Eric Guaglione - The Early Years of 3D

3D animation is a rare profession, one where the average age of the people working in the industry is higher than the age of the industry itself. Eric Guaglione, Animal Logic's head of animation was one of the few people involved in the early days of 3D animation when the medium was taking its first tentative steps into creature and character animation.

Eric started in the film industry in 1982, the year that the original Tron film was released. In the following exert from my interview with him he describes starting work at Digital Productions where he was employed as a computer animator alongside Chris Bailey and Bill Kroyer, one of the animators on the original Tron film.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Here are some examples of the work Eric describes. The opening sequence of the 1986 film Labyrinth is below and the 1988 Prudential Commercial where Eric assisted in creating the eagle can be viewed HERE.





I've done a bit research and I believe the Cray X-MP supercomputer is the computer Eric talks about at Digital Productions. It was used to render the high polygon count (for the time) models at film resolution. In 1985 Bell Labs (a research and development organization) purchased a Cray X-MP/24 for $10.5 million along with eight DD-49 1.2 GB drives for an additional $1 million.



It required approximately $12,000 per month for electricity, and approximately $50,000 monthly in maintenance. Many in the industry claimed that this kind of expense could not be justified by the kinds of contracts that existed in the effects industry at the time.


Here is a picture of Bill Kroyer working at an early 3D work station. An interview with Bill where he describes the even more bizarre process of animation on Tron can be found HERE.

I find it astonishing to think back to these first days of 3D animation and contemplate what it must have been like to try to create animation with a spontaneous feel with that equipment and the incredibly labour intensive processes involved. Current computer animators owe a great debt to the artistry, talent and perseverance of these early pioneers in this art form.

If you would like to hear more from Eric, you can find my previous 'Animation Bodcast' where he talks about an early Roger Rabbit 2 test HERE.

Eric Guaglione's Roger Rabbit 2 Test

Animal Logic's Head of Animation, Eric Guaglione, has had a long and varied career in the film and animation industry. He started out in traditional drawn animation and miniature work, from there he moved over to computers and worked at the forefront of 3D animation. Before Eric came to Animal Logic he worked at Disney Animation Studios where he was involved in project development and animation supervision.

He has been a part of many interesting projects but one thing he showed me that really blew me away was a test for Roger Rabbit 2 he helped create in 1998 while at Disney. I'd never seen the exaggeration and fluidity of drawn animation mixed with the solidity of 3D animation work so well before. Here's a low-res preview -

Eric Guaglione's Roger Rabbit Test from Brendan Body on Vimeo.

Roger Rabbit Test: property of Disney Animation Studios

For a better look, head over to Eric's website where there is a high quality Quicktime to step through, as well as more of his work.

Recently I was inspired by the work of Clay Kaytis over at Animation Podcast and decided to conduct a few interviews of my own. I was fortunate enough to record one with Eric which I've been hoping to turn into a series of animation related podcasts ... or bodcasts if you will, but haven't yet found the time. However, I thought it would be interesting to post the part where Eric talks about this test - why it was created, the problems encountered and what eventually happened to the project.

Powered by Podbean.com

Hopefully I'll get time to post the rest of this 'Animation Bodcast' as well as others soon (I've added an extra link to the topics).

Huge thanks to Eric for agreeing to the interview and a big thanks to the subscribers of this blog. 25 now! I am seriously amazed.