How do you make a computer-animated sequence of 3D wireframe visuals of fancy, Empire-built battle stations — in 1977? Very, very slowly. Our friend James at Retro Thing, aside from being a electronic-sonic inventor, is a fan of vintage visuals and was already teaching the history of computer animation in the mid 80s. (Hint: prepping that class didn’t take quite as long then as it would now.)

James explains the origins of the famous Death Star briefing room sequence:

The wizard behind the early Star Wars CG was Larry Cuba, who worked out of the Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL) at the University of Illinois. Legend has it that he was pushing the hardware so hard to create the simple wireframe images that he constantly had to adjust the air conditioning in the computer room to avoid system crashes. Cuba used a vector graphics scripting language called GRASS (GRAphics Symbiosis System), written by Tom DeFanti at Ohio State in 1974. The system he used incorporated a Vector General CRT, DEC PDP-11 minicomputer, along with various cameras and recorders.

Star Wars: Prehistoric Computer Graphics [Retro Thing, via Boing Boing Gadgets]

I have a special place in my heart for the original film Star Wars because — James will appreciate this — I initially experienced it as a kid only on sound Super 8 film, cut down to a svelte 17 minutes. (My understanding of narrative was never quite the same.)

But to me, these graphics don’t look primitive; they look elemental, much in the same way that you don’t get tired of ancient Egyptian art. (And in the timeline of computer graphics, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine thousands of years of art history happening in a few decades.)

The real star, though, is the film Cuba used to pitch computer graphics to George Lucas, Arabesque, made with John Whitney. If this 1975 film doesn’t inspire you as a visualist, nothing will. Correction: Evidently it wasn’t Arabesque, but the movie First Fig. Larry Cuba himself writes in comments:

Thank you for the appreciation of “Arabesque.” The film I screened for Lucas was actually my first CG film, “First Fig.”

(And you can connect the historical dots here, too: without Arabesque First Fig, no CG in Star Wars, no ILM CG, no Pixar.)

Well, George Lucas may or may not have seen Arabesque, but you can, below, and it’s still inspiring:

And for another Larry Cuba film, here’s the 1985 Calculated Movements:

For Whitney’s 1960s work, see previously:

Videos from the Dawn of Video: Mechanical Effects and Oscilloscope Games

And for more on Larry Cuba, see:

Larry’s personal site

Larry Cuba on the Star Wars “Wookipedia”

Maybe it’s time to re-write that history of computer animation.

While we’re looking at things Nodal: The Sandin Analogue Image Processor (or IP) is an impressive looking device, and is demonstrated by a man in an impressive looking hat.

(If you’re impatient, skip towards the end for some analogue video trippy colour coolness)

There is so much beauty in this video: The hat. Analogue versions of effects we’re still using today. Calling a tech demo “a romp”. The Hat. The digital computers “kind of thing which does your bills and payroll” quip (inspiration for Apple perhaps?). Physical patching of video modules. THE HAT! WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Ok, perhaps the hat is part of Dan Sandin’s “copy it right distribution religion”. Definitely a forward thinker, that man.

Via VideoThing

Previously: Free Vintage Fairlight VJ Clips.

The Digital Worlds blog, an Open University blog, has an excellent look back at the artistry of early video tubes entitled “Oscilloscopy.”

There’s John Whitney’s “showreel” from 1961, which shows off the ground-breaking (1961, folks!) possibilities of his “mechanical analog computer,” as appropriated from an antiaircraft gun director. Wait … say that again? Yep, Whitney actually used a mechanical contrivance to rotate layers of graphics. When that technique met up with the power of  It’s an idea that’s just waiting for today’s DIYers to tackle, perhaps mixing modern digital techniques with mechanical ones.

Next, also from the above blog post, witness the gorgeous oscilloscope graphics and mechanical control pads of Tennis for Two, an early (thought to be the second-ever, though you never know with these things) video game made by William Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Again, DIY project? Mechanical controllers, but this time coupled with 3D graphics? It is the 50th anniversary year of the title. (People under 35, remember that the next time your parents start talking about “back in their day” before video games. Tell them it’s not your fault they never dropped by the Brookhaven National Laboratory.)

Heck, I wish even oscilloscopes looked that pretty now.

There’s something really inspiring and elemental about these works — amplified by mechanical elements used in their creation and control. It’s something I think is possible in code; maybe it’s just challenging in a different way. (And maybe when you have that feeling of magic, you know you’re in the right place.)

This certainly gives me a different source of inspiration as I work with generative techniques in Java/Processing and the like. If this inspires any of your work, send us photos / video links — we’d love to see it! And motion graphics history buffs, happy to know more about these — and other — pioneers.

Data Is Nature brings to our attention the Valsuka Archive, an incredible trove of early video art history, exhibitions, work, designs and circuit diagrams. Paul describes it better than I:

The Vasulka Archive is massive repository of documents from the pioneering days of electronic, computer and video art. Containing a staggering 27000 pages of scanned documents, replete with hand typed texts, circuit diagrams and skuzzy ink marks, I could spend the rest of the week perusing this stuff, believe me. The big names are here, Crutchfield, Conrad, Paik, Van der Beek, Youngblood etc - hand written correspondences to the Vasulka’s as well as reviews and even obituaries of each artist/scientist - but history is selective and remembers according to its own algorithm. Encouragingly, not only do we find artifacts from the so called key movers of the time but also an exhaustive list of lesser, and relatively unknown practitioners waiting to be (re)discovered.

Check out the The Vasulka Archive and see what has inspired every generation of video artist. From TV to film to Music Video and club style VJing, it all started with these pioneers.

Via Data is Nature.

The 2007 way of promoting your VJing: giving away clips. So while we’re on the subject of legal, free clips to use in your next visual set (classic movies were the subject last week), this week:

68 Vintage Fairlight VJ Loops by VJzoo (2007) [Archive.org, from VJzoo.com

Get ready for some grungy, glitchy 80s electro-style analog visuals:

There are NOT for everybody's taste - they are messy, grungy and grainy loops harvested from "Vintage AV Plug n Play" sessions using equipment from the 1980's and 1990's such as Fairlight Computer Video Instruments (CVIs), the Panasonic WJ-AVE7 and feedback from an analogue Panasonic video camera on a Commodore monitor. The Fairlight CVI was developed in Australia in 1984 and was used by early live-AV artists such as Severed Heads.

That's right, Fairlight -- better known for their high-end sampler/workstation, the Fairlight CMI, credited by some as the first commercial sampler -- also made video equipment. And if there's one thing we love at CDM, it's talented Australians.

The footage raises an interesting question: whether tis nobler to use actual glitchy footage in your set, or build your own. Our friend Anton Marini (vade) has done some beautiful work making his own glitch patches in Max/MSP/Jitter. (More similar glitchy stuff elsewhere on his site, too.) This is entirely synthetic. Even if you're not into glitch, it's a fascinating learning experience to deconstruct the look of it and figure out how it's put together.

Updated: Yes, speaking of glitch, this is not actually synthetic -- see comments from vade. He has done some really beautiful -- and uniquely digital -- glitching in other projects, though. More on that soon.

Also in the free loops category: Holly Daggers' free loops on wetcircuit.com, including some beautiful footage she shot of steam coming out of smokestacks near her new Queens studio.

This gets me thinking, though: anyone else got access to a Fairlight CVI or other vintage equipment? We'd love to hear about. Heck, I'd love to come to your studio and visit it personally.

More on the Fairlight CVI:
Fairlight Computer Video Instrument [Retro Thing]
Fairlight CVI @ audiovisualizers.com

There’s nothing quite like the razor-sharp, analog vector graphics in games like Asteroids, Tempest, Battle Zone, and (my personal fave) Star Wars. They’re difficult to emulate using standard computer software. Our friend James Grahame notes that these fantastic graphics have now made their way into the PCI slot of your computer:

ZVG Vector Arcade Interface [Retro Thing]

And, yes, it’s the real thing:

It connects to an ECP-compatible parallel printer port and drives any analog X/Y Monitor including any dual channel oscilloscope that can be set to an X/Y mode.

The interface does both color and black and white vector imagery. It’s fully compatible with the popular MAME emulator, in DOS mode. Your best bet is probably to build a super-cheap PC with standard PCI slots (not PCIe). You can use the other slot for the superb HardSID PCI card, which will give you the sounds of the Commodore 64’s SID synthesizer. (Note that plans to import the HardSID by none other than James ultimately failed, but you can still order it from its European distributor.)

Vector graphics and C64 sound? Yeah, that should be heaven.

Of course, at those rare moments you can tear yourself away from the Star Wars game, you can use this for your own custom graphics. There’s an SDK and documentation at the official site, and source for everything.