The CG Story: Computer-Generated Animation and Special Effects

The book came to me missing the slipcover, I was very disappointed as the book is a highly comprehensive book on the history of the art form. I wish that the outside of my copy looked as great as the content inside of it.

My husband is a huge CG fan and has been for years. He was beyond thrilled to receive this book. The colors are very vibrant and the book is made with heavy weight good quality paper. It will last for years.

The quality of this book is outstanding. The text is interesting and very informative so anyone with an interest in CG will love it. What surprised me is how much kids like to look at it too - so many familiar images it's hard to pull it away from them. i gave it to a family for Christmas and they sent me a photo of their young kids sitting on the floor looking at it intently. i'd recommend it as a gift- it was a big hit.

Given its impact on the silver screen, the advent of computer generated imagery (CGI) certainly qualifies as an industry-changing innovation. Christopher Finch provides a comprehensive, wonderfully illustrated account of the development, integration and impact of CGI on movie-making in THE CG STORY, COMPUTER GENERATED ANIMATION AND SPECIAL EFFECTS. A 2013 Monacelli Press release, Finch's book is an entertaining mix of movie eye-candy visuals and insightful text.As documented in Finch's book, CGI had many fathers. The CGI saga begins with a silk portrait created in 1839(!) using a jacquard loom, Finch maintaining this was the direct ancestor of all CG imagery. From there he leapfrogs to the 1950s where Bert Sutherland and other M.I.T. staffers perfected CAD technology. Elsewhere in the '50s, John Whitney Snr. created a device that utilized an early analog computer to control a camera platform, one mode being termed 'slit-scan.' (Cue the 2001 theme). A key player in the CG saga in the 1960s was the University of Utah who founded a Computer Science Department to "explore...interaction between man and machine." Among the students involved were future founders of Atari, Netscape and Pixar, the last being Ed Catmull. By the early 1970s, the UU team had made major breakthroughs in raster graphics, creating fully dimensional, lifelike CG models of human bodies. By 1974 Catmull was running NYIT's Computer Graphics Lab, the NYIT effort being more directed toward CG applications in flimmaking. In 1977 George Lucas, who had likewise been exploring new computer technologies but on the west coast, unleashed STAR WARS. (Not coincidentally, Lucas, in 1979, invited Catmull to head Lucasfilm's CG Division).New players, practioners, applications and innovations followed in ever faster-paced fashion - John Dykstra, motion-control, ILM, Douglas Trumbull, digital editing/compositing, Disney, Robert Zemeckis, Compsy cameras, Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation, etc. Audiences were treated to flicks like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, BLADE RUNNER, TRON, LAST STARFIGHTER, THE ABYSS, TOTAL RECALL, JURASSIC PARK, etc. that steadily pushed the boundaries. The defining CG moment, though, came in 1995 with the release of TOY STORY; the world was never the same after Buzz & Woody captured audiences' hearts.Th book takes the CGI story to 2012 and the release of LIFE OF PI, WRECK-IT-RALPH, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY and RISE OF THE GUARDIANS. As can be seen by this incomplete summary of the book's contents, Finch does an excellent job of detailing the many talents, studios, organizations and agencies that have played roles in the history of CG film-making. To learn 'the rest of the (CGI) story,' you'll need to read the book!Aside from a comprehensive and entertaining text, THE CG STORY features hundreds of full-color and b&w photographs from the wondrous films mentioned above and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, POLAR EXPRESS, TERMINATOR, FORREST GUMP, BATMAN FOREVER, LION KING, INDEPENDENCE DAY, ANTZ, THE MATRIX, KING KONG, HARRY POTTER, A.I., X-MEN, MONSTERS INC., CARS, ICE AGE, etc., etc., etc. Also included are pix of Whitney, Catmull, various computers and cameras, John Lasseter, Steve Jobs, mo-cap suits, James Cameron and so on.Oddly a small number of shots are flipped sideways rather than run horizontally; a space-saving measure??In any case, THE CG STORY is one great package of text and photographs. Movie buffs will enjoy this wide-ranging and visually delightful chronicle of CG film-making. Highly recommended.*****Review #2,000!Review #1: August 10, 2005; Peter Davies' USAF F-4 PHANTOM II MIG KILLERS, 1965-73.

I really loved this rather large book on the history of CG (Computer Graphics) and Animation. I liked how the author shows that CG is much older than I thought dating back to the 1960s and even earlier. There was good mention to the early CG live action films such as Tron and the Last Star Fighter both from the 1980s, along with the 1990s with films such as Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park. This really was the decade that CG came of age, but there are too many films for the author to mention, so you won't find The Lawnmower Man or Ghost in the Machine in this book or the Mask. The vast majority of the book however is taken up with Pixar, and Dreamworks from the first CG animated film Toy Story (1995), to mentioning all of their films right up to Frozen in 2013. Its a shame that the author does not mention CG in the use of anime such as Golgo 13 (1983), which was the first anime to use CG, as well as Akira, and Ghost in the shell. I was also disappointed that the author fails to mention Mainframe Entertainment, whom made the first CG animated TV series from 1994 called Reboot, that ran for a few years in the 1990s, as well as their other TV shows, Beast Wars, Max Steel and Butt Ugly Martians. Overall the over sized book, which should also be available in paperback is pretty expensive for something that was only published 6 years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the images and illustrations, that shows the reader what CG was like back in the day such as a 3D hand from the 1970s, to Pixar's animated shorts that lasted just a few minutes in the 1980s, Tin Toy (1988) a great example. For the laymen and academic this is a must read if you want to know the full history of CG.