User:Al Fecund/Fecund's Sandbox
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Larry Cuba's work on Star Wars
Larry Cuba created the 3D wireframe animation of the Star Wars Death Star Trench Run. Cuba competed against a couple of other burgeoning computer effects teams to propose how he could accomplish the 3D animation. Cuba had made some pioneering films in this field, including his then-most-recent work on John Whitney Sr.'s Arabesque (1975).[1][a 1] Cuba showed George Lucas his first CG film First Fig.[2]
The animation was created in the Circle Graphics Habitat in the University of Illinois, Chicago. Cuba used a vector graphics scripting language called GRASS (GRAphics Symbiosis System), written by Tom DeFanti for his 1974 Ph.D. thesis at Ohio State University in 1974.[3] The system he used incorporated a Vector General CRT, DEC PDP-11 minicomputer, along with various cameras and recorders.[2] The computer would make one frame, Cuba would shoot it on film, then repeat the process for 2000 exposures.[1][4] "I couldn't get he computer to run continuously to make the shot—it kept crashing," he said.[1] The finished animation is then rear-projected onto the screen in the film.[4]
Peter Kirn of Create Digital Motion writes of Cuba's Death Star animation, "[…] to me, these graphics don’t look primitive; they look elemental, much in the same way that you don’t get tired of ancient Egyptian art. (And in the timeline of computer graphics, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine thousands of years of art history happening in a few decades.)".[2]
Cuba's animation was at once innovative, prophetic, and superbly effective as storytelling.
Backlash (American Beauty)
American Beauty has received a considerable blowback in critical opinion over the last decade. It was featured in Premiere's list of the 25 most overrated films of all time. Michael Phillips, in his very negative review to the 2006 film The Quiet on At The Movies, said that American Beauty "has a lot to answer for because that's the kind of film The Quiet is going for."[5]
The Echo Times (College of Marin)
The Echo Times is a student run newspaper at College of Marin in Kentfield, California. The paper focuses on student issues, but likes to focus on stories that have a global context as well as local.
List of film reviews of The Deer Hunter
- N.Y. Film Critics: "Best Picture of the Year"[6]
- Kathleen Carrol N.Y. Daily News: "
! An emotionally stirring movie that demonstrates real originality."[6]
References
Annotations
- ^ Larry Cuba is credited for "Programming Assistance" in the Arabesque's credits.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Rubin, Michael (2006). "4: The Star Wars". Droidmaker: George Lucas and the digital revolution (1st ed.). Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishing. pp. 66, 67, 71–72. ISBN 978-0-937404-67-6.
- ^ a b c Kirn, Peter. "Larry Cuba, Star Wars' Death Star CG, Arabesque, and the Dawn of Computer Animation". Create Digital Motion. Retrieved 3/20/14.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "GRASS (GRAphics Symbiosis System)". Electronic Visualization Lab. Chicago, Illinois: http://www.evl.uic.edu. 01/01/1981. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); External link in|publisher= - ^ a b Cuba, Larry. Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars: A Videotape by Larry Cuba. Chicago Graphics Circle, University of Illinois.
{{cite AV media}}:|format=requires|url=(help) - ^ Phillips, Michael (critic) & Scott, A.O. (critic) (September 2, 2006). At the Movies: The Quiet.
- ^ a b The Deer Hunter Trailer. [Trailer] EMI Films/Universal.