A Piece of History: The First 3D Digital Film

40 Year Old 3D Computer Graphics (Pixar, 1972) from Robby Ingebretsen on Vimeo.

According to Open Culture, this video began what some of us might recognize as modern techniques for creating CG life on the big screen. This film showcases the making of a hand which looks undeniably like a disembodied clip of a 3rd generation Sim performing various hand movements. Considering this is a video from 1972, that's pretty impressive.

This animation was made by the current president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and co-founder of Pixar, Ed Catmull.

"Long before Ed Catmull became president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, he headed up the computer graphics group at Lucasfilm, which eventually spun into Pixar, the maker of so many cutting edge animated films. And before all of that, Catmull went to graduate school at the University of Utah, where he cut his teeth on emerging animation technologies, and put himself in a position to develop this — a very early (and apparently the first) 3D digital movie." (Via Open Culture)

So there you have it-- a little history for your geeky day.