The #1 source for modern animation! But it didn't start with Toy Story. In 1972, The Hand, produced by Ed Catmull, was a short which demomstrated a CGI hand as well as human faces. In 2011, the short film was inducted into the National Film Registry. Two years after The Hand, The Six Million Dollar Man became the first television show to have an intro powered by computer animation.
In the years that followed, Superman (1978) became the first movie to have a CGI powered opening, Looker (1981) featured the first CGI character, Cindy, but it was Star Wars that stole the spotlight all through the mid 70's and 80's. In 1977, George Lucas released Star Wars (known now as A New Hope) and featured such dazzling effects for a 70's film. The massive success led six more films. The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return Of The Jedi (1983), The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack Of The Clones (2002) Revenge Of The Sith (2005), and The Force Awakens (2015). There are a scheduled five more films as of 2016. In 1984, Lucasfilm's computer animation division released the famous short film, The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. It was the first short to feature. It's success led to the breakout division known today as Pixar, and they made more short films like Luxo Jr., Red's Dream, and Knick Knack. Pixar's successful shorts eventually led to the massively famous Toy Story (1995). It was the first feature film created entirely on computers and scored twenty two nominations in 1996. Animation was changed forever.
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Photo Credit: Jurassic Park (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993) was another revolutionary film. Although Jurassic Park's visual effects were largely animatronic, for approximately 14 minutes, audiences were treated to the first ever appearance by photorealistic, fully computer generated creatures in a feature film.
By the year 2000, computer animation had taken the world by storm. With the release of A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, and Dinosaur, CGI films were on their way to becoming the next big thing. A few years shy of the 10's decade, there were nearly eighty CGI films made, and traditional hand drawn animation had finally died down. Pixar's debut short, The Adventures Of Andre And Wally B (1984)
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Gallery
Photo Credit from left to right: A Bugs Life (1998) Toy Story 3 (2010) Despicable Me (2010)