Caps, Pixar, And The Disney Renaissance

How could a theme park ride possibly have a hand in sparking an animation revolution

? If your guess involves the ticket sale revenue, you're sadly off the mark. It all started with the Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot, at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The need to animate Mickey Mouse over the "Magical World of Disney" titles resulted in the software that would change the face of animation forever.

In the late 1980s, a group of animators and computer scientists from Pixar and Disney worked to create the Computer Animation Production System, or CAPS--a collection of scanning cameras, servers, computer workstations, and software that required its own custom desk setup. This chaotic grouping was for a purpose: many processes done in old-style animation, such as inking, paint and lighting effects, were now able to be created using the computerized system. The painstaking process of transferring animated drawings into transparent cels and painting each frame was suddenly as easy as a mouse click. Furthermore, the shading and color blending could be much more subtle, using almost any color imaginable. The final animated sequences were then recorded back onto film for distribution.

Along with the lighting and color effects, CAPS also allowed for new, more complex camera movements that had been impossible to achieve with traditional methods. As a two-dimensional art form, animation had a tough time creating a sense of spatial depth; the three-dimensional effect could be faked with special multiplane cameras, which would move pieces of artwork past the lens at various speeds and distances. CAPS made these extreme zoom shots much easier; the introductory shot that kicks off 1991's Beauty and the Beast, for instance, was made with the program,

The Rescuers Down Under, Disney's 1990 release, was the first film ever made entirely using CAPS; all subsequent animated features were produced with the technology. The computers were capable of producing extremely high-quality images, despite being a great deal slower than modern machines; one hundred percent resolution was always used for scanning the final frames, no matter how intricate the camera motion required. Furthermore, CAPS was able to produce 3D computer animation; small shots, like a staircase in Eric's palace in The Little Mermaid, were the baby steps toward Toy Story, the first fully CGI feature film. Considering their initial work on CAPS, it's no wonder that Pixar made a name for themselves with such a bold technological advancement!

Most of CAPS was scrapped when Disney brass decided to dismantle their traditional 2D animation studios. Of all the systems used, only a single desk system remains, as it is used for reading the original film data of the older films that used the technology. The unwieldy mass of wires, and monitors has been replaced by newer, faster animation programs, which can take advantage of the increased processing power of modern computers. Computer animation was a major revolution for filmmaking and animation in the 21st century, and it was all thanks to the CAPS system--and an Epcot ride that needed a few tweaks.

by: Robert Nickel

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