How did computer graphics begin?
In the 1960s and 70s computer science pioneers David Evans and life member of the IEEE Ivan E. Sutherland led the development of technologies that animators use today. The pioneering research they carried out in University of Utah in Salt Lake City and in his own company Evans and Sutherlandhelped launch the computer graphics industry.
Animation has come a long way since 1900 when J. Stuart Blackton created the very first famous animated film – “Enchanted Drawing”. The 90-second piece was created using the stop-motion technique, where flat characters, props, and backgrounds were drawn on an easel or made from paper.
Most modern animators use computer graphics and visualization techniques to create popular films and TV shows such as “Finding Dory”, “History of toys” And “Paw Patrol”.
On March 24, the University hosted a ceremony of awarding methods of computer graphics and visualization with the badge IEEE Milestone. It was attended by Nolan Bushnell, Bob Sproull, Martin Newell, John Warnock, Fred Parke, Gary Watkins, Elvy Ray Smith, Henri Gouraud, Ed Catmull, Robert Shumaker, Ivan Sutherland, Jim Blinn and Henry Fuchs. The nomination was sponsored by the section IEEE Utah Section.
Founding of the first influential computer graphics company
The history of computer graphics began in the 1950s with interactive games and visualization tools developed by the US military to advance technologies in aviation, radar, and rocket science.
Evans and Sutherland, then professors of computer science at the University of Utah, wanted to expand the use of these tools and find a way to model objects and environments on a computer. In 1968 they founded Evans and Sutherland, headquartering E&S in the university’s research park.
Many of today’s CG luminaries, including co-founder Pixar Edwina Catmullco-founder Adobe John Warnock and founder Netscape And Silicon Graphics Jim Clarkstarted their careers in the industry as E&S employees or doctoral students working on research at the company’s facilities.
According to Christopher Johnson, professor of computer science at the University of Utah, E&S staff and students have made fundamental contributions to computer graphics processes. “David Evans, Ivan Sutherland, their students and colleagues helped change the world,” says Johnson.
“The period from 1968 to 1978 was an extraordinary time for computer graphics,” adds Brian Bergchairman of the department of history IEEE Region 6. “There has been a rare confluence of faculty, students, staff, equipment and resources to support computer vision algorithm and hardware research that has led to outstanding advances in computer graphics and imaging techniques. These studies led to the birth of much of the continuous tone CG as we know it today.” Continuous tone computer graphics have a virtually unlimited range of colors and grayscales.
Paving the way for the computer graphics industry
Evans began his career in 1955 with an avionics company. Bendixlocated in Avon, Ohio. David was the project leader for the development of the early personal computer.
Then he moved on to UC Berkeley chair of the computer science department and led Berkeley research for the Pentagon Advanced Research Projects Agency (today known as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
In 1963, Evans became principal investigator of the ARPA project. “Genie”. He helped develop the hardware methods that enabled time-sharing computer systems to be used commercially.
In 1965, the University of Utah hired David to establish the Department of Computer Science after receiving a US$5 million ARPA grant to research the role of the nascent field of computer graphics in the nation’s technological competitiveness, according to Computer Graphics and Computer Animation.
In 1968, Evans asked Sutherland, a former Berkeley colleague and assistant professor of electrical engineering at Harvard, join him at the University of Utah and open a joint company. Sutherland was already famous in computer graphics circles at that time, because he created the first computer-aided design program. Sketchpad for his doctoral dissertation in 1963 in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Colleagues founded E&S almost immediately after Sutherland’s arrival and began working on computer simulation systems.
In 1969, the duo developed the LDS-1 and LDS-2 line drawing system displays, the first graphics devices with a compute unit. They then created the E&S Picture System, the next generation of LDS displays. These workstations were used by most computer imaging companies until the 1980s. E&S has also developed computer simulation systems for military and commercial training, including the CT5 and CT6 flight simulators.
Collection of future pioneers of computer graphics
In addition to hiring employees, E&S invited computer science doctoral students from the university to work on their research projects at the company.
“Nearly every influential person in today’s computer graphics community has either passed through the University of Utah or been in contact with it in some way,” wrote Robert Rivlin in his book “Algorithmic Image: Graphic Visions of the Computer Age“.
One of the doctoral students was Henri Gouraud, who in 1971 developed an algorithm for simulating the various effects of light and color on the surface of an object. Guro’s shading method is still used by the creators of video games and cartoons.
In 1974, Edwin Catmull, then a graduate student at the university, developed the principle of texturing, a method of adding complexity to a computer-generated surface. Catmull went on to help found Pixar in 1986 with a computer scientist and an IEEE member. Alvy Ray Smith. For his work in the industry, Catmull received a medal in 2006. John von Neumann IEEE.
In 1973 doctoral student Bui Tuong Phong developed Phong shading, a modeling technique that reflects light to make computer graphics look shiny and plastic.
“As a group, the University of Utah has contributed more to the advancement of computer graphics knowledge than any of its contemporaries,” Berg wrote in the Milestone proposal. “This fact is most evident both in the widespread use of the methods developed and in the number of awards the innovations have received.” These awards include several scientific and technical “Oscars”, “Emmy” and many IEEE medals.
Milestone Managed Program IEEE History Center And donor-supportedcelebrates outstanding technical achievements around the world.
A plaque mounted on a granite obelisk at the University of Utah’s Merrill Engineering Building reads:
In 1965, Utah State University established a Center of Excellence for Research in Computer Graphics with funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). In 1968, two professors founded Evans & Sutherland, a pioneering graphics hardware company. By 1978, fundamental rendering and visualization techniques uncovered in doctoral dissertations included the Warnock algorithm, Gouraud shading, the Catmull-Rom spline, and the Blinn-Fong reflection model. Atari, Silicon Graphics, Adobe, Pixar, and Netscape are companies founded by alumni of the University.
