History of Computer-aided design (CAD)

How did we get from…

to here?here

Bigkif. “Ivan Sutherland : Sketchpad Demo (1/2)” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USyoT_Ha_bA> accessed 2010-09-08<http://www.develop3d.com/uploaded_images/3-728291.jpg> accessed 2010-09-08

…

Sketchpad (1964)first public demonstration of CAD

Wgbhstocksales. “Computer Sketchpad.” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fHFZcMD3-M> accessed 2010-09-08Bigkif. “Ivan Sutherland : Sketchpad Demo (1/2)” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USyoT_Ha_bA> accessed 2010-09-08Bigkif. “Ivan Sutherland : Sketchpad Demo (2/2)” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKM3CmRqK2o> accessed 2010-09-08

DAC-1 (1964)first commercial CAD program

stewx8. “1964 DAC-1 (early CAD system)” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7W75UfAjRI> accessed 2010-09-08

Star Wars (1977) first use of 3D graphics in a major motion picture

evltube. “Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars (Episode IV)” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMeSw00n3Ac> accessed 2010-09-08

1975: George Lucas founds ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), his own visual effects studio that will go on to create all the effects for all of the Star Wars films and many other films.

Loren Carpenter says on her page on Vimeo,“I made this film in 1979-80 to accompany a SIGGRAPH paper on how to synthesize fractal geometry with a computer. It is the world's first fractal movie. It utilizes 8-10 different fractal generating algorithms. I used an antialiased version of this software to create the fractal planet in the Genesis Sequence of Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan. These frames were computed on a VAX-11/780 at about 20-40 minutes each.”

Vol Libre (1980)first demonstration of fractal landscapes

Carpenter, Loren. “Vol Libre” <http://www.vimeo.com/5810737> accessed 2010-09-08

Tron (1982)first use of 3D as the main environment for a movie

HDFINC. “TRON TRAILER REDUX!” <youtube.com/watch?v=fSp4DFPaHPE> accessed 2010-09-08Cyberpunkreview.com. “Tron.” <http://cyberpunkreview.com/movie/decade/1980-1989/tron> accessed 2010-09-08

Made use of different industrial CAD and simulation programs to create different kinds of shapes.

Polygon-based (sharp edges but can create nearly any shape)

CAD-style primitive modeling to achieve smooth curves (using curve-based spheres and boolean operations)

The entire movie was created by printing from computer directly to film with no additional post-processing effects.

Toy Story (1995)first fully CG feature-length movie

MoviesHistory. “Toy Story - Official Trailer #1 [1995]” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYz2wyBy3kc> accessed 2010-09-08

Budget: $137 millionGross revenue: $85 million (worldwide)=LOST $52 million

Why wasn’t it better?•No matter how good the special effects are, you still need to tell a good story.•Uncanny valley (human characters are creepy when they are not quite cartoon-like & not quite real)•The movie has a lot of self-promoting dialog over-explaining the writer’s eastern spirituality

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)first feature-length CG movie to attempt photo-realism

Vinny. “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - Giant Bomb” <http://www.giantbomb.com/tang-final-fantasy-the-spirits-within/17-382/> accessed 2010-09-08

King Kong on XBOX360(screenshot shows real-time Volumetric lighting to create

visible rays of light)

XBOX 360 (2005)first commercial hardware to (sometimes) achieve

photo-realism in real-time(30 [Standard Def] to 60 [HD] frames per second)

<http://winsupersite.com/images/reviews/kong_review_10.jpg> accessed 2010-08-31.jpg

Gran Turismo on PS3(photo-realistic lighting, & highly-detailed models & textures)

Playstation 3 (2006)first commercial hardware to (almost) always

display photo-realism in real-time

“Sony's Embarrassing E3 2006 Press Conference.” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH2w2l1JTs4> accessed 2010-09-08Amazon.com. “Playstation 3.” <http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-3-60GB/dp/B0009VXAM0> accessed 2010-09-08

Photorealistic real-time rendering for professional useCAD and movie professionals can use photorealistic real-time rendering

especially in the final stages of design

NVIDIA hardware rendering on PC<http://www.develop3d.com/uploaded_images/3-728291.jpg> accessed 2010-09-08

But what about this?

Sonic Colors on WiiWhy it matters:

STYLEis sometimes more important than realism to create a compelling image.(even when presenting a CAD model to get funding for your invention/design

that is meant to exist in real life).

<http://gamecompany.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=12&Itemid=86> accessed 2010-08-31

Style

Pacocha, Matt. “Dave Weagle awarded Split Pivot patent.” <http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/dave-weagle-awarded-split-pivot-patent-27186> accessed 2010-09-08

Dave Weagle

Designers get money from investors when they have designs that are usable and unique (enough to be patentable), and have good product presentation.

You can sometimes use one image to communicate what you want.