The CG Story: Computer-Generated Animation and Special Effects - Hardcover

Finch, Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580933572 ISBN 13: 9781580933575

Publisher: The Monacelli Press, 2013

Synopsis

The Art of Walt Disney author Christopher Finch tells the story of the pioneers of CG films: producer/directors like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Ridley Scott; and John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, founders of Pixar. Computer generated imagery, commonly called “CG,” has had as big an impact on the movie industry as the advent of sound or color. Not only has it made possible a new kind of fully animated movie, but it also has revolutionized big-budget, live-action filmmaking. The CG Story is one of determined experimentation and brilliant innovation carried out by a group of gifted, colorful, and competitive young men and women, many of whom would become legendary in the digital world. George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Ridley Scott embraced the computer to create believable fantasy worlds of a richness that had seldom if ever been realized on screen. Their early efforts helped inspire a revolution in animation, enabled by technical wizardry and led by the founders of Pixar, including John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, who would create the entirely computer-produced worlds of Toy Story and subsequent Pixar films. Meanwhile, directors like James Cameron used the new technology to make hybrid live-action and CG films, including the extraordinary Avatar. Finch covers these and more, giving a full account of today’s most significant CG films.

About this title

About the Author

Christopher Finch, an artist and the author of acclaimed books on popular culture and fine art, lives in southern California. Finch was born on the island of Guernsey, in the English Channel. In the 1960s, after studying painting at Chelsea Art School in London, he began to write about the contemporary art scene for magazines ranging from Art & Artists and Art International to the British edition of Vogue. In 1968, he became an associate curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and in the 1970s he resumed his writing career. He is the author of many books, including The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms and Beyond; Chuck Close: Work and Chuck Close: Life; Jim Henson: The Works; and Norman Rockwell’s America.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Monacelli Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580933572
• ISBN 13: 9781580933575
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368