prosthetic knowledge

ANIMAC 

A MOCAP-like system to generate animated figures through a computer and human actor in 1966.

Taken from A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation: Analog approaches, non-linear editing, and compositing:

Perhaps one of the earliest pioneers of this analog computer animation approach was Lee Harrison III. In the early 1960s, he experimented with animating figures using analog circuits and a cathode ray tube. Ahead of his time, he rigged up a body suit with potentiometers and created the first working motion capture rig, animating 3D figures in real-time on his CRT screen. He made several short films with this system, called ANIMAC …

… It was while he was at Philco that he decided to chase his idea of systematically creating animated figures. His concept was to view a stick figure as a collection of lines that could be independently moved and positioned to form an animated character. Each of the lines would be displayed on a CRT and controlled with a vector deflection of the CRT’s electron beam. Each figure would be composed of bones, skin, joints, wrinkles, eyes, and moving lips, all drawn in sequence to create what Harrison called a “cathode ray marionette.”

Sadly, I couldn’t find any video examples of this technology (any links from the source are dead). The project was pretty much a proof-of-concept, but the knowledge from it’s development went into Scanimate, probably best known for 70’s American TV titles and The Jackson Five’s Blame It On The Boogie video.

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