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| Animation from Pixar Animation Studios for the 2001 cartoon feature "Monsters, Inc." Pixar Animation Studios |
By Linda Myers
Top executives from Pixar, the animation studio that created "Finding Nemo" and "Monsters, Inc.," and other animation experts who, collectively, have won six Oscars, will be on the Cornell campus, April 19-22, to meet with students interested in the digital arts. They will give four free public talks, one each day, as well as take part in small-group sessions with students in Professor Donald Greenberg's classes on art, animation and technology.
The visit and talks are part of Digital Arts Graphics Week at Cornell and the prestigious Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lecture Series at the College of Architecture, Art and Planning's Department of Architecture. Co-sponsors at Cornell are the Program of Computer Graphics, the Faculty of Computing and Information Science and the Department of Architecture.
Greenberg, the J.G. Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics, hopes the week will be a prelude to the development of a full-blown major in the digital arts spanning three to four colleges. Such a program would build on the success of the Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell, which is internationally known for its pioneering advances in photo-realistic rendering and has graduated students who are now leaders in the entertainment industry, he said. "This combining of art and science is precisely what Cornell can do best," observed Green berg, director of the computer graphics program.
"In recent years, there has been enormous demand for courses in digital arts and graphics, spurred by the popularity and financial success of the entertainment industry," said Greenberg.
As a result, two new courses are being taught in computer animation, adding to the interest in the possibility of an interdisciplinary major. In addition, "achievements in the digital arena have provided an impetus for many of the recent scientific advances in computer graphics in other disciplines," he said.
Information on the four Digital Arts Graphics Week public talks and speakers, four of whom were former students of Greenberg's at Cornell, follows:
Cook, Cornell M.S. '82, developed with Kenneth Torrance, Cornell professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, a physically based model of light-surface interaction that realistically simulates color and shading. Before that discovery, computer-generated images had a distinctly plastic look. At Lucasfilm/Pixar, Cook helped develop a way for computer-generated imagery to match the live-action footage. He was the co-architect and primary author of Pixar's RenderMan. The software program for realistic digital effects in computer graphics and animation has been used in 33 of the 35 films nominated for visual effects Oscars and, in 2001, earned Cook and two colleagues the first Oscar ever given for software.
Catmull is a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. As vice president of Lucasfilm, he managed computer graphics, video editing, video games and digital audio development efforts. He has won three scientific and technical engineering awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMP) for his work, including sharing the Oscar for RenderMan. In 1993, he won the Coons Award, the highest achievement in computer graphics, for lifetime contributions (also won in 1987 by Greenberg).
Levoy, Cornell B.Arch. '76, M.Arch. '78, is an associate professor of computer science and of electrical engineering at Stanford University. In the 1990s he worked on technology and algorithms for digitizing three-dimensional objects that led to the Digital Michelangelo Project. In that project, he and a team of researchers digitized the statues of Michelangelo in Italy using laser scanners.
Joblove, Cornell B.S. '76, computer science, M.S. '79, computer graphics, has helped produce such Sony films as "The Matrix Reloaded," "Spider-Man," "Stuart Little 2," "Cast Away," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," "Seabiscuit" and "Big Fish." He was founder and manager of Industrial Light & Magic's computer graphics department, which pioneered digital manipulation of live-action motion-picture film at theatric resolution for visual effects. Credits there include "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."
Kay, Cornell B.S. '76, computer science, M.S. '79, computer graphics, currently guides Mondo Media's strategic direction and advises on business structure and development. He was chief technical officer of LucasArts Entertainment Co. and senior manager for digital operations at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, where he helped pioneer digital technology in such films as "Jurassic Park" and "Terminator 2." He received an AMP technical achievement award for his work in developing digital compositing technology.
Also meeting with the executives will be students in Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management who have taken Greenberg's class in Disruptive Technology and members of the school's Media and Entertainment and High Tech student clubs.
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