[Mirror](https://vid8.poal.co/user/AOU/0f2fx6h) **This rotating 3D computer-animated face (and hand) was not actually created for the movie.** Instead, the filmmakers licensed groundbreaking footage from experimental university short films titled * [A Computer Animated Hand (1972)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naGntYNTSQM) * [Mirror](https://vid8.poal.co/user/AOU/pnLyL1O) and * [Faces and Body Parts (1974) - First talking polygonal human](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kElpJjW8Yk) * [Mirror](https://vid8.poal.co/user/AOU/shtQlcb) **These sequences represent the first-ever use of 3D computer-generated imagery (CGI) in a live-action feature film.** The face was pioneered by computer scientist **Fred Parke**, while the accompanying hand was created by **Ed Catmull (who later co-founded Pixar)**. To render the groundbreaking 3D face seen in Futureworld, the creators relied on a powerhouse setup of early 1970s hardware and custom, hand-coded software. Because commercial animation software did not exist, everything had to be built from scratch at the University of Utah. ### **The Mainframe Hardware** * **The Computer:** The heavy lifting was done on a **PDP-10** (Programmed Data Processor-10) mainframe computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It occupied an entire room and boasted less processing power than a basic modern digital watch. * **Data Input:** The 3D coordinate data of the face's polygons was manually typed into the machine using a mechanical **Teletype keyboard**. * **The Display:** The computer rendered the data onto a high-resolution, monochrome Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) monitor. ### **The Custom Software** Instead of a program with a user interface, the "software" was thousands of lines of raw code written in languages like **FORTRAN** and **assembly code**. * **The Facial Animation Code:** Fred Parke wrote custom software designed specifically to handle facial topology. His program calculated how approximately 250 to 300 polygons and 400 data points (vertices) would shift in 3D space. * **The Rendering Code:** Ed Catmull wrote a proprietary 3D animation program to output the solid shapes. He integrated **Gouraud shading** algorithms (pioneered by classmate Henri Gouraud) to blend the color across the polygons, giving the face a smooth, organic, "half-tone" look rather than a jagged, blocky appearance. * **The Motion Code:** To animate the facial movement fluidly between expressions, Parke coded a **cosine interpolation** scheme. This mathematical formula automatically filled in the transitional frames so the face shifted smoothly from one look to another. ### **The "Render Farm" (A 35mm Camera)** The hardware could not output video or show the fully shaded face in real-time. To check their work, Catmull and Parke had to take a **long-exposure Polaroid photograph** of the CRT screen to see a single completed frame. Once a sequence was ready, they used a custom-rigged **35mm film camera** pointed directly at the monitor to automatically photograph the images frame-by-frame, creating the final film reel used in the movie. * Advanced Research Projects Agency (**DARPA**) was behind the grants that funded this **University of Utah computer lab**. * Ed Catmull's developed the hidden-surface **Z-buffer algorithm** kept the back of the head from showing through the front.