Graphics Through The Ages
by Priyana Aragula
Playing out scenes from our favourite movies and video games is not uncommon to most. Watching the videos on screen we see the unimaginable and find it easy to play back the memory in our heads. Each detail, from the scales of a dragon to the glass of a building, can be vividly pictured. Complex problems, be it in the field of mathematics or biology, are easily comprehended as visual data. Fortunately for the evolution of Computer Graphics, millions of people across the world can enjoy the experience of virtual imagery in its various forms. Though the most popular application of Computer Graphics is CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), its genesis was far from the pixels we see on screen today.
1950s :
Dating back to the late 1800s, screens could delineate art through the Lumiere brothers’ cinematic display of special effects using mattes. Restricted as it was, computer graphics came into light only after World War II where academic exploration of the field was applied in advanced military technologies such as aviation and radar. Following this, in the 1950s the greatest achievement of the time was Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad software that would use a light pen to draw images on a screen. It could save and recall images that were drawn in the past. The distinctive asset of this software was its ability to model objects such as cars and was the ancestry software to many computer graphics interfaces today.
1960s :
As aviation was the main area of graphics application at the time, it came as no surprise when William Fetter, a designer for Boeing first devised the phrase “computer graphics”. The 1960s marked the release of what was known as the “world’s first video game” in 1961. “Spacewar!” was created by an MIT student, Steve Russell, and sold out in all stores immediately. The field of computer graphics had then been introduced to the public and initiated its development.
1970s :
Fast forward to the 1970’s when graphics pioneers Ivan Sutherland and David C. Evans taught an advanced computer graphics course, at the University of Utah, to students who would soon become the founders of industry’s most successful companies like Pixar and Adobe Systems. Pioneers of texture mapping, hidden surface determination and the 3D Core Graphics System made their mark during this time. Present-day videogame arcades were consequences of the 1970’s with the first games using real-time 2D sprite graphics. “Pong” (1972), “Speed Race” (1974), “Gun Fight” (1975) and “Space Invaders” (1978) all used sprite graphics to reel in the public into the world of videogames.
1980s :
Even to non-gamers of the 21st century, the name “Donkey Kong” immediately takes us back to the Golden Era of Videogames when the gaming industry, as well as the movie industry, took over the people in a huge wave. In 1980, the number of computer graphics developers had grown to the industry’s demand and graphics was commercialized throughout the globe. High-resolution computer graphics terminals had metamorphosed into intelligent, separate workstations via bit-slice and 16-bit microprocessors. “Star Wars” had an exponentially growing popularity at the time, creating the platform for cinematic CGI. Another iconic relevance was Dire Strait’s almost completely CGI music video, “Money for Nothing” (1985) that was appreciated by fans all over the world. As the 1980’s progressed, Pixar used SGI (Silicon Graphics Computer Systems) in their short films which paved way for a high point in the field during this decade. Companies like Atari, Nintendo and Sega revolutionized videogames and continued to introduce computer graphics to a wide-ranged population.
1990s :
In the 1990’s, graphics developed into refined versions of the same along with the addition of 3D modelling on an industrial scale. The once popular Silicon Graphics workstations were left in the dust as Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh machines, running home rendering software like 3D Studio, grew in importance. 3D graphics rapidly gained popularity in the fields of gaming and animation. The Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 among other consoles, acquainted public homes with the new 3D graphics technology through games like Super Mario 64, Virtua Fighter, etc. Towards the end of the 90s, common frameworks for graphics development like DirectX and OpenGL were used.
2000s :
It was in the 2000s when CGI was used to make the classic childhood films we know today. “Madagascar”, “Ice Age” and “Finding Nemo” are among the long list of movies that have been fabricated through the extensive implementation of normal mapping, bump mapping and a range of other methods that helped in recreating a pronounced amount of detail on screen. Video-gaming series like “Assassin’s Creed” and “Final Fantasy” took the industry by storm with their use of photorealism and impressed worldwide.
2010s :
Texture mapping, bump mapping, shadow volumes and a number of other techniques are continuing their growth and refinement in the 2010’s with shader languages HLSL and GLSL being dynamically progressive fields of research. In the cinematic industry, most animated movies use CGI and continue to catch the eye of the world. In the videogame industry, platforms offered by Xbox One, Sony Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC are taking over households with their exceedingly advanced 3D graphics technology.
Computer graphics will continue to develop with its exponential growth in a number of fields. Virtual reality(VR) is now a big focus by taking storm with incessant possibilities. The VR experience is now highly sought by all industries with projects in the entertainment business to space programs. One of the latest news in the past year on VR technology is Google’s new virtual reality experience that was presented at the SIGGRAPH 2018. It is quite apparent that new and exciting domains are being discovered every year, which will manifest a long future in the study of computer graphics.
