Computer Generated Imagery

The history of computer-generated imagery goes hand in hand with the history of the computer itself. The arrival of the third generation of computers in the 1960’s opened the path for the first experiments with CGI effects.
For the origins of computer-generated imagery (CGI) we need to go back to the year 1968. In this year a group of Russian mathematicians and physicists lead by N.Konstantinov created a mathematical model of a moving cat across a screen. A program was made for a special computer by the name of BESM-4. The BESM-4 computer printed hundreds of frames that could be converted into usable film material.
The first 3D computer-generated imagery was created in the film Futureworld in 1976. In a scene the hand and  face of the actor was enhanced with the use CGI. Futureworld used 2D digital compositing to materialize characters over the background.
After these first steps into discovering the possibilites of CGI a probably familiar man named George Lucas saw it’s possibilities. George Lucas conceived the popular Star Wars franchise which made use of top edge CGI effects at the time and many that were never seen before. The 1977 movie became a huge box office hit and became an inspiration for many CGI effects that followed.
As we entered the 21st century CGI possibilities became almost endless and more and more mixed with the authentic film footage. Movies as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Matrix: Reloaded (2003) and The Polar Express (2004) pushed the boundaries and possibilities of CGI further. Lord of the Rings was the first to make use of artificial intelligence for it’s digitally created characters as it also created the first photo realistic motion captured character. The Matrix: Reloaded thereby was the first to use Universal Capture to capture more frames in an image. Furthermore in 2004 the animated film “The Polar Express” (2004) pushed the boundary by being to first to use motion capture on all it’s movie characters.