Robert Abel and Associates (RA&A) was an American pioneering production company specializing in television commercials made with computer graphics. Robert Abel's company, RA&A was especially known for their art direction and won many Clio Awards. Abel and his team created some of the most advanced and impressive computer-animated works of their time, including full ray-traced renders and fluid

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at a time when such things were largely unknown. A variety of high-profile television advertisements, graphics sequences for motion pictures (including ''

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'' and ''

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''), and work on

laserdisc video game An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, ...

s such as ''

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'', put Abel and his team on the map in the early 1980s. The company was also originally commissioned to create the visual effects for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but were subsequently taken off the project for mishandling funds. Many people who worked at RA&A went on to other ground-breaking projects, including the founding of

Wavefront Technologies Wavefront Technologies was a computer graphics company that developed and sold animation software used in Hollywood motion pictures and other industries. It was founded in 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, by Bill Kovacs, Larry Barels, Mark Sy ...

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and other studios. Many RA&A people went on to win

Academy Awards 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 ...

. RA&A was on the southwest corner of Highland Avenue and Romaine in the heart of Hollywood, California. The company was also notable on its work for

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' 1981 music video " Can You Feel It." RA&A closed in 1987 following an ill-fated merger with now-defunct Omnibus Computer Graphics, Inc., a company which had been based in Toronto.

References

External links

The Bob Abel ProjectA demo reel of work from 1982
American animation studios Visual effects companies Digital media Film production companies of the United States Companies based in Los Angeles {{animation-studio-stub