Tony de Peltrie

Last updated
Tony de Peltrie
Directed by Pierre Lachapelle,
Philippe Bergeron,
Pierre Robidoux,
Daniel Langlois
Produced by Pierre Lachapelle
Music by Marie Bastien
Release date
  • 1985 (1985)
Running time
8 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Tony de Peltrie is a Canadian animated short film from 1985. The short shows the first computer-animated human character to express emotion through facial expressions and body movements, which touched the feelings of the audience. [1] [2] The film was produced from 1982 to 1985 at the French-speaking University of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. [3]

Contents

The four team members, Pierre Lachapelle (including production), Philippe Bergeron, Pierre Robidoux and Daniel Langlois, are all credited as directors. [3] [4] [5]

Plot

Philippe Bergeron described the character animation with the words: "…Tony de Peltrie, about a piano player who is recollecting his glory days (…) Tony is not all that life-like in appearance, but the animation is so realistic that by the end of the short, you are really feeling for him.“

The film portrays the last part of Tony's career, as seen from his own perspective. Now alone and nostalgic, he recollects his past in a dreamlike state before it all fades away. The emotions of the story range in a melancholy way from joyful memories to the sad ending. [5] [6]

Production

The four co-directors were young programmers and started the computer animation on their own. Daniel Langlois had trained as a designer and computer animator for movies and was an artist and programmer in the team. The face and body were sculpted by Langlois in clay and re-modeled according to the desired feeling of the expressions. Every time a new network of black lines with control points was drawn on the faces, which were required for the animation. [2]

For the software development and interactive creation, the team worked with the 3-D interactive graphics program Taarna and the mainframe computers CDC CYBER 835, 855. [1] [7] To calculate an image with the mainframe computers then, took five minutes. The computer monitor was a GRID TECHNOLOGIES ONE / 25S screen with a 24er card that had a range of 16 million colors. The image resolution of the monitor was 512 x 512 pixels. The images were calculated with four times the resolution so that no staircase effect emerged. For conversion of the face and body from analog to digital, a GRADICON digitizer was used, and for the rehearsal and filming a Bolex 16 mm and an Animation Oxberry 35 mm camera. [4]

Publication

On the 12th SIGGRAPH Film & Video Show in San Francisco in July 1985, Philippe Bergeron and Pierre Lachapelle presented the film Tony de Peltrie for the first time. Bergeron gave at the conference the lecture: "Controlling Facial Expressions and Body Movements in the Computer Generated Animated Short Tony De Peltrie". [8]

Reception

Critics and audiences were enthusiastic about Tony de Peltrie. It received more than 20 awards worldwide and garnered coverage in hundreds of magazines. [5] In the week after the show in San Francisco, Time magazine concluded a two-page article about the Festival with the words:

"But the biggest ovations last week were reserved for Tony de Peltrie. Created by a design team from the University of Montreal, it depicts a once famous musician, tickling the keys and tapping his white leather shoes to the beat of his memories. De Peltrie looks and acts human; his fingers and facial expressions are soft, lifelike and wonderfully appealing. In creating De Peltrie, the Montreal team may have achieved a breakthrough: a digitized character with whom a human audience can identify."

— Phillip Elmer-DeWitt: Time Magazine, 5. August 1985. [5] [9] [10]

John Lasseter, one of the festival’s judges commented:

"Years from now Tony de Peltrie will be looked upon as the landmark piece, where real, fleshy characters were first animated by computer."

— Maclean’s, September 9. 1985) [5] [10]

Economic success

Typically, the success of a film is calculated in US dollars, which are paid by the visitors at the box office. The short film, produced not for profit at the box office, showed its success a few years later. The film is one of the reasons why Montreal has become one of the global centers of the computer game industry.[ citation needed ]

Tony de Peltrie was created with mainframe computers. This was complicated because every change had to be reprogrammed. Philippe Bergeron told 2012 in a video how tedious and frustrating this work was. He talked about the fact that Daniel Langlois also saw it and had spoken of wanting to change that. [11] After the completion of the film, therefore, Langlois worked with two programmers to create a new program, and founded the company Softimage in Montreal. The program Softimage 3D and its further developments advanced in the 1990s to become an industry standard.

George Borshukov, responsible for the special effects of the movie The Matrix , said: "Without Softimage 3D and mental ray, specifically, those phenomenal bullet time backgrounds just wouldn't have been possible." [12]

Special effects for blockbusters such as Jurassic Park or The Matrix and many other films were produced with it. Many companies in the computer game industry also used programs by Softimage. The presence of Softimage in Montreal was one of the reasons why Ubisoft established their North American headquarters in the city, where French and English are spoken. [13] Ubisoft Montreal was launched in 1997 with 50 employees and in 2015 is the world's largest studio for the development and manufacture of computer games. By 2014 there were more than 2,700 employees.

As of June 2015 there were 52 small and large companies in Montreal, working on PC games. [14] As a result, the city of Montreal has benefited from Tony de Peltrie in real money terms. [15]

Awards

(selection) Tony de Peltrie won several international awards and prizes: [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer animation</span> Art of creating moving images using computers

Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation only refers to moving images. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Softimage (company)</span> Former 3D animation software company

Softimage, Co. was a company located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that produced 3D animation software. A subsidiary of Microsoft in the 1990s, it was sold to Avid Technology, who would eventually sell the name and assets of Softimage's 3D-animation business to Autodesk.

<i>Luxo Jr.</i> 1986 animated short film directed by John Lasseter

Luxo Jr. is a 1986 American animated short film produced and released by Pixar. Written and directed by John Lasseter, the two-minute short film revolves around one larger and one smaller desk lamp. The larger lamp, named Luxo Sr., looks on while the smaller, "younger" Luxo Jr. plays exuberantly with a ball to the extent that it accidentally deflates. Luxo Jr. was Pixar's first animation after Ed Catmull and John Lasseter left the Lucasfilm Computer Division. The film is the source of Luxo Jr., the mascot of Pixar.

<i>Ryan</i> (film) 2004 Canadian film

Ryan is a 2004 short animated documentary film created and directed by Chris Landreth about Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who had lived on skid row in Montreal as a result of drug and alcohol abuse. Landreth's chance meeting with Larkin in 2000 inspired him to develop the film, which took 18 months to complete. It was co-produced by Copper Heart Entertainment and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and its creation and development is the subject of the NFB documentary Alter Egos. The film incorporated material from archive sources, particularly Larkin's works at the NFB.

Computer facial animation is primarily an area of computer graphics that encapsulates methods and techniques for generating and animating images or models of a character face. The character can be a human, a humanoid, an animal, a legendary creature or character, etc. Due to its subject and output type, it is also related to many other scientific and artistic fields from psychology to traditional animation. The importance of human faces in verbal and non-verbal communication and advances in computer graphics hardware and software have caused considerable scientific, technological, and artistic interests in computer facial animation.

Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers. It is most commonly used in filmmaking and television production but has also been used in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Langlois</span> Canadian businessman (1957–2023)

Daniel Langlois was a Canadian businessman who was the president and founder of the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Ex-Centris, and Media Principia Inc.

Transitions is the first full-colour 3D IMAX film, created for the Canada Pavilion at Expo 86, co-directed by Colin Low and Tony Ianzelo and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It was built upon We Are Born of Stars created for Expo '85 in Tskuba, Japan, which used anaglyph 3D. The film is also notable for the first use of stereoscopic computer animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Arias</span> American-born Japanese film director and producer

Michael Arias is an American-born filmmaker active primarily in Japan. Though Arias has worked variously as visual effects artist, animation software developer, and producer, he is best known for his directorial debut, the anime feature Tekkonkinkreet, which established him as the first non-Japanese director of a major anime film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Softimage 3D</span> 3D graphics programme that preceded SoftimageXSI

Softimage|3D is a discontinued high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, broadcasting, gaming, and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It was superseded by Softimage XSI in 2000.

A virtual human, virtual persona, or digital clone is the creation or re-creation of a human being in image and voice using computer-generated imagery and sound, that is often indistinguishable from the real actor.

The history of computer animation began as early as the 1940s and 1950s, when people began to experiment with computer graphics – most notably by John Whitney. It was only by the early 1960s when digital computers had become widely established, that new avenues for innovative computer graphics blossomed. Initially, uses were mainly for scientific, engineering and other research purposes, but artistic experimentation began to make its appearance by the mid-1960s – most notably by Dr. Thomas Calvert. By the mid-1970s, many such efforts were beginning to enter into public media. Much computer graphics at this time involved 2-D imagery, though increasingly as computer power improved, efforts to achieve 3-D realism became the emphasis. By the late 1980s, photo-realistic 3-D was beginning to appear in film movies, and by mid-1990s had developed to the point where 3-D animation could be used for entire feature film production.

<i>La Détente</i> 2011 French film

La Détente is a 2011 short French film directed by Pierre Ducos and Betrand Bey. It has won several prizes, including Best of show award at SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 and Best Animation award at the Sapporo International Short Film Festival. The film tells the story of a French soldier in World War I who becomes paralyzed with fear while in the trenches. He escapes in his head to an imaginary world where toys fight wars instead of humans. Eric Liu, chair of the Computer animation festival at SIGGRAPH Asia 2011, called La Détente a standout of the festival, saying "This animation short brings a unique and visually stunning computer-generated animation to the audience."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadia Magnenat Thalmann</span> Computer scientist

Nadia Magnenat Thalmann is a computer graphics scientist and robotician and is the founder and head of MIRALab at the University of Geneva. She has chaired the Institute for Media Innovation at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore from 2009 to 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hervé Fischer</span>

Hervé Fischer is a French artist-philosopher and sociologist. He graduated from the École Normale Supérieure and defended his Master's thesis on Spinoza's political philosophy with Raymond Aron and devoted his main research to the sociology of colour. For many years he taught the sociology of communication and culture at the Sorbonne, where he was promoted to master lecturer in 1981. At the same time, he developed a career as a multi-media artist and creator of "sociological art" (1971) and initiated many public participation projects with radio, television, and print media in many European and Latin American countries before coming to Quebec. He speaks fluently French, English, German and Spanish.

Faceware Technologies is a facial animation and motion capture development company in America. The company was established under Image Metrics and became its own company at the beginning of 2012.

<i>Dream Flight</i> 1982 Canadian film

Dream Flight is a 3-D computer-animated short fiction film completely produced by computer. The film was created in 1982 at the University of Montreal and was directed by Philippe Bergeron, Nadia Magnenat Thalmann and Daniel Thalmann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School NAD-UQAC</span> University campus in Montreal, Canada

The School of Digital Arts, Animation and Designat the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi is a university campus in Montreal, Canada, offering academic programs and research in 3D animation, visual effects, design and digital arts.

<i>Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular</i> 2003 television special

Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular is a 2003 Canadian animated television special based on the Scary Godmother series of books by Jill Thompson, including a stage adaptation of the first book. The special depicts Hannah, while trick-or-treating with her cousin Jimmy and his friends, encountering the titular witch and her many friends for a Halloween party at the Fright Side. It stars Canadian voice actors Tabitha St. Germain, Britt McKillip, Garry Chalk, Noel Callahan, Alex Doduk, Brittney Irvine, Danny McKinnon, Scott McNeil and Adam Pospisil. It was directed by Zeke Norton and produced by Kevin Gamble and Sharan Wood with heavy involvement by Thompson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual human</span> Computer simulation of a person

A virtual human is a software fictional character or human being. Virtual human have been created as tools and artificial companions in simulation, video games, film production, human factors and ergonomic and usability studies in various industries, clothing industry, telecommunications (avatars), medicine, etc. These applications require domain-dependent simulation fidelity. A medical application might require an exact simulation of specific internal organs; film industry requires highest aesthetic standards, natural movements, and facial expressions; ergonomic studies require faithful body proportions for a particular population segment and realistic locomotion with constraints, etc.

References

  1. 1 2 "Friday Flashback #60". eX-SI. 2012-03-09.
  2. 1 2 Philippe Bergeron, Pierre Robidoux, Pierre Lachapelle und Daniel Langlois: Tony de Peltrie (1985), Website The Daniel Langlois Foundation: Image du Futur collection.
  3. 1 2 Infographie et cinéma numérique, Website der Faculté des arts et des sciences. Département d'informatique et de recherche opérationelle der Université de Montreal (PDF 437 KB).
  4. 1 2 3 Kanada Schaltstelle im Netz (Katalog), Netzwerk Art. Barke Verlag, München 1990, ISBN   3-926167-00-9, S. 35.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 ICE, scripting and other tech stuff about Softimage, auf der Webseite eX-SI.
  6. ↑ http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/PDFs/ani-papers/Bergeron.pdf%7C Bergeron P. (1985) Controlling facial expressions and body movements in the computer-generated animated short "Tony de Peltrie".
  7. ↑ http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/cdc/cyber/cyber_180/60459960A_Cyber_170_Model_825_835_855_General_Description_Jul82.pdf Control Data Corporation, Juli 1982 (PDF 20, 71 MB)
  8. ↑ David Sturman: The State of Computer Animation. In: ACM SIGGRAPH. Band 32, Nr. 1 (February 1998).
  9. ↑ Tony Sito: Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation. In: Time Magazine. ISBN   978-0-262-01909-5, S. 69.
  10. 1 2 "Adventures in Animation 3D". adventuresinanimation.com.
  11. ↑ Philippe Bergeron on animating "Tony de Peltrie", YouTube 21 May 2012.
  12. ↑ "The Matrix". pauldebevec.com.
  13. ↑ Mathew Kumar: The French-Canadian Connection. A Q&A with Yannis Mallat, Ubisoft Montreal. In: Gamasutra .
  14. ↑ "gamedevmap". www.gamedevmap.com.
  15. ↑ http://www.hindawi.com/journals/usr/2013/957630/ The Case of the Video Games Clusters in Montreal and in Los Angeles
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.