Computer Animation Production System

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The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) is a proprietary collection of software, scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company together with Pixar in the late-1980s. Its purpose was to computerize the ink and paint and post-production processes of traditionally animated feature films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. In the early days of CAPS, Pixar was not allowed by Disney to tell the world about the system, being afraid that the magic would go away if people found out computers were involved.[1] Only in 1994 was Computer Graphics World, as the first from the press, invited to have a close look at the process.[2]

CAPS in film production

CAPS was the first digital ink and paint system used in animated feature films, designed to replace the expensive process of transferring animated drawings to cels using India ink or xerographic technology, and painting the reverse sides of the cels with gouache paint. Using the CAPS, enclosed areas and lines could be easily colored in the digital computer environment using an unlimited palette. Transparent shading, blended colors and other sophisticated techniques could be extensively used that were not previously available.

The completed digital cels were composited over scanned background paintings and camera or pan movements were programmed into a computer exposure sheet simulating the actions of old style animation cameras. Additionally, complex multiplane shots giving a sense of depth were possible. Unlike the analog multiplane camera, the CAPS multiplane cameras were not limited by artwork size. Extensive camera movements never before seen were incorporated into the films. The final version of the sequence was composited and recorded onto film. Since the animation elements exist digitally, it was easy to integrate other types of film and video elements, including three-dimensional computer animation.

Evolution of the system

Shortly after Michael Eisner and Frank Wells took over the management of Disney in 1984, they approached the Graphics Group at Lucasfilm to digitize the 2D cel animation process. Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith on annual pilgrimages to Disney had long promised that they could do this.[3] Alvy Ray Smith from Lucasfilm and Lemuel Davis (Lem) from Disney proceeded to specify the system over the course of many months, resulting in a 50-page proposal which Smith wrote and submitted to Disney. The business proposition had Lucasfilm design and build all the hardware and software, except for the logistics system software, for keeping track of the picture elements, which Disney would design and build. CAPS was the name of the overall system. DALS was the Disney subset, for Disney Animation Logistics System. Alvy Ray Smith negotiated the deal with Disney management, and closed the deal just as he and Ed Catmull were cofounding Pixar. The deal went with Pixar. David DiFrancesco from Lucasfilm, then Pixar, ran filming tests to convince Disney of the quality. Smith received the first check, for $1 million, for the CAPS project from Frank Wells and Roy E. Disney at a ceremony under a tapestry of Mickey Mouse in Disney's Burbank headquarters.[4] It was the first major cash into the new company Pixar. Smith hired Thomas Hahn to run the project for Pixar. Thomas Hahn hired Peter Nye and Michael Shantzis, a team that greatly streamlined the original design. Their design utilized the Pixar Image Computer, the product of the new company Pixar.[5] Disney executed the DALS system, and the two teams built a mutual admiration society, the basis of the later deep relationship between Disney and Pixar, and eventually the purchase of Pixar by Disney.

The first usage of the CAPS process was Mickey standing on Epcot's Spaceship Earth for "The Magical World of Disney" titles. The system's first feature film use was in the production of The Little Mermaid in 1989; however, the use of the system was limited to the farewell rainbow sequence near the end. The rest of the film used traditional painted cels.[6] Subsequent films were made completely using CAPS; the first of these, The Rescuers Down Under, was the first 100% digital feature film ever produced. Later films, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame took more advantage of CAPS' 2D/3D integration. The system has not been used since 2006's The Little Matchgirl.[7]

Special edition editing

For the Special Edition IMAX and DVD versions of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Mulan, new renders of the original elements were done and recorded to alternate master formats. In addition, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King had newly animated sequences added to their special editions, and both of the IMAX editions and Aladdin had significant cleanup/restoration done on the original digital sequence elements to enhance detail, correct mistakes, and solidify clean-up animation and drawing.

Significance

In 1992, the team that developed CAPS won an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scientific and Engineering Award. They were:[8]

CAPS was capable of a high level of image quality using significantly slower computer systems than are available today. The final frames were rendered at a 2K digital film resolution (2048 pixels across at a 1.66 aspect ratio), and the artwork was scanned so that it always held 100% resolution in the final output, no matter how complex the camera motion in the shot.

Decline and legacy

Following the failure of Home on the Range in 2004, Disney Feature Animation management felt that audiences wanted only 3D computer animated features and closed down their traditional 2D animation department. The CAPS desks were removed and the custom automated scanning cameras were dismantled and scrapped. As of 2005, only one desk system remained (and that was only for reading the data for the films that were made with CAPS).

Since the merger with Pixar, as most of CAPS was shut down and dismantled, Disney's subsequent traditionally animated productions (How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, The Princess and the Frog, The Ballad of Nessie, and the new Winnie the Pooh) were produced using Toon Boom Harmony computer software, which offered an updated digital animation system.

Projects Produced Using CAPS

Feature Films

Short Films

References

  1. ^ Alvy Ray Smith: RGBA, the birth of compositing & the founding of Pixar
  2. ^ Disney lets CAPS out of the bag. (Computer Animation and Production System used for animated motion picture The Lion King)
  3. ^ Smith, Alvy Ray. "Alvy Ray Smith Disney Trip Notes 1977" (PDF).
  4. ^ Pixar. "First CAPS Check" (JPG).
  5. ^ Pixar. "Pixar Image Computer Brochure" (PDF).
  6. ^ James B. Stewart, DisneyWar: The Battle For the Magic Kingdom, Simon & Schuster, 2005, p. 104.
  7. ^ Walt Disney's The Little Matchgirl
  8. ^ Oscars.org page for the CAPS Sci-Tech Award
  9. ^ "The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 2014-09-15. caps personnel
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