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Pacific Data Images (PDI) was an American
computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images ( moving images), while computer animation re ...
production company based in Redwood City,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, that was bought by
DreamWorks SKG DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
in 2000. It was renamed PDI/DreamWorks and was owned by
DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a divisio ...
. Founded in 1980 by Carl Rosendahl, PDI was one of the pioneers of computer animation. It produced over 700 commercials, contributed visual effects to more than 70 feature films, and produced and contributed to many of DreamWorks Animation's films, beginning with DreamWorks' first animated film '' Antz'' (1998). PDI's final animated film before its closure on January 22, 2015 was '' Penguins of Madagascar'' (2014).


History


1980–1987: Early years

PDI was founded in 1980 by Carl Rosendahl with a loan of $25,000 from his father. He was joined in 1981 by Richard Chuang and in 1982 by Glenn Entis. Richard and Glenn wrote the foundation of the in-house computer animation software that was to be used for the next two decades. They started work on 3D software at the end of 1981, and 3D production started in the fall of 1982. The initial goal of the company was "Entertainment using 3D computer animation". The first computer at PDI was a DEC PDP 11/44 with 128 kilobytes of memory. This was a lot of memory given that the computer had only 64 kilobytes (16-bits) of address space. It had a 20 megabyte disk. Attached to this was a $65,000 framebuffer which had a resolution of 512×512 and was 32 bits deep. The first 3D image rendered at PDI was done on March 12, 1982. The image was simply a 4 by 4 by 4 grid of spheres of varying colors. The spheres were not polygonal, they were implicitly rendered and were fully anti-aliased. The resulting image was 512 by 480 by 24 (8 bits for red, green and blue channels) which took 2 minutes to render. The PDP-11 was soon replaced by a DEC VAX-11/780 and later PDI shifted to another superminicomputer called the Ridge 32. This machine was 2–4 times faster than the VAX-11/780 at a fraction of the cost. The original in-house software evolved into a large suite of tools which included a polygon scan-line renderer (called p2r), an interactive animation program (called e-motion), an animation scripting / scene-description language (called script) and a lighting tool (called led). All of these tools were written in C and deployed on a variety of machines running various flavors of Unix. The initial investment to start the company was $250,000, about $600,000 in 2005 dollars. Its original offices were in
Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nor ...
working out of a garage owned by Carl's father. PDI moved to its first real offices in 1985 (Sunnyvale), to its second offices in 1995 ( Palo Alto) and to its last location in Redwood City at the Pacific Shores Center in 2002. The growth of the company was financed solely through profit. The company was run as an open book; monthly financial reviews were shared with the entire company, and a detailed monthly financial report was released. Money was never taken out of the company which maintained a 7% investment in R&D. PDI was debt-free when acquired by DreamWorks in 2000. PDI's first client was
Rede Globo TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo. The TV stati ...
, Brazil's largest TV network. This gave PDI the major client they needed to fund the creation of most of its early software. This also sent PDI into the business of TV motion graphics and logo animation. PDI designed some early show openings and other special projects for Rede Globo. The software written was also given to Rede Globo and is the only time the in-house software was given to another company. The contract ended in the mid-1980s, but Rede Globo continued to use the software until 1989. Most of the 1980s were spent creating broadcast graphics for most television networks around the world. PDI was working concurrently for ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Cinemax,
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
, VH1, TNT ,
Nine Network Australia The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television net ...
, Sky One and Showtime. PDI focused on direct to video production as opposed to film output being done at other early studios. PDI modified the interface to a Sony BVH-2000 using parts put together from a trip to a toy store in order to do single-frame recording. All the rendering was done on fields at 60 or 50 frames per second (depending on the video broadcasting standard used locally). PDI controlled a large percentage of this market during this time and they were the first mass producer of computer animation. One year producing two major networks' graphics packages meant specifically rendered images for over 400 local television stations. Some of the early production contracts included Globo, ''Entertainment Tonight'' (produced for Harry Marks), ABC Sports 84 Olympic promos, and NBC News. PDI worked with
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Ca ...
, also in Sunnyvale, in the early 1980s on a couple of projects. In 1982, Rosendahl was hired to set up and calibrate Atari's computer animation
film recorder A film recorder is a graphical output device for transferring images to photographic film from a digital source. In a typical film recorder, an image is passed from a host computer to a mechanism to expose film through a variety of methods, h ...
system that would be used for video game footage in '' Superman III''. PDI planned and proposed a feature-length CG animation film in 1985, but they were unable to raise the funding needed to produce it. PDI outlived all the other computer graphics studios that existed in the early 1980s. One of the reasons for this is that PDI never went into significant debt by purchasing expensive hardware. While other studios purchased or leased supercomputers, PDI bought cheaper hardware, treating it as a commodity which would soon be replaced, enabling lower operating costs.


1987–1990: transition

PDI's early focus was on network TV productions since they captured over 50% of that market in 1985. However, in 1990, PDI introduced the digital film scanning process. This process was used to popularize automated rig removal and image touch-up. PDI was also instrumental in introducing performance animation for theme parks, ads and movies. This started with a joint project in 1988 with
Jim Henson's Creature Shop Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based out of Burbank, California, United States. History Jim Henson's Creature Shop was originally ...
on a real-time performance character called Waldo C. Graphic for '' The Jim Henson Hour''. During these years of transition, PDI moved away from the motion graphics market and focused their attention on commercials and 3D visual effects for feature films. Notable among the commercials was the first Pillsbury Doughboy created in CG. Pillsbury was the first company to move an established icon to CG. Before this, all previous animated commercials were done with stop-motion. Other notable commercials include the "Bud Bowl" and "Scrubbing Bubbles" spots. Early in the 1990s, Thaddeus Beier and Shawn Neely developed a method for morphing that resulted in a much more natural and expressive morph. This technique is called "feature-based morphing". PDI used this technology to create various well-known sequences, including the
Exxon ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 3 ...
car-into-tiger morph and the extended morph at the end of the " Black or White" music video from
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...
. These morphing jobs were easy to do with PDI's software and the effect was in high demand. The algorithms invented by Beier and Neely were published at the annual SIGGRAPH conference and are now the basis of most image morphing tools. For many people, their first exposure to these algorithms was the SGI
IRIX IRIX ( ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. In IRIX, SGI originated the XFS file system a ...
software called "Elastic Reality". PDI also did the opening sequence for the 1990s revival of the classic game show, ''
Let's Make a Deal ''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...
''. PDI broke into the feature film visual effects business with contributions to ''
Terminator 2 ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' is a 1991 American science-fiction action film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong, it is t ...
'' (1991), ''
Toys A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pe ...
'' (1992), '' Angels in the Outfield'' (1994), ''
Batman Forever ''Batman Forever'' (on-screen title is simply ''Forever'') is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton, based on the DC Comics character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The third installment o ...
'' (1995), and '' The Arrival'' (1996). At the time, the strengths of PDI included character animation, lip synch, rendering effects, the aforementioned rig removal and cleanup, and performance animation. During this era PDI transitioned from the Ridge32 computer to SGI workstations running
IRIX IRIX ( ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. In IRIX, SGI originated the XFS file system a ...
. They were not alone in this transition as most of the industry followed suit.


1990–1995: character animation

Early in 1990, Tim Johnson and
Rex Grignon Rex Grignon (born June 11, 1962) is a Canadian-American animation director and entrepreneur. Grignon received his animation training at Sheridan College where he graduated in 1984. He then earned his bachelor's degree in 1985 from New York Instit ...
officially formed PDI's Character Animation Group with the mandate to develop a group of artists with the creative and technical skills needed to produce a feature-length CG-animated film. The group originally consisted of Johnson, Grignon,
Raman Hui Raman Hui Shing-Ngai (Traditional Chinese: 許誠毅, born 4 July 1963) is a Hong Kong animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for directing the films ''Monster Hunt'' and ''Monster Hunt 2''. Early life Hui was born in Ho ...
,
Glenn McQueen Glenn John McQueen (December 24, 1960 – October 29, 2002) was a Canadian supervisor of digital animation and supervising character animator at Pixar and Pacific Data Images. Personal life McQueen graduated from Sheridan College in 1985. He w ...
, Beth Hofer, Dick Walsh, Karen Schneider and
Eric Darnell Eric Darnell (born August 21, 1961) is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, screenwriter, songwriter and occasional voice actor best known for co-directing '' Antz'' with Tim Johnson, as well as co-directing and co-writing ''Mada ...
. Under this group, PDI's commercial character animation skills grew and numerous notable short films were produced. Among these are ''Gas Planet'' (1992), ''Sleepy Guy'' (1994), ''Brick-a-Brac'' (1995), ''Gabola the Great'' (1997), ''Fishing'' (1999) and ''Fat Cat on a Diet'' (1999). This character group set the company off in a new direction that set the basis for development goals during this period. The short films were a way to develop animation techniques as well as being a test bed for software and pipeline procedures and flow. PDI allowed animators to pursue individual products and shorts. This produced several award-winning short films in this category. Some of the more notable productions are ''Opera Industrial'' (1986), ''Chromosaurus'', ''Cosmic Zoom'' (1985), ''Burning Love'' (1988), and ''Locomotion'' (1989). By 1992, PDI was looking for a partner to produce feature-length animated films. In the meantime, the company (with help from
Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the '' Star Wars'' and ...
's
Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pr ...
) worked on the 1991 TV special '' The Last Halloween'' for
Hanna-Barbera Productions Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
, which won them an Emmy Award for the CG characters in the otherwise live-action special. This turned into PDI's first 3D Character Animation pipeline. Using this pipeline, they created a 3D stereo
Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Mel ...
for Warner Bros. and a CG
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
and
Bart Simpson Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional character in the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in '' The Tracey Ullman Sh ...
for the "Homer3" segment of the 1995 ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' episode " Treehouse of Horror VI". The result of all these projects was a movie deal with
DreamWorks SKG DreamWorks may refer to: * DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin ** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio ** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
in 1995 to make the movie '' Antz''. At this time DreamWorks purchased a 40% share of PDI. Glen Entis left PDI for the game industry in 1995, first joining
DreamWorks Interactive Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft (later moved to Mi ...
as CEO. When Electronic Arts purchased DreamWorks Interactive, he moved to their Vancouver office to set up their next-generation games research group. He is a founding board member of Los Angeles' Digital Coast Roundtable, and is chairman of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.


1995–2015: feature films and closure

PDI's first feature film '' Antz'' was released by
DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG and formerly DreamWorks Studios, commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film company and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994 as a liv ...
on October 2, 1998. This was followed by ''
Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 book of the same name by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' franchise. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jen ...
'' on May 18, 2001. After the success of ''Antz'', in 2000 Carl Rosendahl sold his remaining interest in PDI to DreamWorks. PDI was renamed PDI/DreamWorks and continued to operate as a stand-alone business unit. Rosendahl left PDI in February 2000 to become managing director for Mobius Venture Capital, where he focused on investments in the technology and media companies. In May 2001, this sale essentially united the two studios, PDI and DreamWorks, into a single entity which went public a few years later as
DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a divisio ...
(DWA). PDI stopped making commercials and visual effects for live-action films in 2002. Animators at PDI worked on projects based at the PDI studio, but also assisted in DWA projects based in the Glendale DWA studio. By the time PDI reached its 25th anniversary in 2005, it had completed over 1000 projects and grown to over 400 employees. In 2008, Richard Chuang, the last of the initial three, left the company to pursue his own ventures. On January 22, 2015, PDI/DreamWorks was shut down as part of its parent company's restructuring plans following the box office underperformance of '' Penguins of Madagascar'', cutting off 500 jobs.


Animated films

PDI/DreamWorks has produced '' Antz'' (1998), ''
Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 book of the same name by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' franchise. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jen ...
'' (2001), ''
Shrek 2 ''Shrek 2'' is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 picture book '' Shrek!'' by William Steig, produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. The sequel to ''Shrek'' (2001) and the ...
'' (2004), ''
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...
'' (2005), '' Shrek the Third'' (2007), '' Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa'' (2008), ''
Megamind ''Megamind'' is a 2010 American computer-animated superhero comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, the film stars ...
'' (2010), '' Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted'' (2012), '' Mr. Peabody & Sherman'' (2014) and '' Penguins of Madagascar'' (2014). With US$441.2 million in domestic
box-office A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is fr ...
ticket sales, ''Shrek 2'' is currently the fourteenth highest grossing animated film of all time in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. PDI won their only
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for Best Animated Feature Film for ''Shrek'' in 2002, which was the first time it was awarded.


Technical awards

PDI/DreamWorks has won nine Scientific and Technical Academy Awards. The first was awarded to Les Dittert, along with others, in 1994 for work in the area of film scanning. The second was awarded to Carl Rosendahl, Richard Chuang and Glenn Entis in 1997 for the concept and architecture of the PDI animation system. This award in particular recognized their pioneering work in computer animation dating back to the founding of PDI 17 years earlier. Nick Foster was given an award in 1998 for PDI's fluid animation system (flu), and in 2002 Dick Walsh was given one for the development of PDI's Facial Animation System. In 2010, Eric Tabellion and Arnauld Lamorlette were given one for PDI's
global illumination Global illumination (GI), or indirect illumination, is a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes. Such algorithms take into account not only the light that comes directly from ...
rendering system first used on ''Shrek 2''. This was the first use of global illumination in an animated feature film, a technique which is commonplace today. In 2013, Lawrence Kesteloot, Drew Olbrich and Daniel Wexler were given an award for PDI's lighting tool, called "light." This tool was developed in 1996 for PDI's first feature film, ''Antz'', and was used until 2015 at PDI and DreamWorks Animation some 25 films later. In 2015, Scott Peterson, Jeff Budsberg and Jonathan Gibbs were awarded for the studio's foliage (trees and vegetation) system. This system was first used on ''Shrek'' and continues to be used today. At the same ceremony, Karl Rasche was awarded along with engineers from HP for his part in the creation of the "DreamColor" monitor. Richard Chuang, Rahul Thakkar, Mark Kirk and Stewart Birnam, along with DreamWorks engineer Andrew Pilgrim, won a 2016 SciTech technical achievement award for their work on digital movie review systems.


Filmography


Films


Film effects

PDI contributed visual effects, animation and other services to the following films: * '' Electric Dreams'' (1984) * ''
Scrooged ''Scrooged'' is a 1988 American Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by Richard Donner and written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue. Based on the 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'' by Charles Dickens, ''Scrooged'' is a modern retellin ...
'' (1988) * ''
Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to re ...
'' (1990) (uncredited) * '' Solar Crisis'' (1990) * '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' (1991) * '' Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' (1991) * '' Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'' (1991) * ''
The Last Boy Scout ''The Last Boy Scout'' is a 1991 American buddy action comedy film directed by Tony Scott, written by Shane Black, and produced by Joel Silver. The film stars Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Chelsea Field, Noble Willingham, Taylor Negron and Danielle ...
'' (1991) (digital compositing) * '' Body Parts'' (1991) (trailer) * '' Freejack'' (1992) (uncredited) * '' Sleepwalkers'' (1992) * ''
The Babe ''The Babe'' is a 1992 American biographical sports drama film about the life of famed baseball player Babe Ruth, who is portrayed by John Goodman. Directed by Arthur Hiller, written by John Fusco, it was released in the United States on Apri ...
'' (1992) * ''
Lethal Weapon 3 ''Lethal Weapon 3'' is a 1992 American buddy cop action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Jeffrey Boam and Robert Mark Kamen. The sequel to '' Lethal Weapon 2'' (1989), it is the third installment in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film ser ...
'' (1992) (digital compositing) * ''
Batman Returns ''Batman Returns'' is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Waters. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman'' (1989) and the second installment in the 1989–1997 ''Batman ...
'' (1992) * ''
Toys A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pe ...
'' (1992) * ''
Robocop 3 ''RoboCop 3'' is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Fred Dekker and written by Dekker and Frank Miller. It is the sequel to the 1990 film '' RoboCop 2'' and the third entry in the ''RoboCop'' franchise. It stars Robert B ...
'' (1993) * ''
Cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
'' (1993) * '' Dennis the Menace'' (1993) * '' Rookie of the Year'' (1993) * ''
Heart and Souls ''Heart and Souls'' is a 1993 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Ron Underwood. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Thomas Reilly, a businessman recruited by the souls of four deceased people, his guardian angels from childhood, to ...
'' (1993) (Visual effects and title sequence) * ''
Freaked ''Freaked'' is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Tom Stern and Alex Winter, both of whom wrote the screenplay with Tim Burns. Winter also starred in the lead role. Both were involved in the short-lived MTV sketch comedy show '' The Idiot ...
'' (1993) * ''
Carlito's Way ''Carlito's Way'' is a 1993 American crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma, based on the novels '' Carlito's Way'' (1975) and '' After Hours'' (1979) by Judge Edwin Torres. The film adaptation was scripted by David Koepp. It stars Al Pac ...
'' (1993) * '' Lightning Jack'' (1994) * '' Beverly Hills Cop 3'' (1994) * '' Angels in the Outfield'' (1994) * ''
True Lies ''True Lies'' is a 1994 American spy action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Art Malik, Tia Carrere, Bill Paxton, Eliza Dushku, Grant Heslov and Charlton Heston. I ...
'' (1994) * ''
Airheads ''Airheads'' is a 1994 American comedy film written by Rich Wilkes, directed by Michael Lehmann, and starring Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Ernie Hudson, Michael McKean, Judd Nelson, Michael Richards, Amy Locane and ...
'' (1994) * '' Natural Born Killers'' (1994) * ''
The River Wild ''The River Wild'' is a 1994 American adventure thriller film directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, John C. Reilly, Benjamin Bratt, and Joseph Mazzello as Roarke. It is about a family on a whitewate ...
'' (1994) * ''
Double Dragon is a beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technōs Japan and released as an arcade game in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight against various adversaries and rivals. The origina ...
'' (1994) * '' Speechless'' (1994) * ''
Batman Forever ''Batman Forever'' (on-screen title is simply ''Forever'') is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton, based on the DC Comics character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The third installment o ...
'' (1995) * '' Bushwhacked'' (1995) * '' Broken Arrow'' (1996) * ''
Executive Decision ''Executive Decision'' is a 1996 American action film directed by Stuart Baird in his directorial debut. The film stars Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, and B.D. Wong. It depicts t ...
'' (1996) * '' The Arrival'' (1996) * ''
Eraser An eraser (also known as a rubber in some Commonwealth countries, including South Africa from the material first used) is an article of stationery that is used for removing marks from paper or skin (e.g. parchment or vellum). Erasers have ...
'' (1996) * '' Batman and Robin'' (1997) * ''
A Simple Wish ''A Simple Wish'' is a 1997 American children's-fantasy- comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie, and starring Martin Short, Mara Wilson, and Kathleen Turner. The film is about a bumbling male fairy godmother named Murray (Short), who tries to he ...
'' (1997) * '' The Peacemaker'' (1997) * ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...
'' (1997) * '' Forces of Nature'' (1999) * '' The Out-Of-Towners'' (1999) * ''
Supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or whe ...
'' (2000) * '' Mission: Impossible 2'' (2000) * '' The Legend of Bagger Vance'' (2000) * ''
The Road to El Dorado ''The Road to El Dorado'' is a 2000 American animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. It was the third animated feature produced by DreamWorks. The film was directed by Eric "Bibo" Bergeron a ...
'' (2000) * '' The Deep End'' (2001) * ''
The Mexican ''The Mexican'' is a 2001 American dark comedy adventure crime film directed by Gore Verbinski and stars Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in lead roles. Its plot is a mixture of different genres. Plot In Los Angeles, a traffic light changes to r ...
'' (2001) * ''
Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
'' (2001) * '' A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' (2001) * '' Minority Report'' (2002) * '' People I Know'' (2002) * '' Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas'' (2003)


Shorts

* ''Teddy Bear Maelstrom'' (1983, Glen Entis) * ''Elephant Bubbles'' (1984, Don Venhaus) * ''Max Trax'' (1985, Adam Chin) * ''Botco'' (1985, PDI Staff) * ''Cosmic Zoom'' (AKA ''Comic Zoom'') (1985, PDI Staff) * ''Chromosaurus'' (1985, Don Venhaus) * ''Max's Place'' (1985, Adam Chin) * '' Opéra Industriel'' (1986, Adam Chin, Rich Cohen) * ''Burning Love'' (1988, Roger Gould, Howard E. Baker) * ''Locomotion'' (1989, Steve Goldberg) * ''The Wave'' (1989, Scott Miller) * ''Slide Show'' (1991,
Glenn McQueen Glenn John McQueen (December 24, 1960 – October 29, 2002) was a Canadian supervisor of digital animation and supervising character animator at Pixar and Pacific Data Images. Personal life McQueen graduated from Sheridan College in 1985. He w ...
) * ''Frankie & Johnny'' (1991, PDI Staff) * ''Happy Dog'' (1992, PDI Character Animation Group) * ''Gas Planet'' (1992,
Eric Darnell Eric Darnell (born August 21, 1961) is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, screenwriter, songwriter and occasional voice actor best known for co-directing '' Antz'' with Tim Johnson, as well as co-directing and co-writing ''Mada ...
) * ''Big Smoke'' (1993,
Eric Darnell Eric Darnell (born August 21, 1961) is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, screenwriter, songwriter and occasional voice actor best known for co-directing '' Antz'' with Tim Johnson, as well as co-directing and co-writing ''Mada ...
) * ''Sleepy Guy'' (1994,
Raman Hui Raman Hui Shing-Ngai (Traditional Chinese: 許誠毅, born 4 July 1963) is a Hong Kong animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for directing the films ''Monster Hunt'' and ''Monster Hunt 2''. Early life Hui was born in Ho ...
) * ''Brick-a-Brac'' (1995, Cassidy Curtis) * ''Gabola The Great'' (1997, Tim Cheung) * ''Basic Insect'' (1998, Marty Sixkiller) * ''Millennium Bug'' (1998, Lee Lainer) * ''Fat Cat On a Diet'' (1999,
Raman Hui Raman Hui Shing-Ngai (Traditional Chinese: 許誠毅, born 4 July 1963) is a Hong Kong animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for directing the films ''Monster Hunt'' and ''Monster Hunt 2''. Early life Hui was born in Ho ...
) * ''Fishing'' (1999, David Gainey) * ''Metropopular'' (2000, Jonah Hall) * ''Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party'' (2001, PDI Staff) * ''Sprout'' (2002, Scott B. Peterson) - Final independent work. * ''Far Far Away Idol'' (2004, PDI Staff) * ''
The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper ''The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper'' is a 2005 American computer-animated short film produced by DreamWorks Animation. The 12-minute ''Madagascar'' spin-off features the adventures of four penguins, sometimes known as the Madagascar ...
'' (2005,
Gary Trousdale Gary Trousdale (born June 8, 1960) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing films such as ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1991), ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1996), and ''Atlantis: Th ...
) * '' Megamind: The Button of Doom'' (2011, Simon J. Smith) * ''Madly Madagascar'' (2013, David Soren) * ''
Rocky & Bullwinkle ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC tele ...
'' (2014,
Gary Trousdale Gary Trousdale (born June 8, 1960) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing films such as ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1991), ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1996), and ''Atlantis: Th ...
)


Television specials

* '' Shrek the Halls'' (2007) * ''
Merry Madagascar ''Merry Madagascar'' is a Christmas special first broadcast on the NBC network on November 17, 2009, which starred the characters from the film series ''Madagascar'', and takes place sometime between the first and second film. It is the second Dre ...
'' (2009) * '' Scared Shrekless'' (2010)


Other work

* '' The Jim Henson Hour'' (Computer Animation) (1989) * '' The Last Halloween'' (Character Animation) (1991) * '' Muppet*Vision 3D'' (1991) (Waldo Character Animation) * ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
'' Treehouse of Horror VI (1995) ("Homer3" Segment) * ''
Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension ''Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension'' (also titled ''Marvin the Martian in 3D'' and ''Marvin the Martian in 4D'') is a 3-D Looney Tunes film formerly an attraction at Drayton Manor Resort in Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire, England, W ...
'' (1996) (Theme Park Ride/Short Film) * ''
Cartoon Sushi ''Cartoon Sushi'' is an adult-animation showcase program that aired on MTV from 1997 to 1998. It was developed by Eric Calderon and produced by Nick Litwinko, and was the successor to Liquid Television. The title screen opening was illustrated b ...
'' (1997) (Gabola The Great Segment) * '' Cyberworld 3D'' (2000) (IMAX film, '' Antz'' and ''The Simpsons'' segments) * ''
Shrek 4-D ''Shrek 4-D'' (also known as ''Shrek 3-D'' for the DVD release and ''The Ghost of Lord Farquaad'' for the Shrek's Thriller Tales DVD release and DreamWorks Spooky Stories Blu-ray release, Netflix and other streaming releases) is a computer-animat ...
'' (2003) (Theme Park Ride/Short Film) * '' Madagascar: A Crate Adventure'' (2011) (Theme Park Ride) (animated sequences)


See also

* Pearl Studio *
DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a divisio ...
* ''Shrek'' (franchise) * ''Madagascar'' (franchise)


References


External links

* archived on July 25, 2003
PDI/DreamWorks history
at DreamWorks Animation archived on September 27, 2007
Pacific Data Images & PDI/Dreamworks playlist
{{Authority control American animation studios DreamWorks Animation Film production companies of the United States Visual effects companies Entertainment companies based in California Companies based in Redwood City, California Entertainment companies established in 1980 Entertainment companies disestablished in 2015 1980 establishments in California 2015 disestablishments in California 2000 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1980 American companies disestablished in 2015 Defunct American film studios