Pixar

After having a look at CGI landmarks - films that have stood out from the rest either by the software they have used or how it has been produced, the first studio I have to look at is Pixar and in particular John Lasseter. Even before Pixar was established John Lasseter was creating his own short films trying to make an impact with his work in the up and coming 3D community. In 1984 he created 'Adventures of Andre & Wally B', this was the first animation to use motion blur and squash and stretch. At the time the modelling was very basic and limited to purely geometric shapes, however Lasseter pushed the tech team to create something a shape that was more manoeuvrable. By creating a 'tear drop' shape this allowed for squash and stretch to be incorporated more easily. For it's time I think it's pretty amazing, it's not just the animation that has been paid close attention to but the story as well. This goes for every Pixar short film and feature length film created after this.



I think the most iconic short they have made, which ended up being their logo was 'Luxo Jr.' This was the first CG animation to use shadows and the story line really gets to people. The way the lamps convey their emotions through just movements is really clever, you feel that you can actually relate them to a real parent and their child. In the space of 2 years, the movements of the characters have become much more fluid and natural. It makes the whole thing more believable. It's quite astonishing to see the difference only after a couple of years, this shows how fast technology was beginning to progress.



'Toy Story' was the first feature length film to use computer animation. I remember watching this when I really young, as a young child you get engrossed into the film as you're amazed by the thought that toys can come alive, you start to think if yours can have their own lives too. Growing up this always stuck with me, the story I never found boring or that I have grown out of it, if anything I have appreciated the film more as I now understand the amount of time and effort that went in to creating a feature length film in 1995.