Tony de Peltrie is a Canadian
computer-animated
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 refe ...
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
from 1985. The short shows the first animated human character to express emotion through
facial expression
A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. According to one set of controversial theories, these movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a ...
s and body movements, which touched the feelings of the audience.
[Philippe Bergeron, Pierre Robidoux, Pierre Lachapelle und Daniel Langlois]
''Tony de Peltrie (1985)''
Website ''The Daniel Langlois Foundation: Image du Futur collection''. The film was produced from 1982 to 1985 at the French-speaking
University of Montreal
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
[''Infographie et cinéma numérique''](_blank)
Website der ''Faculté des arts et des sciences. Département d'informatique et de recherche opérationelle'' der ''Université de Montreal'' (PDF 437 KB).
The four team members, Pierre Lachapelle (including production), Philippe Bergeron, Pierre Robidoux and
Daniel Langlois
Daniel Langlois (born 1957 in Jonquière) is the president and founder of the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Ex-Centris, and Media Principia Inc.
Daniel Langlois also founded Softimage (company), Softimage Inc., serving as its president and chief t ...
, are all credited as directors.
[''Kanada Schaltstelle im Netz'' (Katalog), Netzwerk Art. Barke Verlag, München 1990, , S. 35.][''ICE, scripting and other tech stuff about Softimage''](_blank)
auf der Webseite ''eX-SI''.
Plot
Philippe Bergeron described the
character animation
Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated s to life. The role of a character animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor and character animators are often said to be "actors wit ...
with the words: "…''Tony de Peltrie'', about a piano player who is recollecting his glory days (…) Tony is not all that life-like in appearance, but the animation is so realistic that by the end of the short, you are really feeling for him.“
The film portrays the last part of Tony's career, as seen from his own perspective. Now alone and nostalgic, he recollects his past in a dreamlike state before it all fades away. The emotions of the story range in a melancholy way from joyful memories to the sad ending.
Production
The four co-directors were young programmers and started the computer animation on their own. Daniel Langlois had trained as a designer and computer animator for
movies
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and was an artist and programmer in the team. The face and body were sculpted by Langlois in clay and re-modeled according to the desired feeling of the expressions. Every time a new network of black lines with control points was drawn on the faces, which were required for the animation.
For the software development and interactive creation, the team worked with the 3-D interactive
graphics program
In computer graphics, graphics software refers to a program or collection of programs that enable a person to manipulate images or models visually on a computer.
Computer graphics can be classified into two distinct categories: raster graphics a ...
Taarna and the mainframe computers CDC CYBER 835, 855.
To calculate an image with the
mainframe computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
s then, took five minutes. The
computer monitor
A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.
The di ...
was a GRID TECHNOLOGIES ONE / 25S screen with a 24er card that had a range of 16 million colors. The image resolution of the monitor was 512 x 512 pixels. The images were calculated with four times the resolution so that no staircase effect emerged. For conversion of the face and body from analog to digital, a GRADICON digitizer was used, and for the rehearsal and filming a Bolex 16 mm and an Animation Oxberry 35 mm camera.
Publication
On the 12th
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
Film & Video Show in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in July 1985, Philippe Bergeron and Pierre Lachapelle presented the film ''Tony de Peltrie'' for the first time. Bergeron gave at the conference the lecture: "Controlling Facial Expressions and Body Movements in the Computer Generated Animated Short ''Tony De Peltrie''".
Reception
Critics and audiences were enthusiastic about ''Tony de Peltrie''. It received more than 20 awards worldwide and garnered coverage in hundreds of magazines.
In the week after the show in San Francisco, Time magazine concluded a two-page article about the Festival with the words:
John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, ...
, one of the festival’s judges commented:
Economic success
Typically, the success of a film is calculated in US dollars, which are paid by the visitors at the box office. The short film, produced not for profit at the box office, showed its success a few years later. The film is one of the reasons why
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
has become one of the global centers of the
computer game industry.
''Tony de Peltrie'' was created with mainframe computers. This was complicated because every change had to be reprogrammed. Philippe Bergeron told 2012 in a video how tedious and frustrating this work was. He talked about the fact that Daniel Langlois also saw it and had spoken of wanting to change that. After the completion of the film, therefore, Langlois worked with two programmers to create a new program, and founded the company
Softimage
Autodesk Softimage, or simply Softimage () was a 3D computer graphics application, for producing 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling, and computer animation. Now owned by Autodesk and formerly titled Softimage, XSI, the software has been predomi ...
in Montreal. The program
Softimage 3D
Softimage, 3D was a high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, broadcasting, gaming, and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It was superseded by Softimage XSI i ...
and its further developments advanced in the 1990s to become an industry standard.
George Borshukov, responsible for the special effects of the movie ''
The Matrix
''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in ''The Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantolia ...
'', said: "Without Softimage 3D and mental ray, specifically, those phenomenal bullet time backgrounds just wouldn't have been possible."
Special effects for blockbusters such as ''
Jurassic Park
''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
'' or ''The Matrix'' and many other films were produced with it. Many companies in the computer game industry also used programs by Softimage.
The presence of Softimage in Montreal was one of the reasons why
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...
established their North American headquarters in the city, where French and English are spoken.
Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal.
The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with sub ...
was launched in 1997 with 50 employees and in 2015 is the world's largest studio for the development and manufacture of computer games. By 2014 there were more than 2,700 employees.
As of June 2015 there were 52 small and large companies in Montreal, working on PC games. As a result, the city of Montreal has benefited from ''Tony de Peltrie'' in real money terms.
[http://www.hindawi.com/journals/usr/2013/957630/ The Case of the Video Games Clusters in Montreal and in Los Angeles]
Awards
(selection)
Tony de Peltrie won several international awards and prizes:
* 1985: Special Mention for Technical Innovation, International Film Festival, Kanada.
* 1985: Grand Prize for Animation, Eurographics, Frankreich.
* 1985: First Prize Computer Animation, First Los Angeles Animation Celebration, USA.
* 1985: First Prize OG'85 Supreme Award, On Live International Computer, Animation Film Festival, England.
* 1985: First Prize, SIGGRAPH, International Computer Graphics Association, Video Gala, USA.
* 1986: Prix Pixel-INA, Imagina, Monaco.
* 1997: Scientific and Engineering Award, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, USA.
References
External links
*
Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tony de Peltrie
Canadian animated short films
Computer-animated short films
Animated human characters
1985 in computing
Université de Montréal
1980s English-language films
1980s Canadian films