Computer Animation (D1)
Project PI: Gary Wilcox
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Computer Animation project will investigate new applications of computer animation in a multimedia Web environment in terms of both content creation and consumption. The creation of animation has migrated a traditionally hand-labor intensive process to a computationally demanding data intensive process. Toy Story, Disney's first full-length computer-generated animation, required a networked bank of 117 dual and multi-processor workstations to render the 114,000 frames in the 77-minute film. Following the trajectory of the price-performance curve, computer animation projects can increasingly migrate to more widely available Intel platforms. While producing feature-length films in this manner is still on the horizon, producing smaller animated messages and objects is not. The Web provides an ideal environment for the delivery of computer generated animation as part of larger entertainment, advertising or educational content.
TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
Delivering animation over the Web requires working with various browser plug-ins to ensure that the graphics start to display as they are still being downloaded. Long animation sequences begin play almost immediately. Animation movies are concise, so total download time, even on complex pages, becomes reasonable. Development of multimedia material in this environment is far from mature, however. Developing animation content specifically suited for delivery in this form is not currently extensively done on Intel platforms. Migration of techniques and processes developed in other environments to the Intel architecture will be a significant part of the project. Demonstrations and examples will be developed that will include some of the most progressive web animation capabilities.
IMPACT
Advertising applications of the animation technology on Web sites is an area that is likely to evolve very rapidly. Just as animation was used by advertisers extensively in the early development of television, this new technology brings to life their messages. This project will significantly advance the development and deployment of Web-based animation in a Windows-NT environment with results accessible to the advertising industry via an award-winning web site. This project will establish new knowledge and production methods specific to Intel architecture and Windows NT for this rapidly emerging multimedia application.
EQUIPMENT
This project requires 4 quad processor servers, 16 dual processor client machines and 4 desktop systems.
RESOURCES
Several faculty and doctoral students are already working in the area of Web site development and animation in conjunction with leading advertising agencies. Faculty in Radio-Television Film and Fine Arts have extensive experience in the development of both traditional and computer-based animation using high performance workstations. Their current research and production interests lie in migrating projects to a client-server environment in a distributed environment. Facilities are available in the Center for Media Arts and Sciences in the College of Communication and a technical support staff is in place.
BENEFITS TO INTEL
The project will provide a demonstrable proof-of-concept of Intel products for the production and delivery of professional computer-generated animation designed to meet exacting quality and specifications of the advertising and entertainment industries.
RELATED WEB SITES
Follow this link to the College of Communication INTEL Facility, officially called the "Communication Interactive Studio".