EVLTube - Early Computer Animation at UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory

January 10, 2009 12:40 PM

Electronic Masks and Calculated Movements are two early computer animation projects featured at EVLTube, the YouTube channel for UIC's Electronic Visualization Laboratory. In additon to the video archive, the EVL website also features a trove of interesting current EV projects like snstncntnrs and Unfolding Space, not to mention extensive notes on the fascinating research conducted and devices used at the facility.

According to the video's notes, Calculated Movements is a 'later work' of Larry Cuba, who is perhaps best known for creating the Death Star computer graphics in Star Wars Episode IV.

posted by carsonb (4 comments total)

This is great! Calculated Movements is gorgeous!
posted by brundlefly at 12:48 PM on January 10

This is brilliant. That Calculated Movements piece would be clever and interesting today, using vastly more advanced computers.
posted by phrontist at 12:48 PM on January 10

Rereading the post, I'm disappointed that I neglected to include some hint of the era in which many these videos were created. It was the late 70's/early 80's, for the record. The EVL History playlist (autoplays from the linked videos above) is the part I've enjoyed most so far. Watching Cuba twiddle knobs and make adjustments with his FUNCTION KEYS in the making-of video is a crazy reminder of how far we've come with computer graphics in the last 30-odd years.
posted by carsonb at 12:55 PM on January 10

Wow, this hits close to home. I just finished a PhD in computer science at EVL, having been there for 4.5 years. Please don't let the old stuff distract you too much. EVL continues to be a vibrant research community at the cutting edge of computer graphics, virtual reality, and optical networking.
posted by rlk at 3:49 PM on January 11 [1 favorite has favorites]