3D animation dates back to the 1970's in movies. The 3D animation was not fully developed to be animation, but started off as CGI images to 3D face rendering to 3D wire-frame graphics.
Year: 1973
Movie: Westworld
Significance: 2D pixelated images were used for the sight of the android gunslinger. They took frames of footage of the POV of the android and scanned the frames and converted them to pixel like blocks.
Year: 1976
Movie: Futureworld
Significance: They took Peter Fonda's head and marked his face then rendered it in three dimension for the film. Ten years later, 3D rendered face was recognized by the Oscars with a scientific & Engineering Academy Award.
Year: 1977
Movie: Star Wars
Significance: A 3D wire-frame graphics mock-up of the Empire's base was used for the Rebel Alliance's debriefing scene.
Year: 1973
Movie: Westworld
Significance: 2D pixelated images were used for the sight of the android gunslinger. They took frames of footage of the POV of the android and scanned the frames and converted them to pixel like blocks.
Year: 1976
Movie: Futureworld
Significance: They took Peter Fonda's head and marked his face then rendered it in three dimension for the film. Ten years later, 3D rendered face was recognized by the Oscars with a scientific & Engineering Academy Award.
Year: 1977
Movie: Star Wars
Significance: A 3D wire-frame graphics mock-up of the Empire's base was used for the Rebel Alliance's debriefing scene.
Year: 1982
Movie: Tron
Significance: Tron was one of the major breakthroughs in the 3D animation. Tron had the first extensive 3D scene. 2Mb of memory to create a CGI light cycle. Tron had about fifteen minutes worth of digital effects.
FUN FACT: In the 2010 Tron Legacy Jeff Bridges returns again to play the character Flynn from the 1982 Tron movie. In the 1982 Tron Flynn was scanned into the ENCOM mainframe as an AI. Being an AI it would not age as the real Flynn does so when they meet face to face again after 20 years a CGI head was used so that the AI Flynn still looks 20 years old talking to the now 40 year old living Flynn.
Year: 1985
Movie: Young Sherlock Holmes
Significance: Pixar created CGI stained glass warriors and combined the CG with live-action actors seamlessly.
Year: 1984
Movie: The Adventures of Andre and Wally B
Significance: It was Pixar's first-ever animation.
Year: 1989
Movie: The Abyss
Significance: ILM worked with the producers to create a program to simulate the CGI water effect tube-like creature. The process took a little over six months to complete; which delayed the release of the film, but allowed the film to win a Oscar for the effect.
Year: 1993
Movie: Jurassic Park
Significance: The movie won an Oscar for the amazing physically textured CGI Brachiosaurius by Lucasfilm's ILM.
Year: 1995
Movie: Toy Story
Significance: Toy Story was the first full-length CG film.
Movie: Tron
Significance: Tron was one of the major breakthroughs in the 3D animation. Tron had the first extensive 3D scene. 2Mb of memory to create a CGI light cycle. Tron had about fifteen minutes worth of digital effects.
FUN FACT: In the 2010 Tron Legacy Jeff Bridges returns again to play the character Flynn from the 1982 Tron movie. In the 1982 Tron Flynn was scanned into the ENCOM mainframe as an AI. Being an AI it would not age as the real Flynn does so when they meet face to face again after 20 years a CGI head was used so that the AI Flynn still looks 20 years old talking to the now 40 year old living Flynn.
Year: 1985
Movie: Young Sherlock Holmes
Significance: Pixar created CGI stained glass warriors and combined the CG with live-action actors seamlessly.
Year: 1984
Movie: The Adventures of Andre and Wally B
Significance: It was Pixar's first-ever animation.
Year: 1989
Movie: The Abyss
Significance: ILM worked with the producers to create a program to simulate the CGI water effect tube-like creature. The process took a little over six months to complete; which delayed the release of the film, but allowed the film to win a Oscar for the effect.
Year: 1993
Movie: Jurassic Park
Significance: The movie won an Oscar for the amazing physically textured CGI Brachiosaurius by Lucasfilm's ILM.
Year: 1995
Movie: Toy Story
Significance: Toy Story was the first full-length CG film.
Year: 1997
Movie: Starship Troopers
Significance: Over three hundred artists and technicians were hired to digitally build the first large-scale CG battle scene. The scene takes place on the alien planet when the humans are battling the large Insects.
Year: 1997
Movie: Titanic
Significance: Being one of the most expense films of the 1990's, Titanic had over 500 visual effects shots and $200 million to recreate the horrible disaster of the Titanic sinking. Areas of the ship and the illusion of the water flowing were computer generated.
Year: 1999
Movie: Fight Club
Significance: The objects in the scene where the kitchen was blown up were replaced with rendered 3D wire-frame models from photogrammetry. Photogrammetry is a method of measuring objects using photographs to model the objects.
Year: 2002
Movie: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Significance: Gollum was the first motion-captured computer-generated character (with the help from Weta's digital effects team and Andy Serkis) to interact with other actors. Lord of the Rings was also known for their computer-generated artificial intelligent orcs and the resulting battle scenes.
Movie: Starship Troopers
Significance: Over three hundred artists and technicians were hired to digitally build the first large-scale CG battle scene. The scene takes place on the alien planet when the humans are battling the large Insects.
Year: 1997
Movie: Titanic
Significance: Being one of the most expense films of the 1990's, Titanic had over 500 visual effects shots and $200 million to recreate the horrible disaster of the Titanic sinking. Areas of the ship and the illusion of the water flowing were computer generated.
Year: 1999
Movie: Fight Club
Significance: The objects in the scene where the kitchen was blown up were replaced with rendered 3D wire-frame models from photogrammetry. Photogrammetry is a method of measuring objects using photographs to model the objects.
Year: 2002
Movie: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Significance: Gollum was the first motion-captured computer-generated character (with the help from Weta's digital effects team and Andy Serkis) to interact with other actors. Lord of the Rings was also known for their computer-generated artificial intelligent orcs and the resulting battle scenes.
Year: 2001
Movie: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Significance: The movie was the first to most realistically render a human in detail, down to the 60,000 hairs on the main female character's head.
Year: 2004
Movie: The Polar Express
Significance: Tom Hanks took part in the first motion capture feature film by wearing a mo-cap suit built after Peter Jackson's work on Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
Year: 2009
Movie: Avatar
Significance: Was the first movie to take the technology from The Polar Express and Lord of the Rings and improve it to capture facial expressions and emotions. Then be able to model and render those emotions to CG characters.
Movie: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Significance: The movie was the first to most realistically render a human in detail, down to the 60,000 hairs on the main female character's head.
Year: 2004
Movie: The Polar Express
Significance: Tom Hanks took part in the first motion capture feature film by wearing a mo-cap suit built after Peter Jackson's work on Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
Year: 2009
Movie: Avatar
Significance: Was the first movie to take the technology from The Polar Express and Lord of the Rings and improve it to capture facial expressions and emotions. Then be able to model and render those emotions to CG characters.