emmy award in 1983

Digital Productions formed by Whitney and Demos

Cranston/Csuri Productions founded by Chuck Csuri, Robert Kanuth and Jim Kristoff.

R/Greenberg opens CGI division (Chris Woods)

MITI Fifth Generation Computer Project announced by Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry

REYES renderer written at LucasFilm

Penguin Software (now Polarware) introduces the Complete Graphics System

Looker includes the virtual human character Cindy (Susan Dey) - 1st filkm with shaded graphics(III)

Adam Powers, the Juggler produced by III

Carla's Island - Nelson Max

The Last Starfighter (Digital Productions) begins production

Tron released

The Geometry Engine (Clark) (Ref: Clark, James H. The Geometry Engine: A VLSI Geometry System for Graphics. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 82 Proceedings) 16(3) July 1982, p. 127-133.)

Jim Clark founds Silicon Graphics Inc.

Sun Microsystems founded (sun := Stanford University Network)

Alain Fournier , Don Fussell , Loren Carpenter, Computer Rendering of Stochastic Models.Communications of the ACM, v.25 n.6, p.371-384, June 1982 (Fractal Rendering paper)

Skeleton Animation System (SAS) developed at CGRG at Ohio State (Dave Zeltzer)

Sony still frame video camera (Mavica)

ACM begins publication of TOG (Transactions on Graphics)

Tom Brighham develops morphing (NYIT)

Adobe founded by John Warnock

Toyo Links established in Tokyo

Quantel Mirage

Symbolics Graphics Division founded

EPCOT Center opens

Atari develops the data glove.

Where the Wild Things Are test (MAGI) - digital compositing used to combine CG backgrounds and traditional animation

AutoDesk founded; AutoCAD released

ILM computer graphics division develops "Genesis effect" for Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan

Particle systems (Reeves - Lucasfilm) (Ref: Reeves, William T. Particle Systems: A Technique for Modeling a Class of Fuzzy Objects. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 83 Proceedings) 17(3) July 1983, p. 359-376. )

SGI IRIS 1000 graphics workstation

Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) introduced by Tiller (Note: this date is somewhat misleading, since the concept built on the work of Vesprille (1975), Riesenfeld (1973), Knapp (1979), Coons (1968) and Forrest (1972))

Road to Point Reyes - Lucasfilm

The Last Starfighter released

Jim Blinn receives the first (1983) ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Ivan Sutherland receives the first (1983) ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

Steve Dompier's "Micro Illustrator"

UNIX System V

Utah Raster Toolkit introduced (Spencer Thomas)

Autodesk introduces first PC-based CAD software

Alias founded in Toronto by Stephen Bingham, Nigel McGrath, Susan McKenna and David Springer

mip-mapping introduced for efficient texture mapping (Williams - NYIT) (Ref: Williams, Lance. Pyramidal Parametrics. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 83 Proceedings) 17(3) July 1983, p. 1-11. )

Sony and Philips introduce 1st CD player

Robert Able & Associates produces the 1st computer generated 30 second commercial used for Super Bowl (Brilliance)

Wavefront Technologies is the first commercially available 3D software package (founded by Mark Sylvester, Larry Barels and Bill Kovacs )

Thomson Digital Image (TDI) founded

Jim Clark receives the 1984 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

International Resource Development report predicts the extinction of the keyboard in the next decade

A-buffer (or alpha-buffer) introduced by Carpenter of Lucasfilm

Distributed ray tracing introduced by Lucasfilm (Ref: Cook, Robert L., Thomas Porter and Loren Carpenter. Distributed Raytracing. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 84 Proceedings) 18(3) July 1984, p. 137-145. )

Cook shading model (Lucasfilm) (Ref: Cook, Robert L. Shade Trees. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 84 Proceedings) 18(3) July 1984, p. 223-231. )

14.5 minute computer generated IMAX film (The Magic Egg) shown at SIGGRAPH 84 - 18 teams; 20 segments

Universal Studios opens CG department

First Macintosh computer is sold; introduced with Clio award winning commercial 1984 during Super Bowl

McDonnel Douglas introduces the Polhemus 3Space digitizer and body Tracker

The Cornell Box invented by Cohen

Radiosity born - Cornell University (Ref: Goral, Cindy M., Kenneth E. Torrence, Donald P. Greenberg and Bennett Battaile. Modeling the Interaction of Light Between Diffuse Surfaces. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 84 Proceedings) 18(3) July 1984, p. 213-222. )

John Lasseter joins Lucasfilm

Motorola 68020

Digital Productions (Whitney and Demos) get Academy Technical Achievement Award for CGI simulation of motion picture photography

Lucasfilms introduces motion blur effects

Porter and Duff compositing algorithm (Lucasfilm) (Ref: Porter, Thomas and Tom Duff. Compositing Digital Images. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 84 Proceedings) 18(3) July 1984, p. 253-259.)

The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (Lucasfilm)

Commodore launches the new Amiga

Loren Carpenter receives the 1985 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Pierre Bezier receives the 1985 ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

Sogitec founded (Xavier Nicolas)

Max Headroom - computer-mediated live action figure

Judson Rosebush Co. started

Abel Image Research takes Robert Abel & Associates to shaded graphics business

Tony de Peltrie airs

stereo TV

Biosensor (Toyo Links)

Cray 2

GKS standard

Quantel Harry is first non-linear editor

X10R1 format

CGW predicts 90s graphics workstation

Targa 16 board (AT&T) goes to market

Pixar Image Computer goes to market

NeXT Incorporated founded by Steve Jobs and five former Apple senior managers

Perlin's noise functions introduced (Ref: Perlin, Ken. An Image Synthesizer. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 85 Proceedings) 19(3) July 1985, p. 287-296.)

CD-ROMs High Sierra (ISO9660) standard introduced

PostScript (Adobe - John Warnock)

PODA creature animation system developed by Girard and Maciejewski at Ohio State (Ref: Girard, Michael and A. A. Maciejewski. Computational Modeling for the Computer Animation of Legged Figures. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 85 Proceedings) 19(3) July 1985, p. 263-270.)

Boss Films founded by Richard Edlund

MIT Media Lab moves to new home

Young Sherlock Holmes stained glass knight (Lucasfilm), 2010 (Boss Films)and Looker (DP)

The Great Mouse Detective was the first animated film to be aided by CG.

Pixar purchased from Lucasfilm by Steve Jobs

X-Window System (MIT Project Athena)

Trancept Systems founded by Nick England and Mary Whitton - graphics board for Sun

CGI group starts at Industrial Light and Magic (Doug Kay and George Joblove)

Softimage founded by Daniel Langlois in Montreal

Sun Microsystems goes public

mental images founded in Berlin

Computer Associates acquires ISSCO

Microsoft goes public (IPO raises $61M; share prices go from $21 to $28)

Apple IIgs introduced

Silicon Graphics Incorporated IPO

SGI IRIS 3000 (MIPS processor)

Turner Whitted receives the 1986 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Waldo project introduces motion capture (Digital Productions)

Kajiya's Rendering Equation (Ref: Kajiya, James T. The Rendering Equation. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 86 Proceedings) 20(4) August 1986, p. 143-150.)

Omnibus assumes Robert Able & Associates and Digital Productions in hostile takeovers by John Pennie and investors

Whitney/Demos Productions founded

Intel introduces 82786 graphics coprocessor chip ; Texas Instruments introduces TMS34010 Graphics System Processor

NSFNet

Luxo Jr. nominated for Oscar (first CGI film to be nominated - Pixar)

TIFF (Aldus)

Scitex founded for prepress

GIF format (CompuServe), JPEG format (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

Willow (Lucasfilm) popularizes morphing

Max Headroom debuts

LucasArts formed

Adobe Illustrator

CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile) standard

Side Effects Software established

VGA (Video Graphivs Array) invented by IBM

Windows 2.0, MS/OS 2, Excel

Sun 4 SPARC workstation

Reynolds' flocking behavior algorithm (Symbolics) (Ref: Reynolds, Craig W. Flocks, Herds and Schools: A Distributed Behavior Model. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 87 Proceedings) 21(4) July 1987, p. 25-34.)

Stanley and Stella in: Breaking the Ice

Rob Cook receives the 1987 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Don Greenberg receives the 1987 ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) founded at Ohio State (formerly CGRG)

Omnibus closes, eliminating DP and Abel

Cranston/Csuri Productions closes

Marching Cubes algorithm (Lorensen and Cline - GE) (Ref: Lorensen, William and Harvey E. Cline. Marching Cubes: A High Resolution 3D Surface Construction Algorithm. Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 87 Proceedings) 21(4) July 1987, p. 163-170. )

Metrolight Studios, RezN8 Productions, Kleiser/Walczak Construction Co., DeGraf/Wahrman founded

PICT format (Apple)

Apple sues Microsoft for copyright infringement for GUI

GKS, PHIGS standards

Prime Computer acquires Computervision

Solid Texturing introduced (Perlin Noise Functions) (Ref: K. Perlin. An image synthesizer. Computer Graphics, 19(3):287--296, 1985)

Al Barr receives the 1988 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Internet Worm infects servers all over the world

Gary Demos founds DemoGraFX

Open Software Foundation (OSF)

NeXT Cube - For $6500, it features: 25-MHz 68030 processor and 68882 math coprocessor, 8 MB RAM, 17-inch monochrome monitor, 256 MB read/write magneto-optical drive, and object-oriented NeXTSTEP operating system.

JCGL purchased by NAMCO

US Patent awarded to Pixar for RenderMan

Who Framed Roger Rabbit mixes live action and animation

Willow (Lucasfilm) uses morphing in a feature film

D-2 composite video format introduced by Ampex

Disney and Pixar develop CAPS (Computer Animation Paint System) (academy technical award in 1992)

PIXAR wins Academy award for Tin Toy

John Warnock receives the 1989 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

David Evans receives the 1989 ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

8MM videotape introduced by Sony

Adobe Photoshop

PHIGS+

OSF Motif V1.0 released

Intel 80486

mental ray renderer released (integrated with Wavefront (1992), Softimage (1993), Maya (2002)) - awarded AMPAS Technical Achievment Award in 2002

HP buys Apollo

Computervision acquires Calma

ILM creates the Abyss

PIXAR starts marketing RenderMan

Microsoft ships Windows 3.0

NewTek Video Toaster

First edition of Graphics Gems published by Academic Press (Andrew Glassner, editor)

US Patent awarded to Pixar for point sampling

Richard Shoup and Alvy Ray Smith receive the 1990 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

3D Studio (AutoDesk)

Windows 3.0

IBM RS6000 workstation

John Wiley & Sons begins publishing The Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation

World Wide Web (CERN)

Jim Kajiya receives the 1991 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Andy van Dam receives the 1991 ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

Disney and PIXAR agree to create 3 films, including the first computer animated full-length film Toy Story

ILM produces Terminator 2

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects for Total Recall (Metrolight Studios)

Beauty and the Beast (Disney)

Symbolics Graphics Division sold to Nichimen Graphics

Motorola 68040

Kodak PhotoCD

JPEG/MPEG

SunSoft - software subsidiary of Sun Microsystems

SGI Indigo workstation

Disney (Randy Cartwright, David Coons, Lem Davis, Tom Hahn, Jim Houston, Mark Kimball, Dylan Kohler, Peter Nye, Mike Shaantzis, David Wolf) get Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for CAPS production system.

Ray Feeney, Richard Keeney and Richard Lundell get Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for the Solitair Film Recorder .

QuickTime introduced (Apple)

Henry Fuchs receives the 1992 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Softimage goes public

SGI acquires MIPS

OpenGL (SGI) released

University of Illinois debuts CAVE virtual reality technology at SIGGRAPH 92

Lawnmower Man (Effects by Angel Studios and Xaos)

US Patent awarded to Pixar for Non-Affine Image Warping

VIFX uses flock animation with Prism software to create large groups of animals

Jim Hourihan of Santa Barbara Studios develops willy into Dynamation, which will become a part of the Wavefront software system.

Tom Brigham and Doug Smythe and ILM get Academy Technical Achievement Award for morphing technique (MORF)

Loren Carpenter, Rob Cook, Ed Catmull, Tom Porter, Pat Hanrahan, Tony Apodaca and Darwyn Peachey get the Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for Renderman

Novell buys UNIX from AT&T - $150M (transfers UNIX trademark to X/Open standards organization in 1993)

February (premiere) issue of DV magazine advises "[to be able to do digital video, get] the most souped up system you can get your hands on. A fast processor (68040 on Amiga or Mac, 80486 on PC) and lots of RAM (8-64 MB) are in order. So is a large hard drive (200 MB - 1 GB) if you want to take on serious production."

Disk array and compression codecs allow for nonlinear editing and full motion video

Academy Scientific and Engineering Award is given to Les Dittart, Mark Leather, Doug Smythe and George Joblove for the development of the Digital Motion Picture Retouching System (rig removal and dirt cleanup)

GPS system

Adobe Acrobat

Pat Hanrahan receives the 1993 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Ed Catmull receives the 1993 ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

Jurassic Park - ILM and Steven Spielberg

Wavefront buys TDI

Wired Magazine launched

Windows NT

Babylon 5 uses Amiga and Macintosh generated CGI

Mosaic browser (NCSA)

Xaos Tools Pandemonium image processor for the SGI

Doom released

Myst released (Cyan) - in 1998, it became the top selling game of all time

Digital Domain founded by James Cameron, Stan Winston, and Scott Ross

SGI and Nintendo team up for Nintendo 64 product

ILM earns Oscar for special effects for Jurassic Park

Microsoft acquires Softimage - announces Windows 95

Iomaga Zip drive

Linux 1.0 released

Reboot (CG cartoon) uses 3D characters (Mainframe Entertainment)

Direct Broadcast Satellite service

SGI founder Jim Clark resigns, forms Mosaic Communications

Netscape browser

VRML introduced (Mark Pesce)

HDTV standard for transmission adopted in US

The AMPAS Academy Award of Merit goes to Peter and Paul Vlahos for Ultimatte electronic blue screen compositing.

Academy Scientific and Engineering Awards go to Gary Demos and Dan Cameron of III, David Difrancesco and Gary Starkweather of Pixar, and Scott Squires of ILM for pioneering work in film scanning; Lincoln Hu and Mike Mackenzie of ILM and Glenn Kennel and Mike Davis of Kodak for development work on a linear array CCD film input scanning system; and Ray Feeney, Will McCown and Bill Bishop of RFX and Les Dittert of PDI for their development work on an area array CCD film input scanning system

Academy Technical Achievement Awards go to Mike Boudry of the Computer Film Company for pioneering work in film input scanning; and David and Lloyd Addleman for their inventions in digital image compositing.

US Patent awarded to Pixar for creating, manipulating and displaying images

Facetracker used by SimmGraphics to animate facial expressions for Super Mario

Ken Torrance receives the 1994 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Toy Story (Pixar)

DreamWorks SKG founded (Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen)

DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft form DreamWorks Interactive

Internet Explorer 2.0

amazon.com established

Academy Scientific and Engineering Award goes to Alvy Ray Smith, Ed Catmull, Tom Porter and Tom Duff (Pixar) for pioneering inventions in digital compositing.

Academy Technical Achievement Awards go to Gary Demos, David Ruhoff, Dan Cameron and Michelle Feraud for creation of the Digital Productions digital film compositing system; the Computer Film Company for the CFC Digital Film Compositor; and Doug Smythe, Lincoln Hu,, Doug Kay and ILM for the ILM digital film compositing system.

US Patent awarded to Pixar for image volume data

John Lasseter of Pixar gets Academy Award for development and application of techniques used in Toy Story

Kurt Akeley (SGI) receives the 1995 ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award

Jose Encarnacao receives the 1995 ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award

Wavefront and Alias merge

Pixar goes public with 6.9M share offering

Netscape IPO ($58.25/share)

Sony Playstation introduced

Sun introduces Java

Internet 2 unveiled

MP3 standard format developed

MSNBC debuts

John Whitney passes away (1922-1996)

Quake hits game market