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Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars (Episode IV] watch!

youtube.com — From 1977. "The computer graphics for the first Star Wars film was created by Larry Cuba in the 1970s at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) (at the time known as the Circle Graphics Habitat) at the University of Illinois at Chicago."

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  • xptweakerntn, on 04/21/2008, -23/+8Submitted 1 day 10 hr ago, made popular 1 min ago? On the frontpage with 28 diggs? How?
    • CheeseburgerBro, on 04/21/2008, -2/+33Rule number one is you don't talk about the algorithm.

      Rule number two is YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT THE ALGORITHM.
      • themastersb, on 04/21/2008, -1/+3Rule thirty-four is if it exists there is porn of it.
    • drugged, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there are no other non-popular entries in the category Entertainment >> Movies

      I'm only guessing, but it seems feasible.
      • drugged, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Whoops, my mistake, I was viewing popular... thought it was upcoming.
        • uberfu, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Nah - this is/was on the front [main] page_ General Articles_
  • FUR10N, on 04/21/2008, -7/+1wow (to video and the fact that is on the front page already)
  • renagadex2, on 04/21/2008, -2/+5Star Wars is eternal
  • punchinelli, on 04/21/2008, -1/+30See how less is more, George! You can make an excellent movie without 99% green screen and video game CG! It is possible!!
    • CheeseburgerBro, on 04/21/2008, -6/+12If Lucas has quit after Episode IV, we'd all still be under the impression that he's a decent filmmaker.
    • Jookly, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2this was cutting edge stuff at the time. He has always made his movies with cutting edge stuff. His fans don't like the new ones because they were adults when they came out. They aren't actually any more cheesy than 4, 5 and 6. Children loved 1, 2 and 3 in the same way we loved 4, 5 and 6.
      • ConceptualTrap, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2No, they didn't. The kids of this generation won't think of Star Wars like us adults think of the Original Trilogy. Lord of the Rings will be their big lifetime event. Great movies though they were, I still find that fact a lil sad.
        • Jookly, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1well, you are wrong so I wont worry about it too much. You could just ask a child instead of assuming.
  • TomBolland, on 04/21/2008, -4/+10It's a trap.
  • koyner, on 04/21/2008, -8/+10That one animation contains more emotion than episodes I - III combined.
  • TomBolland, on 04/21/2008, -12/+1It's a trap.
  • Melenor, on 04/21/2008, -1/+3Oh. THAT Episode IV. THOSE special effects.
    Well, they were ahead of their time, in any case. I know plenty of companies that can't compete with the likes of this today. They might learn a thing or two from this!
  • brian877a, on 04/25/2008, -3/+4Pretty cool. Now 2nd Graders can make movie FX like Star Wars, too.
    • directrix13, on 04/21/2008, -1/+5I don't know many 2nd graders who can wrap their mind around a 3D modeling program.
  • xkingADROCKx, on 04/21/2008, -0/+32It's amazing that they actually had to film the computer screen with a camera to get the final animation!
  • kakwakas, on 04/21/2008, -1/+5I JUST finished watching ANH. Awesome.
    • rodrigo74, on 04/21/2008, -0/+11How many times did you have to refill your popcorn bucket, anyway? Geez, I finished it 30+ years ago.
  • doctechnical, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2Wow, if it took that much work just to do the trench, Jar-Jar Binks must have taken forever!
    • Kakemonster, on 04/21/2008, -1/+3Yes, they use that method today...
  • elislider, on 04/21/2008, -0/+43That must have taken ***** ages.
    *press stylus pen*
    *wait*
    *release pen*
    *wait*
    *enter z coord on keypad*
    *repeat 90 million ***** times*
    *bash head on wall*
    • fhernand, on 04/21/2008, -0/+22even worse with ***** jawas and R2 beeping and wheezing in the background
    • inferno10, on 04/21/2008, -2/+2You forgot *profit*
  • away8907, on 04/21/2008, -6/+21977.....
  • sn0w, on 04/21/2008, -0/+15It's amazing that they actually had [data] tablets back then. I'm actually surprised how sophisticated their equipment was despite the slow computers.
  • trieste, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1With the progress in computers over the last 30 years I believe we could now do this in less than half the time. Hard to believe I know..half!!
    • leek, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4Uh... where did you get that scientific and totally objective measure ?
  • GlueSniffer, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3I don't think Larry Cuba did the actual graphics in Star Wars.
    1. It's not listed on his site (http://www.well.com/~cuba/Bibliography.html)
    2. He talks about it in the first post on this site (http://motionographer.com/2008/03/31/larry-cuba-st ... where he says "This “making of” video was originally produced for my personal presentations as I was often asked to explain the process..."
  • dafragsta, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Wow. Sketchup was around in the 70s?
  • Unearthly, on 04/21/2008, -2/+1That is why the first two (episodes 4 and 5) were so good, because technology was relatively primitive so the story and dialog had to be good. As Lucas got better tech, he forgot how to make an entertaining movie and just wanted "Wow, gee cool" effects. God the story, script and acting of episodes 1-3 are terrible!
    He though computer graphics would make the movies and ignored actual film making.
  • solid12345, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2This is why the Star Wars DVD set we waited years for was total crap. I've seen bootleg DVD's from Asia that have more features than the official set. And there was practically no information on how the effects were done, instead we get a cheesy "documentary" from the history channel giving Lucas another place to hear himself talk.
  • fuzzynyanko, on 04/21/2008, -0/+6Those mentions about dials and buttons make me appreciate 3d modeling tools more. Mice, keyboards, and pen tablets sound a lot better.
    • a0me, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2It makes you wonder how much progress will be made in terms 3D computer graphics in the next 30 years.
  • beloitpiper, on 04/21/2008, -3/+2Did anybody else notice the sound that was playing the background?
  • misterteenwolf, on 04/21/2008, -0/+17dude's gonna need to upgrade his rig if he wants to play crysis
    • thejumbo, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1That WAS Crysis in 77! You can play that now without too much lag.
    • directedition, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1Dude, were you watching? He was rotating the Death Star in real-time! He must have been getting at least 30fps out of that beast of a machine.
  • blackfett, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1I'm glad we have mice now. playing games or actually doing anything with knobs would suck...
    • Sirlolalot, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Analouge knobs & Pong FTW!
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2I dunno. There's a certain elegance and simplicity to knobs.
  • Spartandog, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3That was the time when 10MB of memory cost $3500. I worked for a company in the early 80's that made 'computer graphics.' We had 15 employees, and the total memory for the servers for the entire company was 50MB. Ah, those were the days, when pixels were big enough to sweep with a broom. We thought Star Wars was "way ahead of its time."
  • funkyp56, on 04/21/2008, -2/+2Many Bothans died bringing us this information
    • Sabretou, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Way to go, stealing a YOUTUBE comment.
  • excession, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Loving the vector graphics VDU. Now that IS oldschool.
  • EvolutionTheory, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1movies had way more realistic special effects back then. I'd take a space fight scene from episode IV over Episode I ANY DAY.
    George should have let some other director remake Episode 1-3. He pretty much ruined his universe.
  • hasslinthehoff, on 04/21/2008, -1/+4Oh, I thought this was a preview of Windows 7...
  • DarkSideWRX, on 04/21/2008, -7/+1yawn...
  • MoofTheStoof, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1When he first said he was rotating the model "in real time using dials," I was puzzled wondering if he was talking about some on-screen GUI that we couldn't see. Then a few minutes later they showed the dials...
  • NewsrmPicasso, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1It's nice to see the history and how it's evolved.
  • Euph0rik, on 04/21/2008, -0/+0This "presentation video" in the movie would make for a slick retro screensaver.
  • replaysMike, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Ghetto. He said "penetrated".
  • WillSunrider, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1Stay on target..
    • Space579, on 04/22/2008, -0/+0beat me to it!

      That's all I could think about when I was watching the sequence!
  • Xondar, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1I personally think the "Genesis Effect" computer generated video from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan is a far more impressive feat. It was also done by ILM.
  • lcllam, on 04/23/2008, -0/+0Well, it WAS a long, long time ago...
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