CONTENTS

 
   about
   MICHAEL BETANCOURT NEWS
   movies: AESTHETICS
   movies: NEWS & REVIEWS
   movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS
   random art notes
   random how-tos
   research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES
   research: MOTION GRAPHICS
   research: VISUAL MUSIC
   theory: CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS
   theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM
   theory: GLITCH & POSTDIGITAL
   theory: working notes

 

PORTFOLIO

 
Glitch Theory: Art and Semiotics by Michael Betancourt
Movies by Michael Betancourt

 michaelbetancourt.com
 Art of Light Organization
 Going Somewhere
 exhibitions [pdf]
 updates
 books
 contact
 purchase artworks

 
  Video Art listserv
 




 

SEARCH ARCHIVES

archives begin in 1996

  
The First Computer Animated Film

story © Michael Betancourt | published May 15, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  



research: MOTION GRAPHICS

Edward E. Zajac (1926-2011) created the first computer film as a way to visualize the modeling of the astrophysics work he was doing that was concerned with the orbital dynamics of communications satellites. It is the ability to use digital software to model, and then generate, visual imagery depicting complex, labor-intensive subjects for traditional animation that is the initial reason for the development of computer animation in the 1960s at Bell Labs in New Jersey.

Even though his work was not an artistic exploration of the potentials of computer graphics, nevertheless, he is responsible for the first application of digital technology in the creation of an animated, graphic film rendered with computer modeling software. His animation was a short scientific film produced to visualize the motion of a satellite in orbit around the Earth. It demonstrated his engineering work: his design, animated in the film, presented the technique for keeping communications satellites oriented towards the Earth, thus enabling the use of satellites for relaying signals internationally.

Simulation of a Two-Gyro, Gravity Gradient Attitude Control System (1963) presents the results of Zajacs statistical analysis in the form of a wire-frame sphere with a rotating rectangular block in orbit around it. This application of digital technologyas a simulation device that can model real, physical phenomena and then present them visuallywill produce the foundations of how digital technology automates the physical process of hand-done animation.

This film is a data visualization that shows the way that communication satellites stay oriented towards the Earth: without this pioneering work, the modern communications system that relays signals via satellite would not exist. The animation shows how the orbiting satellite rotates to stay facing the ground at all times.






 
 

 
 
  • more from research: MOTION GRAPHICS

  •  
     
  • print

  •