History of Digital Modelling

1950s

• Ben Laposky uses an oscilloscope to show waveforms which were photographed as artwork.
• Mr Potato Head is invented, which later starred in the first Toy Story film.

1960s

• William Fetter invents the term computer graphics for his human factors cockpit drawings.
• Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed by Xerox.
• Full colour interactive flight simulator is created for NASA by Rod Rougelet.

1970s

• Bui-Toung Phong introduces Phong Shading.
• Larry Cuba creates a Death Star simulation for Star Wars using Grass.
• James Blinn introduced bump mapping.

1980s

• Disney released Tron, the first biggest computer graphics film.
• Autodesk introduced the first PC-based CAD (computer-aided design) software.
• Lucasfilm produced Willow, a movie that popularises morphing.
• VGA (Video Graphics Array) is invented by IBM.
• Adobe Illustrator is born.
• Photoshop is released to Adobe.

1990s

• The Lawnmower Man is released, a 3D effects film.
• Jurassic Park and Toy Story is released.
• DreamWorks is founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.
• Star Wars Episode One – The Phantom Menace is released, using 66 digital characters composited with live action.

History of Digital Animation

1824 - Peter Roget introduces his paper titled 'The Persistence of Vision With Regard to Moving Objects' to the British Royal Society.
1831 - Dr. Joseph Antoine and Dr. Simon Rittrer create a machine called a phenakitstoscope.
1872 - Eadweard Muybridge gathers photographs of animals in motion.
1887 - Thomas Edison begins researching  work into motion pictures.
1889 - Thomas Edison announces his creation of the kinetoscope which distended a 15m length of film in around 13 seconds.
1892 - Emile Renynaud introduces the Theatre Optique in the Musee Grevin, which displays an animation of images painted on long strips of celluloid.
1895 - Louis and Augustine Lumiere distributed a patent for a device called a cinematograph efficient enough to project moving pictures.
1896 - Thomas Armat designed the vitascope which projected Thomas Edison’s films. This machine had a massive impact on all projectors afterwards.
1908 - Emile Cohl produces Phantasmagoria which was the first film depicting white figures on a black background.
1919 - Pat Sullivan creates the American cartoon Felix the Cat.
1923 - Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio is founded by Walt and Roy Disney.
1945 - Harry Smith produces an animation by drawing directly onto film.
1964 - Ken Knowlton begins developing computer techniques for producing animated movies.
1982 - Tron is produced, a movie with computer generated premises.
1988 - Willow uses morphing in live-action film.
1993 - Jurassic Park is produced, using CG for realistic living creatures.
1995 - Toy Story is created, the first full-length 3D CG feature film.