Computer Animation Research

I have looked at "New Digital Edition: The Animation Book" by Kit Laybourne.
On page 238, Chapter 16, it states "Toy Story was the breakthrough 3-D computer film made by Pixar and distributed by Disney. This stunning achievement did not come from nowhere."

Laybourne further mentions "Pixar's Animation production Group, creatively led by writer/director/animator John Lasseter, spent a number of years working on self-funded short films."



This indicates that Animators had previously worked on 3D Animations before in the past. Therefore it argues that Toy Story was not the first film that was fully made using computer animation. It was however the first film using Computer Animation that was commercially successful.

There are four short computer animated films mentioned by the author that are of interest since they came out extremely earlier than Toy Story.



The author proceeds to mention "Luxo Jr." which Laybourne states "broke new ground with its ability to imbue inanimate objects with personality and emotion. The film was introduced at the 1986 SIGGRAPH convention and went on to win over twenty festival prizes."

This author's argument is that Luxo Jr was the first CGI film that featured believable personality and emotion to the inanimate objects that were featured in the film. It also seems to indicate that it was Pixar Animation Studios' first Animated movie since it's the one in the list with the earliest mention.

Next the author explains "Red's Dream was completed in 1987 and encompassed several technical achievements. A number of scene were rendered with procedural texturing techniques, self-shadowing and motion blur."



Additionally the author quotes "Tin Toy was Pixar's first work to feature the animation of a human character. The baby's face required the definition of more than forty facial muscles, which were grouped by function to allow the animator better control in creating expression. Computation of the final color images was preformed using RenderMan from Pixar, for 3-D scene description. This proprietary 3-D application subsequently was released for desktop hardware suite. Tin Toy won an Academy Award in 1989 for Best Short Animated Film. "




Finally the author mentions the final film "Knickknack was designed in 1989 as a 3-D stereoscopic film to create a unique three-dimensional visual experience. The film can be viewed as a traditional two-dimensional work. The cartoon features an original musical score by Bobby McFerrin through courtesy Pixar."