The making of history's first 3D animation

[@cuomostan]

18:56 Guys, he said handful at the end of the video, which is actually a clever reference to the title of the video. What makes this joke so funny is that it actually uses the fact that the animators 3D modeled a hand in this video, which is the central idea of this video. This central idea (or motif, for those of you more literarily inclined) is also put in the title to give a heads up to everyone who is watching that this will be a video on the starting of animation, and suggesting that a hand is relevant in that situation. Now, fast forward to the end and you will notice that he says “handful” to refer to the hand that seemingly started animation. This is also a satisfying joke since it all comes back around full circle. As humans, we like it when something appears at the start, and end of media. However, I would argue that Camwing is just trying to scratch this itch inside of us without going through the hard work of really making it satisfying. I appreciate this clever “full circle” strategy, but it’s like appreciating sweet food. No matter what, it will likely be enjoyable, but that does not necessarily make it good since all sweets are enjoyable. Camwing uses something that is similar to a sweet. Sweets can still be tasty even if they’re bad. My favorite sweet is actually Hershey’s chocolate bars. When you take a bite out of them, they never fail to disappoint, unlike Camwing’s ending. I kind of wish everything was a Hershey’s Chocolate Bar? Maybe that’s just the greed talking. They are just so good, and as a glutton, I just want more and more and more. But that’s just my human instinct talking. Humans are too greedy. We want more food, water, and shelter than we need, and we just consume, consume, consume, but never give, give, give. We can make the world a better place if we all were a little less greedy. I should have accepted the fact that Camwing made a “full-circle” style joke, even if it wasn’t executed all too well. Anyways, that’s why Camwing’s joke at the end involving the reference to the hand was really funny.

[@elijah44gd79]

ok

[@at_rar]

Is this shitpost?

[@BONER10]

Oh my god…

[@orisinil7603]

I'm not reading all that but thanks for the explanation

[@aberality6724]

I didn’t know anyone liked writhing essays…. Wow.

[@knightofiris]

Animation, both as a medium and it’s history is so insane. Also, don’t know if it was intentional, but Sam knowing the door was open and you climbing through the window to get in is a great joke about amateur animators making things way harder and seasoned ones finding/making work arounds.

[@camwing]

It's funny you should say that, I didn't intend the meaning of that joke while I was writing it, but every time I try something complicated in Resolve, Sam immediately does a much better job of it

[@MiniMatthias]

in my experience, it's sometimes the other way around. where seasoned animators will do the thing they know, and junior animators can find new and intuitive ways to get things done!

[@millo7295]

I guess, "both as its' history and a medium" wouldn't read smoothly as the other way around

[@taureanwooley]

Turbosquid is even a bigger odd ball thing that's like the invention of CAD

[@Williaso]

I'm a very big fan of the "low energy chaos" of the opening of the video

[@GREG_WHEREISTHEMAYO]

I cannot believe that you would propose something as preposterous as animators being properly compensated for their work. How else are the corporations supposed to pay their executives ridiculous salaries????????

[@MrGamelover23]

The worst part is that they never will be properly compensated because as soon as they start, then that's when the outsourcing begins. Do those executive salaries even contribute to the company making money?

[@millo7295]

By having LESS shifts for MORE people, having a singular employee work LESS, be MORE productive for LONGER and, guess what? You pay the individual less money because they're doing less work but you have so many individuals that there's an insane amount of work being completed for a lot of money and you can pay the individual more for the next project, making more work, more product and more income

[@Entvari]

Dude your content is so unbelievably high quality man and it just keeps getting better. You deserve more recognition, this stuff is amazing.

[@jolly_gman]

‼️‼️🗣️🗣️📢🔊🔊 what he said

[@poolkrooni]

We going places, watch this space! 👀👀

[@notcmiles]

this is one of the camwing videos of all time

[@pixelzwithaz]

oh wait a second that’s me

[@camwing]

I was hoping you would see this

[@QUENROUTE66]

a good theory

[@pixelzwithaz]

I love this video so much please make more like this

[@Oxygenationatom]

Your videos have a cool style.

[@nemex_490]

pixelz mentioned !!! wtf is a bad animation

[@JayTheDevGuy]

This was unreasonably good. I thought I knew a lot about the basic history of CGI & Pixar, but I learned a ton from this! Good stuff man

[@bradleyg_]

2:11 Oh hey thas me :0 It's wild to think that essentially anyone can now have easy access to tools that surpass what Pixar had a few decades ago, and it's neat we're able to see plenty of insanely talented independent creators as a result. Brilliant video, I will now be investing my life savings into bread 🍞

[@chobies5383]

Love your stuff man.

[@bradleyg_]

@@chobies5383 Thanks :)

[@WildOhana]

I would watch an endless supply of videos like this, incredibly fascinating stuff delivered with just the right balance of comedy and information

[@MewZe]

Dude, I absolutely love your style of animation.

[@HonsHon]

Really? I fucking hate it. Thankfully, his animation is really good and I love it.

[@awethebird]

It's good.

[@thecapitalg]

​@@HonsHonwait then why'd ya say ya hate it?

[@mxnevermind]

Unless I've misunderstood your confusion, the kind of camera they would have used to capture the screen is called a **Pin Registered** Camera; they're designed such that they can hold a frame perfectly still until any number of adjustments are made during multiple exposures, or in this case, long exposures, ensuring there won't be any bleed or overlap.

[@RedMoonArcade]

I wish I had the time and the patience, to find a better way to do Animation in a different and easier way than I'm used to..... manually... all of it.

[@brodriguez11000]

Smart Clay.

[@ComplexAce]

try Cascadeur

[@KeithOlson]

I really appreciate how, in the 'I love megacorps' section, you lead with about how the MC did something underhanded and dirty *AND THEN* brought forth a counter-argument admitting that he actually had somewhat of a point *AND THEN* looped back around to 'I still don't like what he did, though.' Bravo, good sir! Such even-handedness is becoming an ever-rarer occurrence.

[@MomradG]

I'm just so incredibly happy that indie animation KZbinrs with unique styles are popping up again RitoBandito, PixelzwithaZ, FUNKE carleaux, Noodle, you, and so on It's so great!

[@kirbles2035]

Very happy you learned animation. Your previous videos were knowledgeable and interesting, but the animation gives you so much more identity and is way more engaging.

[@balaclavakid3905]

More videos on the history of 3d animation would make me giggle with glee 😊

[@Acideye48]

I'm a big animation fan and I feel like people generally appreciate hand-drawn over computer animated. I'm also a big history fan so a series about the history of animation sounds cool.

[@tronophono913]

that's great. Hand drawn is a beutiful art. But they won't pay for it. Movies are a business and while it sucks the people on the top don't care for the bottom line.

[@thegreatgoobert5847]

This is probably my favourite video that youve made. The relaxing music, the steady narration, and the intresting topic made this video extremely captivating.

[@camwing]

I'm glad you liked it! This was definitely my favorite to make, hands down.

[@Mornal]

Oooooohh this is an exciting one Also the catmull-clark reveal was fucking wiiiild

[@Sugar3Glider]

I remember as a kid somehow getting a VHS of the animated film festival. The guy playing vhess, an alien planet where aliens eat balls and fart, and a minecart ride were absolutely captivating to me.

[@undercoverduck]

For an up and coming channel, I think the Decoder (podcast) episode with Hank Green and Nilay Patel is an essential listen. In it, Nilay Patel argues that having fun with your creations is more important than any other metric or approach when seeking to grow & maintain an internet audience. He argues that gaming the algorithm, SEO-shanigans, chasing trends and whatnot can result in temporary successes, but they also tend to bore people in the long run. Having fun, on the other hand, is what people naturally gravitate towards and seek out in the long term. So instead of asking us-the audience-what we expect or hope to see, ask yourself how you can have the most fun with the videos 😄

[@camwing]

I'm listening to it right now 👀

[@Frizou]

I'm in absolute shock at this video I originally found this channel through the video about low-rated Steam games and after some time, I unsubscribed because i didn't have much interest in the content put up. Now, just under half an hour ago, a random shorts popped up in my feed using this really cool and unique 2-3D style and I realized this is actually the same channel?! This is an insane transformation and I'm all for it. Keep up the good work, this video has an extremely interesting subject and I've learned a lot from this

[@Izelikestea]

I actually wrote my bachelors thesis on exactly this topic! This is an excellent video. A whole series would be awesome!!

[@ambient-hour]

ngl I just want more Heathcliff content. Super underrated series, why don't those have millions of views. Animation history would be cool too. Great stuff as always.

[@Bopsterjazz]

Definitely make this a series! I feel like unless you’re in a 3D oriented animation program in school, you really don’t get to learn about this stuff unless you’re specifically hunting for it?

[@camwing]

You'd be surprised how hard it was to find a lot of this info. It's definitely out there, but it took WAY more digging than I expected. More stuff like this is on the way, this was probably my favorite video to put together.

[@PierreFMK]

I'm so freaking happy I found this channel. It's so fun to see someone both witty and knowledgeable about animation and gaming (and workers rights ✊) make very well written jokes that manage to be both on point and hilarious. Keep doing what your doing! I'm inspired to take a stab at this kind of "stop motion" paper animation as well, even looking to see if Blender can't replace After Effects for me. Again great stuff man!

[@thegibusguy4969]

I've been kinda burnt out on video essays, but this one was really absorbing! You've got a nice narration voice and go at a good pace. I'd love learn more about what comes after, when CGI becomes more mainstream and those doubters are proved wrong!

[@tysonasaurus6392]

Please do continue this series, this video was excellent and I highly agree that this history isn't talked about enough

[@theross]

A few more data points to tack on - even with the artificial attempts to keep wages low "for job security" and such, around 10 years ago Pixar started having round after round of layoffs (the only reason I'm no longer there). The culture shift was noticeable, going from an amazing place that cared about it's employees to just another company to work for. :( Also during my time Pixar _did_ explore opportunities to outsource animation to cheaper places (Canada, for example), so there's that.

[@camwing]

Ugh, that sucks. At the time of writing the script they're still keeping animation in house, but just 2 days ago they announced 175 job cuts. Pretty miserable to see when the base salary of one executive is the equivalent of nearly 200 lower level employees. The Disney acquisition is ultimately what put them down this path, I really wish they could've stayed independent.

[@carterbot8472]

As always it is genuinely a refreshing to see yet another animated documentaries style video channel come out of nowhere, sort of like doodly. I really enjoy this storytelling medium and I always thought that it was a little stupid when people like Jaden or domics made the exact same format but for goofy little slice of life stories. If a medium exists then you can take it to different places. Doesn't always mean that everyone's going to enjoy it, but I really enjoy this animation style and it's fun to have something comforting to look at while receiving intriguing information. Anyhoo I hope that you have a good day and a wonderful life

[@trayjburner]

I love this format of getting to learn the history both chronologically and mechanically of how 3D animation originated and evolved, especially with the helpful modern tips for aspiring animators sprinkled in! I would absolutely LOVE for this to become a series!!!

[@stuff31]

This is a really nice appreciation of the history of CGI! I love your videos, you have a great artstyle, and your thoughtful commentary of these artforms is something we need more of. Keep it up!

[@skeleton_craftGaming]

I found it funny [though I am a floating skull for what its worth..]

[@lucasc5622]

Cringe

[@EbenCT_]

​@@lucasc5622yes you are

[@Purpial]

I love this wow! As someone who uses blender every day, this was such a fascinating watch for me// honestly sculpting something with real clay and then griding it out is something I want to try

[@camwing]

It's surprisingly fun. I've sculpted a few models by hand and digitized them with a 3D scanner, then all you need to do is retopology. If you don't have access to a 3D scanner, Polycam for Android and iOS works super well too

[@jacoL8]

I actually hate how underrated you are, I think you deserve success more than people who have way more subs yet create objectively worse vids... in other words wish you the freaking best man!

[@mr.figgles]

16:47 incredible save of the segment, honestly. Great video! While I certainly wouldn’t mind more animation history, I do have a suggestion. The video has a very consistent level of energy. It certainly isn’t bad to have a comfortable low energy tone for a video, but it could be helpful to think about ways to vary the level of energy, things like occasionally speeding up the editing and pacing. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER, this is purely food for thought. I have no experience and am merely comparing the feeling of watching different videos, and philosophizing about why.

[@Pkmn20]

helpful to whom?

[@mr.figgles]

@@Pkmn20 to Camwing? Help make his videos more engaging over longer periods of time. Mainly, that helps Camwing, better videos means a better audience.

[@gagz9k]

So much focus on Toy Story, when the guys at Reboot had ten time more 3D content done, albeit cut into episodes, by the time Toy Story started production. Yeah, Toy Story was groundbreaking, but for the time they were the techbros, the Maya Users, while the people from Reboot were the Blender guys. I wish they get the recognition they deserved.

[@mariovelasquez1243]

The sound design behind the muffled window sound and then coming inside was chefs kiss

[@BBWahoo]

This makes me appreciate the weight and scale and potential 3D animation still has. You become so bored of it, seeing it saturate, but that's because there's so much use that it become a commodity. Thank you for showing me this

[@ShinyHuman]

Fantastic video. I thought i knew a great deal about the history of CGI but i didn't know a lot of this information. Very well done especially considering the general point of how relatively easy it is to make stuff now.

[@WilltheThrill]

This was such a good video and this needs so many more views Pleaseeeee keep doing these

[@camwing]

I've got 3 or 4 more animation history topics I wanna cover, we'll definitely be making more. Not exactly sure when, but it'll happen, I swear

[@saronite5236]

For a frame of reference on the salary scale; in 2009 in Pixar entry level salaries were 50k while dream works paid 60k. The story I got from classmates in the industry was vfx workers were sleeping in bunk beds 4-5 people per apartment room. Additionally Parke is barely mentioned but he went on to teach at Texas A&M and has educated tons of vfx artists that have created many of your favorite movies and video games.

[@GoGo-ze1mq]

Wow, the style is incredible and the animation is exactly what it needed to be for the character! This is a gem, congratulations

[@Demonskunk]

I would LOVE to see this become a series.

[@batattitude]

That hand modeling and scanning is like the 3D modeling equivalent of cutting up a turkey feather to make a quill pen and it's the coolest thing ever.

[@TheMan83554]

I love this kind of lower key history delve. You're style is perfect for it. Clean visuals, well done commentary and wit drier than Death Valley.

[@tgpapy]

Another Camwing video lets goooooooo! Found your channel via the TOTK episode and love your stuff!

[@zetsho]

YEAH! Cool stuff, thank you! I never really realized how much I was taking 3D animation or rendering for granted. Though at the same time, all the computer stuff is wizardry to me lol

[@ArekusaSan]

Ohmygod yes!!! Please more CGI animation history!! I love the stuff, but keep constantly hitting roadblocks when I try to do research of it on my own. Thanks to this video, I now have resources I haven’t even come across before, and you explain everything so well. This is exactly the thing I’ve been wanting for years, and I’ll be here for similar videos if you continue to make them

[@slyfoxblox]

18:30 Thank you, I absolutely adore Luca and I think it’s lumped into this “new pixar” box but I think it’s visually beautiful and incredibly charming. Very overlooked film.

[@slyfoxblox]

Oh, and it looks like that’s my binge over, I’ve officially watched all your public videos.

[@magicaggy]

LOVE this, more 3D animation history would be really awesome! tbh i feel like i vibe with everything you put out, and you seem to only pursue passion projects, so whatever you do keep pursuing what you want to, and ill keep watching!

[@CybenX_yt]

god i love videos where you can TELL he was so passionate about the topic, thanks for yet another banger

[@meatmech.mp4]

Loved this video, i would love if you made this a series

[@wolfleader17]

Great stuff. Incredibly inspiring to see how Catmull and Park put in heaps of time and effort into a project that no one really considered useful at the time. Be creative and keep trying, folks.

[@avricci]

This is perfection in form of content. Thank you so much, I love every bit of it.

[@Kason-h4k]

Your channel is so great and I wish it was more popular because you deserve it

[@RemedialClaw]

This is wonderful, I would love to see more

[@ScoutOW2]

Ayyy! Yet another interesting topic from you!

[@CarsonTheGreat1]

Amazing work! There’s something about animation KZbin that is so special, it’s always cool to find new talent and new styles, and to mix it with video essays is something I really love. Your words about blender and these other 3d modeling apps being so accessible not only to use but to learn is really encouraging, and maybe I will try a little harder next time I sit down and give learning blender a go. Hope to see more cool stuff from you!

[@Whaddif_]

insane they did all those calculations *by hand*

[@Moogulz]

I've been a 3D artist for a few years now and even went to school for computer animation and they never covered any of this. I really appreciated this and would love to see more of it. I think you're gonna blow up here soon so keep up the great work!

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Very interesting topic that I don't know much about. You've grown my appreciation for it. I enjoy the calm yet charming straightforward presentation style as well.

[@yea4309]

This was a great video! Genuinely one of the most interesting I’ve enjoyed in a while. Would love to see more like it

[@Numberer1]

Ooh I love this style! Awesome stuff :)

[@chips989]

Cant believe the title wasnt "the hand that shaped animation". What a missed opportunity

[@paolaanimator]

I remember learning 3D modeling on Blender in high school and eventually animating in Maya and Unreal in college, still do today. I still love Blender for the amount of tools available, and it’s free like DaVinci Resolve. I learned a lot online as well. This video did a great job of showing how far animation has come since then. ❤

[@tysonasaurus6392]

I've actually been reading about this stuff lately, it's super interesting, excellent video. I also think it's interesting how Nolan Bushnell the founder of Atari and Chuck E Cheese probably knew Edwin Catmull from attending the University of Utah as they both would've been there at the same time and were both studying computers. It doesn't end there though, before Lucasfilm formed the Graphics Group, they had acquired Kadabrascope from Nolan Bushnell, which was meant to be a cg animation studio but I think Bushnell was losing money and had to sell some of his assets and that was one of them, and those Kadabrascope assets were used for the Graphics Group

[@CaCriGuz]

Dude! Amazing video! Thank you so much for putting the hard work and sharing it! So funny and insightful.

[@FelixEA]

I mean... amazing video. Phenomenal

[@gallantryharder]

I can't believe I didn't know about so much in this video. The hand, your channel, even the Catmull-Clark subdivision's origins which I have to look at almost weekly. And I guess that's kinda the theme of this video, math geniuses slaved away over work so I don't have to think about it and I can instead just focus on making silly block people dance around. Keep creating, I have a lot of respect for you.

[@ZecaLopes]

This is one of the most underrated channels I have seen in a long time. Keep up the good work man.

[@lRlMlGl]

Felt like this should have been included in this video too but also in that scene from Future World on those monitors is another animation created by Fred Parke at the university of Utah called "Faces And Body Parts" which came out 2 years after A Computer Animated Hand in 1974 and includes the first talking CGI face and head, though not the first ever CG face since that was actually included at the end of A Computer Animated Hand with a scan of the face of Parke's wife.

[@FumezCreates]

Would love to see more of your videos. You guys are doing awesome work.

[@cordysoups]

Fantastic video dude. I like to think im pretty knowledgeable about this kind of thing but you showed me how much there is to learn and it was really fascinating!

[@playcebovision5319]

One of my professors is the current author of Heathcliff. Pretty cool dude tbh, was very encouraging of students ideas, and offered great feedback.

[@ItsJJOLO]

This was the perfect channel to find while having the flu

[@Ajourneyofknowing]

The new textbook Empire of Effects which delves into ILM retrospectively also comments on their resistance to cgi It was a mix of: CGI being a trending fad like 3D films were to us, not being photorealistic enough to pass their standards over practical props & their optical printers, only as a experimental niche technology with few uses, and the standard hate/fear that computers will kill their jobs They were fighting to get onto any films while other crew members being classically trained & inspired animators wanted to make their own work like the animation industry not just be in service of whatever film they were assigned effects too. Even the lucasfilm yearbooks passingly mention the graphics crew like they weren’t as deserving as other departments. Not getting any visits from Lucas like ILM & other films had and no technician became a ceremony nominee when Young Sherlock might’ve won the effects Oscar While Lucas did utilize computer both for a few standout shots and especially ILM motion control cameras he was still an outsider on this technology only prioritizing Pixar to invent movie editing softwares and filmreel scanners before selling them due to budget cuts as a failure. Open minded Dennis Murren had to rebuild the CGI department with his “Mac squad” by the time of Willow & The Abyss however Lucasfilm has mythologized the history like Pixar never truly left or they always embraced cgi since their first films

[@jameshoole5709]

Found your content recently and I'm loving going through your videos. Would absolutely love more videos on this topic!

[@laserwaffles9364]

This video is amazing! Thank you for that, I'm surprised you didn't squeeze in the story of Jurassic Park's production story on how an animator just made 3D rendering Trex for fun, but then some saw it and was like "Stephen Spielberg has to see this!" Hence why we use CGI for everything ever since.

[@vast634]

I always wondered how they could even render complex shaded images on the very limited hardware back then. Makes sense that this was done using long exposure photographs and rendering the image in small chunks, adding the exposed parts piece by piece.

[@ThrowingCrunchy]

I would love more history of animation stuff! But like, w/e you enjoy makin dude, keep it up!

[@brodriguez11000]

Tron would be a start.

[@smileyp4535]

WAGES AREN'T *"EXPENSES"* Labor is HOW YOU MAKE THE BUSINESS RUN. By that logic so is PROFIT which is literally just UNPAID WAGES that go to the people who AREN'T DOING ANY OF THE WORK. Revenue should go to the people makeing it AND THEN the owners. People who ACTUALLY DO THE WORK should make more than executives since it's they WORKERS who actually MAKE THINGS and are taking the risk by losing their livelihoods if they lose their jobs, they don't get golden parachutes if things go bad like executives/shareholders do

[@sl1ppey]

Really top notch stuff. Sucks the algo hasn’t caught this (yet) but this is hands down your best video.

[@Anomidae]

I've always wanted to make a video about this, but seems you've covered this excellently! great work

[@mandrew31]

Whyyyyyyy do you not get more viewwwwwws, it tortures my soul because you deserve more recognition. Amazing video as always

[@crazycolbster]

For what it's worth, I super enjoy this stuff more than regular video game content

[@tciddados]

I never realized that Catmull was the co-founder of Pixar, I just know him as the subdivision / texture mapping guy. Neat.

[@sunnymon1436]

I made a 3D hand not too long ago in Blender - I was pretty proud of getting it down to 347 verts. 1041 data points. Looks good too, but it's a hard task to get things that low poly because the peaks and valleys get confused and confusing, especially if you need it to bend and gesture.... and to crease right to make a fist as well as a slap or a grab.

[@eddiebaty3482]

Bro, I love watching your videos. I can’t believe you only have 80 K you deserve more.

[@CheesyYVIO]

The fact that the storm stopped when he started explaining implies that the storm wants to listen too

[@idoyt8684]

I'd love more animation history! I'm not falling for shallow engagement bait! (fr though i'd love this)

[@PinoPrime]

how come that hand despite being the first model ever made and being painstakingly digitized, still has better topology than the hands on my model 😭😭😭

[@camwing]

relatable 😔

[@mjjjermaine]

I use a modeling software for my Architecture class called Rhino, and I never gave much thought to how easy 3D modeling is now (other than being thankful for having something faster than hand drawing) This vid gave me more to think about

[@stratospheric37]

You are Lassalle's strongest soldier

[@1zymn1]

I'm reading Catmull's book whenever my computer is busy rendering, and it's amazing to read about his supposed business ethics that favor the artist and creativity and his real world ethics that rip them off. He makes a point to acknowledge the ego of Steve Jobs in his book, about how Jobs could see the narcissism in everyone else but himself, while Ed suffers from it as well. He's a very inspiring speaker, I'll give him that, and I want to believe that Pixar is ran the way he claims, but it could be a puppet show, or it could be those higher than Ed pulling the strings. I don't know, it's not like I'll ever work there. I am thankful for his vision and innovation, though.

[@camwing]

It's hard to admire somebody for their massive contributions to your field when you're simultaneously critical of the things they did afterward. To this day, I still haven't found a president of a billion dollar company that isn't at least a LITTLE terrible.

[@LostTerminalVideos]

Fantastic video with a lot of really interesting info I didn't know about a topic I love. Keep up the good work!

[@MrGamelover23]

18:13 The problem is that they won't be properly compensated because if you force them to, then they'll just outsource to another country that doesn't properly compensate them. It sucks, but you're never gonna get properly compensated unless every single country suddenly decides that they should also start doing that.

[@official-obama]

4:08 no way is it the catmull-clark guy!?

[@sirpotatoman3248]

WE SUBDIVIDING SURFACES WITH THIS ONE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

[@BBWahoo]

16:44 I like the trope, there is nothing wrong with using what works.