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Computer Graphics for Television

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Computer Graphics for Television Computer graphicsfor television By Eric Sorbers, first used by creative artists to Rather than using analog circuits McMartin Industries create complex Lissajous figures, to create abstract designs-al- still and moving. Artist Ben Lapo- though Scanimate is capable of The skillful and creative use of sky, designed the first analog doing that-Computer Image saw the new graphics technologies has system solely for artistic purposes in the device as a tool for adding added' an electrifying dimension to the 1940s. His creations, known as motion to otherwise lifeless corpo- programs and commercials. Visual Oscillons, are b&w and color still rate logos and other static figures. capabilities that would have seemed images. Mary Ellen Bute used an Although analog graphics systems beyond science fiction in the 1950s oscilloscope and analog circuits in are capable of producing beautiful are available today at' prices even the early 1950s to make motion geometric designs and fantasy the smallest station or production pictures. And in the late 1950s, a imagery, they are also useful for house can afford. filmmaker, John Whitney used image manipulation of a more However, the phrase computer more sophisticated military surplus conservative type. This author has graphics is a confusing one, for the analog gun computers to build an created film footage on a Scanimate pace of technology has resulted in 'image creation system using . opti- (using a kinescope recording cam- sucha variety of computer graphics, cal/mechanical scanning. era filming the high-resolution CRT devices, that now there are many But the analog computer did not display) depicting the moon circling forms of such graphics : some really find its way into TV graphics the earth and a rider on a horse posterize or animate still images; until the late 1960s when the moving across the screen. others turn graphic figures into Computer Image Corporation intro- Each of these scenes only re- moving abstract patterns; still oth- duced the Scanimate process, which quired a single litho original to be ers create pictures that look like has since been popular for advertis- created. In the moon sequence, the paintings or even like photographs. ing graphics, station IDs, and used litho consisted of a drawing of the Some operate in real time-images extensively by the TV show Sesame moon and a drawing of the earth. are put into motion at full speed Street. In the rider sequence, the litho before the operator's eyes-others require slow assembly of pictorial information for later playback. Some systems operate directly in NTSC video standards, others re- quire a TV or film camera, or other kind of converter. The graphics computer The kind of computer most facilities have these days to handle logging and bookkeeping is a digital computer. It stores and manipulates discrete signals; or pulses, known as bits, that are combined to form codes which represent letters of the alphabet or numbers. Some computer graphics systems for television, especially the newest ones, use this type of computer. But there is another kind of computer also used for graphics purposes, and it probably hasn't been heard of since the 1950s, at least a form in called a computer. Oscillon No. 507; It is the analog computer. Ben F. Laposky . Analog computer graphics were first used by creative artist's to create complex Lissajous figures . (Photograph courtesy of Analog computer graphics were Ben Laposky) June 1.980 Video Systems 11 Computer Graphics original showed a horse and a rider (each separately located on the eel)'. The Scanimate computer posi- tioned, sized and moved the- images accordingly to create the scenes described . Though simple visual sequences, conventional film anima- tion techniques would have required dozens of original litho images or cels to be drawn. The Computer Image Corpora- tion has even developed a special system just for cartoon-style anima- tion. With this system known as CESAR, one can create standard animated cartoons using far less original art than required by stan- animation. Liphtfall, Eric Somers . Electronic abstraction created by the author using an . dard optical analog system put together at Creighton University . Brushstroke effect is The Computer Image Corpora- similar to electronic painting possible with some digital systems, except that tion is not the only company that with the digital system representation art is also possible . Colonizer used was has produced analog graphics com- made by Colorado Video. (Photograph courtesy of the author) puters. Several years ago Steve Rutt and Bill Etra designed and built several models of the Rutt/Etra oriented. The operator of an analog movement that is unbelievably video synthesizer. They were simi- system directly manipulates, in real fluid and graceful. And this motion lar to Scanimate in some ways, time, the controls of the image is created in real time, so the artist although slightly different in capa- system. And the hardware deter- can experiment with scenes and bilities and operational architecture. mines the kind of image manipula- time sequences to match musical Graphics produced by this system tions that can be done. Each system passages or to fit the metre of other have been used in major feature has its own visual vocabulary. To, action. films and national TV spots. use analog graphics to its best 3. Abstraction its a major part of Probably the most famous artist- advantage, the creative artist should the analog vocabulary . Although designed analog graphics system is know the workings of the system to there are many uses for analog the Paik/Abe video synthesizer be used. There are several agency computer graphics as a simple and designed by Korean Artist Nam art directors who have gone to a low cost substitute for conventional June Paik (known as the father of computer graphics house with a eel animated in creating cartoon- video art) and Japanese Engineer preconceived notion of the images type animation, a major attraction Shuya Abe. The best-known instal- wanted, only to find that the analog of analog computer imagery has lation of a Paik/Abe system is at system being used could not pro- been the fantastic look of the final Boston's WGBH-TV, although a duce that image. It is important to product. Whether used to modify smaller Paik/Abe system also exists understand the system first, then an image from a camera, or to at the California Institute of the come up with a visual concept that generate a kaleidoscopic design, the Arts and perhaps elsewhere. Al- is within the system's vocabulary. output of the analog system usually though used exclusively for fine Unlike most other art media, looks futuristic and modern. And it arts, (not commercial art), the analog imagery is determined more seems to be a medium that appeals Paik/Abe system at WGBH. has by the machine than by the to a generation brought up on TV been used by a number of now- operator. Six operators of the same viewing. But it attracts the most prominent artists, some of whose computer are apt to produce images attention in self-conscious applica- tapes command good prices by more alike than they are different tions where the images look elec- collectors . And Boston viewers have (in style if not in content). To get tronic and bizarre. enthusiastically received the ab- beyond the look of the machine, stract visual accompaniments to the analog computer images must be A digital world Boston Symphony concerts created combined with a completely differ- In spite of the capabilities and on the Paik/Abe by Ron Hays. ent medium. beauty of graphics sequences gener- Although there are many kinds 2. Motion is the analog system's ated by analog computers, it is of analog graphics systems, they all best virtue. Although some artists becoming a digital world. This does have three basic characteristics have made use of still imagery not mean that the specialized related to their creative use that the produced by a graphics computer, capabilities of the analog computer TV producer or ad agency art the real success of systems such as must be discarded; hybrid systems director should keep in mind when the Scanimate . computer and the are being built that provide some of contemplating the use of analog Stephen Beck, Rutt/Etra and Paik/ the advantages of both analog and imagery: Abe synthesizers can be attributed digital equipment. 1 . Analog systems are hardware to their capability to produce Some new analog systems are 1 4 Video Systems June 1980 other LSI tlarge-scale integrated circuits) devices has drastically cut the cost of hardware, and graphics programs are being written that allow an artist with little technical training to create images, still or animated, on a TV screen. There are several amazing but true capabilities of computer images: e Digital computer graphics can be produced on a CRT that are virtually indistinguishable from TV camera images. That is, the com- puter can create real images of real-life things that have shadings of light and color, shadows and highlights caused by apparent light Dancer, Eric Somers. Example of N camera image Cblorized by an analog sources; etc. system . Gray scale levels are replaced by new colors and tones to produce *Digital computers can construct graphics art effect . Colorizer used was made by Colorado Video. (Photograph animated sequences that almost courtesy of the author) mimic Disney-style hand-drawn animation, yet unlike similar ani- mations produced with analog sys- designed to be controlled by a program from a keyboard terminal tems, there are no original cels to digital computer, so lengthy visual in conversation with the computer. be photographed by a camera. effects can be programmed and This allows the user to feed in data e Digital computers capable of pro- stored in the digital computer's or a command and immediately see ducing color graphics suitable for memory for execution at the ap- the results, a big improvement direct broadcast (without any re- pointed time.
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