For our issue on production technology, we thought there wouldn't be a better choice than one of the fathers of some of the most widely used production technology to take the ten question test...
Edwin E. Catmull has been on the cutting edge of computer graphics
since the early beginnings of the industry. As co-founder and Executive
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Pixar Animation Studios,
he has led the charge on such crowd pleasing favorites as Toy
Story. Prior to joining Pixar, Dr. Catmull entered the film
industry as vice president of Lucasfilm, Ltd.'s computer division
in 1979. In addition to being a key creator of RenderMan, the Academy
Award-winning program that creates realistic digital effects for
computer graphics and animation, he also managed Lucasfilm's development
efforts in computer graphics, video editing, video games and digital
audio. AWN: If you could change or improve anything about the industry,
what would it be?
Dr. Catmull has been awarded the Scientific and Technical Engineering
Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and
has also won the Coons Award, which is the highest achievement in
computer graphics for his lifetime contributions. Dr. Catmull is
a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and
the Science and Technical Awards Committee. He earned his B.S. degrees
in computer science and physics and his Ph.D. in computer science
from the University of Utah.
AWN: What upcoming CGI project has you excited?
Edwin Catmull: Monsters, Inc. is really going to surprise
people. It is going to have a great story, be funny and look great.
AWN: In raising the bar of visual effects, what do you perceive
as being the next greatest hurdle to clear?
EC: We can already do just about anything. The real problem
is that it is too hard. The difficulty of producing effects is sometimes
interfering with the process of telling a good story. I expect that
improved techniques, faster computers and better tools will keep
us on a course of continual better effects, and ultimately lower
costs.
AWN: If two workstations begin rendering their scenes at
the same hour, one in Toronto and one in Los Angeles, each processing
at a speed of....uMmm...wait a second, I forgot the question....
AWN: What was the big milestone, what corner did we turn,
in making computer animation a viable artform?
EC: While we absolutely needed advanced modeling, lighting
and animation systems, the single event that let us mix computer
animation with live-action film was the discovery of motion blur.
EC: I thought that the concerted raiding of the L.A. studios
against each other a couple of years ago caused considerable damage
to the economics and culture of our industry.
AWN: There is an expression that, "Any sufficiently
advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic."
Do you know any magicians?
EC: There is another saying: "Talent isn't fair."
And when you get talented people to work together something happens
that any one of them alone couldn't produce. That is magic.
AWN: Why do you love animation?
EC: When done well, the voices, story and animation come
together in a pure act of creation.
AWN: The debate rages: with so many individual frames manipulated
in some way, shape or form, is Titanic an animated or live-action
film?
EC: Even in live-action films, the lighting, sound and stage
are not realistic. Are the CG props in Titanic really any
different than fake store fronts that we see in Westerns? Feature
films are not meant to be realistic, they are at heart artistic
creations.
AWN: Who is your favorite digital character?
EC: For some reason, I really liked Heimlich the caterpillar
[from A Bug's Life].
AWN: You are creating an amazing career at the forefront
of computer animation. So far what have you accomplished, or were
involved with, that you are most proud of?
EC: Early on I developed texture mapping, Z-buffers and subdivision
surfaces. I was fortunate enough to be associated with four institutions
that were willing to take a gamble on computer graphics and animation:
University of Utah, New York Institute of Technology, Lucasfilm
and Pixar. Along the way I was joined by many of the most talented
people in our industry. I think it would have been easy to be so
caught up in the technology that we could have forgotten what our
real goals were. I am most proud that we have made the transition
from researchers to story tellers.
Gregory Singer is working towards an M.F.A. in Producing at Chapman
University, in Orange, California. He is also the assistant editor
of the Animation Journal, a peer-reviewed scholarly publication
devoted to animation history and theory.
Heather Kenyon is editor in chief of Animation World Magazine.
Links:
[1] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/3572
[2] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/3573
