Scanimate News
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Keeping this important bit of history alive is not without its expenses, not the least of which is the electric bill and air conditioning to keep the equipment happy. In the near future I will be renovating this site and making it more interactive for visitors. I also plan to make some of my archival material available. If you would like to help support my work here, please make a small donation. I truly appreciate all the generous donations friends of Scanimate have made!
"The future's so bright - I gotta wear shades!"
-Dave Sieg |
| Recently, Chris Stack visited ZFx and we tinkered around with connecting control voltages from his Moog Little Phatty to the Scanimate. It was a fun session! We suffered from the Scanimate not being "zeroed out" after my last animation project, and from a lack of proper patch cords with 1/4" phone plugs on the Moog end and the oddball 0.09" analog patch cords Scanimate uses, but we managed to demonstrate some very interesting combinations of music that is synchronized with visuals that the two can produce. Of course we have great ideas about the next step, but I thought you might find this first experimental test interesting. Thanks Chris! |
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Welcome to Scanimate Central!
Once upon a time (but not so long ago) making animation with computers was pretty farfetched futuristic wizardry. A few brave souls believed it was the future, and helped start what is today a major industry. This site celebrates the people, places, machines, and projects that came out of that colorful past. I welcome your inquiries, I try to answer them all. Email dave@zfx.com with your questions or comments. |
Scanimate Stars in High-Definition White Gold Rock Opera!
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Scanimate recently completed 3 days of shooting the "Vortex Scene" in a new Rock Opera for White Gold.
Check out the trailer HERE.
In the video above, Joe Mullen from Buck in LA talks about the experience of shooting 4K resolution footage with the RED Digital Cinema camera. More Pictures and info on my blog.
UPDATE: Buck has just updated their site with high-rez movies of the final composites. |
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A couple of years ago, the overwhelming response to some of the sample movies I had put on this site motivated me to compile the Scanimate DVD-1 featuring some of the video demo reels I have collected over the years from Computer Image and Image West. But the demo reels only show the work. In the second DVD, "The Dream Machine", I've been fortunate enough to interview many of the people whose pioneering work with Scanimates broke ground for what is today a multi-billion dollar industry. I've been able to piece together the stories of people like Lee Harrison, who dreamed of a way to share what the mind's eye sees, and whose company, Computer Image built Scanimate, the first commercially successful electronic animation computers. For more detailed information on the contents of The Dream Machine, or to order your copy today, Click here. |
Scanimate moves to Asheville, NC
Dave Sieg and ZFx recently relocated to new headquarters in Asheville, NC. "We feel this will be an amazing fit with the community where Robert Moog did all his analog wizardry in the music world. What a great place for Scanimate to wind up!" |
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Scanimate Gets a New Lease On Life! While in production for the new Scanimate DVD-2 I have been giving Scanimate some new capabilities, like a SGI Indy to truly provide "high-rez" artwork, and a CCD pickup camera. Click here for details! |
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Due to overwhelming demand, DVD-1 has been re-released in a standard DVD case as DVD-1 First Edition.
(This is the same material originally seen in DVD-1, just new packaging.) People all over the world are talking about the first Scanimate DVD! Two hours of classic '70's and '80's electronic animation produced by the "Dream Machine" and the companies that built and used Scanimate computers to pioneer the animated graphics we've all come to know and love on television and films. For more information or to order your copy today, Click Here. |
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The History of Analog Computer Animation - from the SIGGRAPH 98 History Project. by David Sieg. |
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Ed Tacjhman, former head of engineering at Computer Image sent me an amazing package of material, including early videos from Scanimate, Animac, CAESAR, and other goodies. |
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Marilou Harrison and her son Paul have sent me some excellent photographs of Lee Harrison (Scanimate's inventor), Scanimates around the world, and Animac, (Scanimate's precursor). |
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How Analog Animation Was Produced. Step-by-step description of how artwork was prepared, how waveforms were controlled, with a pictorial tour of Scanimate's components. |
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Over the years, a surprising number of people have been involved with Scanimate or one of the early computer animation companies. Some of the Alumni of Scanimate history are listed here. |
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Dave Holman was so taken with this page he sent his memoirs. They were so good, I gave him his own section! |
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Scanimate Alumni Guestbook. Yes, it really was that hard, yes, it really was that much fun! |
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A collection of thumbnail Images from many past projects. Click the thumbnail for a larger image. |
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Scanimate Videos from Various sources. |
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Some odd little tidbits. Yes, we were and still are an odd bunch! |
