Documentary segment discussing the late Robert Abel's pioneering use of computer graphics in a 1984 television commercial for the canned food industry.
Robert Abel was an instructor of mine at UCLA in 1997. He taught a design class --- history of design. His classes were always inspiring and very well done. He was an amazing presenter and his classes were always packed. He created the CG sequence at the end of 2001 Space Odessey. He explained how he did it in the class.
I've been searching for this doc for a long time. this was a beautiful commercial that inspired me for years and get into 3D graphics. So glad you posted this.
I was only 8 years old when I first wathed this TV program. At the time I came with a flashback mmemory of an arcade game I used to play when I was 3 or 4 years old about a female robot, I thought this commercial became so popular that it inspired a game. By looking at it again after all these years I digged for the robot again.
I just spent one day recreating this avatar in blender so I can have her as an avatar in VR. this animation must have taken months. If only I could show these talented people back then what can be done with our tech of today. it would blow their minds!
I produced that commercial, the total billing to Ketchum Advertising in San Francisco was $152,000 and the schedule almost killed the lead technical director at Robert Abel & Associates.
I have been searching for this small but amazing documentary on ths commercial for so many years. This commercial was the original inspiration for my work in 3D. Thanks for uploading such a wonderful piece of history.
I bought a VHS of "The Mind's Eye" from Radio Shack and copied it to a DVD. I still have the receipt! The Robogirl was on that, but not 'The Making Of...'.
nopushbutton This wasn't exactly mocap though, it doesn't look like the computer actually did any tracking. I don't know what happened here, but it looks to me like this was more like some kind of rotoscoping. Mocap was used though in Triple-I's 1981 showreel, "Adam Powers, the Juggler". And it would be used in a wide-release theatrical motion picture for the first time in Total Recall in 1990.
If a project was worth doing to push the technology and creativity, CG was often bid at whatever the client could afford. The quest for creative awards and CGI industry leadership was often the determining factor to picking a project for production at Robert Abel & Associates. This commercial for the Canned Food Information Council was a major money loser, but set a standard for the CG industry and once again proved RA&A the creative and technological leader.
@torpedoboy4 That's a bit loaded argument. Video game graphics take a lot of time and effort to make, sometimes more than movies because artists have to budget computer resources and need to make use of visual trickery in order to maintain performance in real time. It is as much a science as it is art.
alcyon2sp T2 was the first time it was done in a way that appeared somewhat realistic though, and worked when composited over live action footage. Also Tron had a bunch of CGI set pieces back in 1982.
Turns out I was wrong and the game was of course the pinball machine called Pinbot but still the resamblence to me is uncanny even today. Here are some pictures for google image.: 1680271-1502f1_large.jpg pinball/tlite.jpg 1136625620.jpg
It's weird that you want it known that I overestimated the budget. I was at R/GA at the time. Those numbers are not unheard of. R/GA is still in business, by the way.
I won't bother defending R/GA. They don't need it. I think among our other non-innovative work, Ken was at R/GA putting the finishing touches on Perlin Noise at the time. I will say this: I wouldn't have even been here if I weren't paying a visit to some seminal work. I have no idea what got up your ass about my innocuous comment, but way to turn the whole thing to shit.
