Defunct American computer animation and visual effects production company
Pacific Data Images
Final logo, used from 2000 to 2015.
Former PDI/DreamWorks headquarters at Redwood City's Pacific Shores Center before the company moved in 2012 to larger facilities in another building in the same office complex.
Founded in 1980 by Carl Rosendahl, PDI was one of the pioneers of computer animation,[3] it produced more than 700 commercials, contributed visual effects to more than 70 feature films, and produced and contributed to many of DreamWorks Animation's films, beginning with DreamWorks's first animated film, Antz. PDI's final animated film before its closure on January 22, 2015, was Penguins of Madagascar, released on November 26, 2014.[4][5][6]
History
1980–1987: early years
PDI was founded in 1980 by Carl Rosendahl with a $25,000 loan from his father. He was joined in 1981 by Richard Chuang,[7] and in 1982 by Glenn Entis. Richard and Glenn wrote the foundation of the in-house computer animation software that was to be used for the next two decades. They started work on 3D software at 1981's end, and 3D production started in fall 1982. The initial goal of the company was "Entertainment using 3D computer animation".
The first computer at PDI was a DECPDP 11/44, with 128 kilobytes of memory. This was a lot of memory, given that the computer had only 64 kilobytes (16-bits) of address space. It had a 20 megabyte disc. Attached was a $65,000 framebuffer that had a resolution of 512×512 and was 32 bits deep.
The first 3D image rendered at PDI was done March 12, 1982.[8] The image was simply a 4 by 4 by 4 grid of spheres of varying colors. The spheres were not polygonal; they were implicitly rendered and were fully anti-aliased. The resulting image was 512 by 480 by 24 (8 bits for red, green and blue channels), which took two minutes to render.
The PDP-11 was soon replaced by a DEC VAX-11/780, and PDI shifted to another superminicomputer called the Ridge 32 from Ridge Computers. This machine was 2-to-4 times faster than the VAX-11/780, at a fraction of the cost.[9]
The original in-house software evolved to a large suite of tools that included a polygon scan-line renderer (called p2r), an interactive animation program (called e-motion), an animation scripting and scene-description language (called script), and a lighting tool (called led). All of these tools were written in C and deployed on a variety of machines running various flavors of Unix.
The initial investment to start the company was $250,000 (equivalent to $924,000 in 2023).[8] Its original offices were in Sunnyvale, California, working from a garage owned by Carl's father. PDI moved to its first real offices in 1985, to its second offices in 1995, and to its last location in Redwood City at the Pacific Shores Center in 2002.[10][8] The growth of the company was financed solely through profit. The company was run as an open book; monthly financial reviews were shared with the entire company, and a detailed monthly financial report was released. Money was never taken out of the company, which maintained a 7% investment in research and development. PDI was debt-free when acquired by DreamWorks in 2000.
Pacific Data Images's first client was Rede Globo, Brazil's largest TV network, owned by Grupo Globo through its current Globo division.[8] This gave PDI the major client it needed to fund the creation of most of its early software. This also sent PDI into the business of TV motion graphics and logo animation. PDI designed some early show openings and other special projects for Rede Globo. The software written was also given to Rede Globo and is the only time the in-house software was given to another company. The contract ended in the mid-1980s, but Rede Globo continued to use the software until 1989.
Most of the 1980s were spent creating broadcast graphics for many television networks around the world. PDI was working concurrently for ABC, A&ECBS, NBC, HBO, Cinemax, MTV, PBS, VH1, TNT, WOR-TV, Nine Network Australia, Sky One, Showtime and USA Network.[8] PDI focused on direct-to-video production, as opposed to film output being done at other early studios. PDI modified the interface to a Sony BVH-2000 using parts put together from a trip to a toy store to do single-frame recording. All the rendering was done on fields at 60 or 50 frames per second (depending on the video broadcasting standard used locally).
As one of the first mass producers of computer animation, Pacific Data Images controlled a large percentage of this market during this time. One year producing two major networks' graphics packages meant specifically rendered images for over 400 local television stations. Some of the early production contracts included Globo, Entertainment Tonight (produced for Harry Marks), ABC Sports 84 Olympic promos, and NBC News.[11]
Pacific Data Images worked with Atari, also in Sunnyvale, in the early 1980s on a couple of projects. In 1982, Rosendahl was hired to set up and calibrate Atari's computer animation film recorder system that would be used for video game footage in Superman III.[12]
Pacific Data Images proposed a feature-length CG animation film in 1985, but they were unable to raise the funding needed to produce it.
Pacific Data Images outlived all the other computer graphics studios that existed in the early 1980s. One of the reasons for this is that PDI never went into significant debt by purchasing expensive hardware. While other studios purchased or leased supercomputers, PDI bought cheaper hardware, treating it as a commodity which would soon be replaced, enabling lower operating costs.
1987–1990: transition
Pacific Data Images's early focus was on network TV productions, for they captured more than 50% of that market in 1985.[11] However, in 1990, PDI introduced the digital film scanning process. This process was used to popularize automated rig removal and image touch-up. PDI was also instrumental in introducing performance animation for theme parks, ads and movies. This started with a joint project in 1988 with Jim Henson's Creature Shop on a real-time performance character named Waldo C. Graphic for The Jim Henson Hour (1989).[13]
During these years of transition, Pacific Data Images moved away from the motion graphics market, and focused its attention on commercials and 3D visual effects for feature films. Noted for its commercials for the first Pillsbury Doughboy created with computer graphics.[11] Pillsbury was the first company to move an established icon to CGI.[7] Previously, animated commercials with stop-motion include the "Bud Bowl" and "Scrubbing Bubbles" spots.
Early in the 1990s, Thaddeus Beier and Shawn Neely developed a method for morphing that resulted in a more natural and expressive morph. The technique is called "feature-based morphing".[14] Pacific Data Images used this technology to create various well-known sequences, including the Exxon car-into-tiger morph and the extended morph at the end of the "Black or White" music video by Michael Jackson. These morphing jobs were easy to do with PDI's software, and the effect was in high demand. The algorithms invented by Beier and Neely were published at the annual SIGGRAPH conference, and are now the basis of most image morphing tools. For many people, their first exposure to these algorithms was the SGIIRIX software called "Elastic Reality". PDI also did the opening sequence for the 1990s revival of the classic game show, Let's Make a Deal.
Pacific Data Images broke into the feature film visual effects business with contributions to Terminator 2,Toys, Angels in the Outfield, Batman Forever and The Arrival. At the time, the strengths of PDI included character animation, lip synch, rendering effects, the aforementioned rig removal and cleanup, and performance animation.
During this era, Pacific Data Images transitioned from the Ridge32 computer to SGI workstations, running IRIX.[citation needed] They were not alone in this transition, for most of the industry followed suit.
1990–1995: character animation
In early 1990, Tim Johnson and Rex Grignon officially formed Pacific Data Images's Character Animation Group, with the mandate to develop a group of artists with the creative and technical skills needed to produce a feature-length computer-generated film. The group originally consisted of Johnson, Grignon, Raman Hui, Glenn McQueen, Beth Hofer, Dick Walsh, Karen Schneider and Eric Darnell. Under this group, PDI's commercial character animation skills grew, and numerous notable short films were produced. Among these are Gas Planet (1992), Sleepy Guy (1994), Brick-a-Brac (1995), Gabola the Great (1997), Fishing (1999) and Fat Cat on a Diet (1999).
This character group set the company in a new direction that set the basis for development goals during this period. The short films were a way to develop animation techniques, as well as being a test for software and pipeline procedures and flow.
Pacific Data Images allowed animators to pursue individual products and shorts. This produced several award-winning short films in this category. Some of the more notable productions are Opéra Industriel (1986), Chromosaurus, Cosmic Zoom (1985), Burning Love (1988) and Locomotion (1989).[11]
The result of these projects was a movie deal with DreamWorks SKG in 1995 to make the movie Antz. At this time, DreamWorks purchased a 40% share of PDI.
Glen Entis left PDI for the game industry in 1995, joining DreamWorks Interactive as CEO. When Electronic Arts purchased DreamWorks Interactive, he moved to their Vancouver office to set up its next-generation games research group. He is a founding board member of Los Angeles's Digital Coast Roundtable, and is chairman of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
1995–2015: feature films and closure
Pacific Data Images's first feature film, Antz, was released by DreamWorks Pictures October 2, 1998. This was followed by Shrek May 18, 2001.
After the success of Antz, Sega contacted the company to create a series of commercials for a marketing campaign for the launch of the Sega Dreamcast.[15] in 2000, Carl Rosendahl sold his remaining interest in PDI to DreamWorks. PDI was renamed PDI/DreamWorks and continued to operate as a stand-alone business unit.[16] Rosendahl left PDI in February 2000 to become managing director for Mobius Venture Capital, where he focused on investments in the technology and media companies.[17][3] In May 2001, the sale essentially united the two studios, PDI and DreamWorks, into a single entity that went public a few years later as DreamWorks Animation (DWA). PDI stopped making commercials and visual effects for live-action films in 2002. Animators at PDI worked on projects based at the PDI studio, but they also assisted in DWA projects based in the Glendale DWA studio.
By the time Pacific Data Images reached its 25th anniversary in 2005, it had completed more than 1,000 projects, and grown to more than 400 employees.
In 2008, Richard Chuang, the last of the founding three, left the company to pursue his own ventures.[7]
In July 2012, PDI/DreamWorks moved to a larger office building with about 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of interior space in the same office complex at Pacific Shores Center.[18] It was about one-third larger than the previous building and featured "an on-site clinic for a doctor’s office and nutritionist, a larger cafe and more outdoor space with gas heaters" to allow for "hanging outside year-round".[18]
On January 22, 2015, PDI/DreamWorks was shuttered as part of its parent company's restructuring plans following the box-office underperformance of 2014's Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Penguins of Madagascar, cutting off 500 jobs.[5]
PDI/DreamWorks has won nine Scientific and Technical Academy Awards. The first was awarded in 1994 to Les Dittert, with others, for work in the area of film scanning. The second was awarded to Carl Rosendahl, Richard Chuang and Glenn Entis in 1997 for the concept and architecture of the PDI animation system. This award, in particular, recognized their pioneering work in computer animation, dating back to the founding of PDI 17 years earlier. Nick Foster was given an award in 1998 for PDI's fluid animation system (flu), and in 2002, Dick Walsh was given one for the development of PDI's Facial Animation System.
In 2010, Eric Tabellion and Arnauld Lamorlette were given an award for PDI's global illumination rendering system first used on Shrek 2. It was the first use of global illumination in an animated feature film, a technique that is commonplace today.[22][23]
In 2013, Lawrence Kesteloot, Drew Olbrich and Daniel Wexler were given an award for PDI's lighting tool, called "light". The tool was developed in 1996 for PDI's first feature film, Antz, and was used until 2015 at PDI and DreamWorks Animation, 25 films later.[24]
In 2015, Scott Peterson, Jeff Budsberg and Jonathan Gibbs were awarded for the studio's foliage (trees and vegetation) system. The system was first used on Shrek. At the ceremony, Karl Rasche was awarded with engineers from HP for his part in the creation of the "DreamColor" monitor.[25]
Richard Chuang, Rahul Thakkar, Mark Kirk and Stewart Birnam, with DreamWorks engineer Andrew Pilgrim, won a 2016 SciTech technical achievement award for their work on digital movie review systems.[26]
^Feuerstein, Adam (August 30, 1998). "'Antz' aims for top of the hill". San Francisco Business Times. Archived from the original on December 18, 2000. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
Жидкий гелий Жи́дкий ге́лий — жидкое агрегатное состояние гелия. Представляет собой бесцветную прозрачную жидкость, кипящую при температуре 4,2 К (для изотопа 4He при нормальном атмосферном давлении)[1][2]. Плотность жидкого гелия при температуре 4,2 К состав...
Parângu Mare (2519 m) Pegunungan Parâng adalah bagian dari Pegunungan Carpathians di bagian selat. Nama pegunungan ini diambil dari gunung Gunung Parâng yang merupakan gunung terbesar dalam rangkaianya. Perbatasan Pegunungan Parâng berbatsan dengan: di timur, dengan Sunai Olt di barat, dengan Sungai Jiu Gunung Gunung Parâng (Munţii Parâng) Gunung Şureanu (Munţii Şureanu/M. Sebeşului) Gunung Cindrel (Munţii Cindrel/M. Cibinului) Gunung Lotru (Munţii Lotrului) Gunung Căpăţână ...
Université Washington de St-LouisHistoireFondation 1853StatutType Université privéeNom officiel Washington university in St. LouisRégime linguistique Anglais américainDevise Per veritatem visMembre de ORCID (d), Digital Library Federation (en), Association of Research Libraries (en)Site web wustl.eduChiffres-clésÉtudiants 12 394Effectif 16 902 (2020)LocalisationPays États-UnisVille 1 Brookings Dr, St. Louis, MO 63130modifier - modifier le code - modifier Wikidata L'universit...
Den här artikeln behöver fler eller bättre källhänvisningar för att kunna verifieras. (2017-03) Åtgärda genom att lägga till pålitliga källor (gärna som fotnoter). Uppgifter utan källhänvisning kan ifrågasättas och tas bort utan att det behöver diskuteras på diskussionssidan. Nordamerika Area: Folkmängd: Antal stater: Autonoma regioner: Högsta punkt: Lägsta punkt: 24 709 000 km² 528 720 588 (2008) 23 18 Denali6 194 m ö.h. Death Valley...
Metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals For other uses, see Goldsmith (disambiguation). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Goldsmith – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The Baqdadi goldsmith ...
Things being due to a person upon or by fact of their birth For other uses, see Birthright (disambiguation). Legal status of persons Birthright Birthplace Aboard aircraft and ships Jus sanguinis Jus soli Birth tourism Nationality Citizenship missing multiple transnational Naturalization Ius Doni Oath Test Law Lost citizenship denaturalized renounced Immigration Alien Enemy Criminalization of migration Diplomatic protection Illegal Law Permanent residency Refugee Right to homeland Voluntary re...
Корейская войнаВ Республике Корея: (6·25 전쟁, 한국전쟁)В КНДР: (조국해방전쟁)Основной конфликт: Холодная война, Корейский конфликт По часовой стрелке: Морская пехота США берёт в плен китайских солдат; B-26 сбрасывает бомбы на цель; Южнокорейские беженцы; Высадка сил США в Инчхоне; �...
Mbarara Land of Milk.Motto: Ebirungi Biruga Omutuutu (Good things come from sweat)Country UgandaRegionWestern RegionSub-regionAnkole sub-regionDistrictMbarara DistrictFounded1901Township1957Municipality1974Pemerintahan • MayorKakyebezi Robert [1]Populasi (2014 Census) • Total195.013[2]Zona waktu+3 (East African Standard Time) Mbarara adalah kota yang terletak di Uganda barat daya, terletak sekitar 266 km dari Kampala. Kota ini merupakan k...
Railway station in Ichinohe, Iwate Prefecture, Japan This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Ichinohe Station – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Ichinohe Station一戸駅Ichinohe Station in May 2018General informationLocationSaihoji ...
1800–1816 territory of the United States Not to be confused with Indian Territory. Territory of IndianaOrganized incorporated territory of the United States FlagCapitalVincennes (1800–1813)Corydon (1813–1816)Population • 1800 2,632• 1810 24,520• 1816 63,897 Government • TypeOrganized incorporated territoryGovernor • 1800–1812 William Henry Harrison• 1812–1813 John Gibson (acting)• 1813–1816 Thomas Posey Secretary ...
هذه المقالة يتيمة إذ تصل إليها مقالات أخرى قليلة جدًا. فضلًا، ساعد بإضافة وصلة إليها في مقالات متعلقة بها. (ديسمبر 2018) كاي هانسن (بالألمانية: Kai Hansen) معلومات شخصية الميلاد 17 يناير 1963 (61 سنة) هامبورغ مواطنة ألمانيا عضو في هيلوين الحياة الفنية النوع موسيقى �...
Defunct railway station in New Zealand Ngaroto railway stationNgaroto on 1946 one inch to one mile mapGeneral informationLocationNew ZealandCoordinates37°58′54″S 175°18′31″E / 37.981686°S 175.308495°E / -37.981686; 175.308495Elevation57 m (187 ft)Line(s)North Island Main TrunkDistanceWellington 520.06 km (323.15 mi)HistoryOpened1 July 1880Closed15 December 1957[1]ElectrifiedJune 1988Previous namesNiniaServices Preceding station &...
Japanese aviator (1904–1989) Minoru GendaGenda as IJN Captain (1940s)Born(1904-08-16)August 16, 1904Kake, Yamagata District, Hiroshima Prefecture, JapanDiedAugust 15, 1989(1989-08-15) (aged 84)Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, JapanAllegiance Empire of Japan Japan (1954-1962)Service/branch Imperial Japanese Navy Japan Air Self-Defense ForceYears of service1924–1945 (IJN) 1954–1962 (JASDF)Rank Captain (IJN) General (JASDF)Commands heldImperial Navy General Staff, Seni...
Russian girl group You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (April 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears...
Derek Raymond Derek Raymond, pseudonimo di Robert William Arthur Cook (Londra, 12 giugno 1931 – Londra, 30 luglio 1994), è stato uno scrittore britannico. Indice 1 Biografia 2 Opere principali 2.1 Serie della Factory 2.2 Altri romanzi 2.3 Biografie 3 Note 4 Collegamenti esterni Biografia Nato da una famiglia aristocratica, inizia da giovane a viaggiare soggiornando in Italia, Francia, Marocco e Turchia, svolgendo i mestieri più disparati, dall'insegnante al tassista[1]. Esordisce ...