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A System for Computer Generated Movies
The system behind the Computer Animated Hand, one of the first 3D computer character animations: Catmull digitized a model of his own hand into roughly 350 polygons and animated it, an origin point for articulated 3D characters.
Abstract
A 1972 short film and the system behind it, made by Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke at the University of Utah for a graduate course. Catmull built a model of his own left hand, drew roughly 350 triangles and polygons on its surface, digitized that data into a three-dimensional model, and animated it with a 3D animation program he wrote. It is widely regarded as one of the first examples of 3D computer character animation and the first animated articulated hand, documented in Catmull's 1972 paper A System for Computer Generated Movies.
How to read this
- Category
- Foundational work: one of the first 3D computer character animations (the Computer Animated Hand)
- Contributions
- Digitizes a physical model of Catmull's own left hand into roughly 350 polygons to build a 3D model
- Animates that articulated hand with a purpose-written three-dimensional animation program
- Stands as an origin point for 3D computer character animation and articulated characters
- Context
- A root of the archive timeline with no prior context; the first animated 3D hand, which the later joint-dependent hand-deformation work descends from.
- Correctness
- A pioneering demonstration rather than a method paper; its significance is historical (proof that articulated 3D characters could be modeled and animated at all), so judge it as an origin, not a technique to reuse.
- Clarity
- Best understood through the film and Catmull 1972 paper A System for Computer Generated Movies; the ideas are simple to follow, the achievement is in having done it first.
- How to read it
- Watch the short and skim the 1972 paper for the workflow: physical model, hand-drawn polygons, digitize, animate. One pass is plenty; read it for where the lineage starts.
Builds on
Nothing in the archive, this is a starting point.
Related work
Keywords
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