1980 animation

1980 Computer Animation Milestones

Growth Model

Kawaguchi was a computer programmer and animator. He was a pioneer of computer software that grows images in an organic way. His program 'Growth Model' used algorithms to generate brightly coloured, psychedelic worlds digitally.

Dragon's Lair

In 1983, the arcade game name 'Dragon's Lair' caused a sensation within arcades with its full quality animated sequences, created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth.

Commodare 64

Also in 1983, one of the first affordable home computers was released, the Commodore 64. One year earlier, the Sinclair Spectrum was released in Europe. This opened up the creation of computer graphics to everyone and inspired a generation of computer artist and programmers.

Autodesk Maya

Wavefront Technologies was formed in 1984 by Bill Kovacs, who along with Roy Hall, developed some of the software used on Tron. Kovacs then left and Hall was left developing some video manipulation and animation software. Then, in 1995, Silicon Graphics bought Wavefront Techologies and Canadian firm Alias Research to merge them to produce the advanced computer animation software 'Alias/Wavefront'. Softimage was released in 1988 and became the industry standard in animation, also the preferred choice for character animation. The first version of 3D Studio (3DS Max) was released by Autodesk in 1990. Autodesk later purchased Maya and Softimages and became the market leaders in high-end 3D animation products. Maya won the Oscar for technical achievements in 2003.

John Lasseter - Disney

Lasseter worked for Disney and created a test version for a CGI adaptation of the children's book 'Where The Wild Things Are', but due to the disappointing reaction from Tron, Disney felt that computer animation did not have much of a future and passed on the project. The film was then made by Spike Jonze in 2008, using extensive facial CGI.

John Lasseter - After Disney

Lasseter moved on to work at Lucasfilm and help create 'The Adventures of Andre and Wally B' in 1984. Soon after in 1986, this division of Lucasfilm was sold by George Lucas to Apple founder Steve Jobs (George Lucas needed the money from Steve Jobs, due to Howard the Duck being to unsuccessful). Lasseter then produced short films for the new company Pixar Animation Studios, including the short film 'Luxo Jr.' animation.

Steve Baron

Baron directed the music video animation 'Money for Nothing' in 1985, song created by Dire Straits. The animation was one of the first computer animated videos and is now a landmark in CGI. The animation was created by Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair. Baron also directed A-ha's 'Take On Me' music video in 1985. The video was animated by Micheal Patterson, who made the singer of the band come to life from a comic book using the rotoscoping technique.