Balloon Guy (1987)
Back in 1987, CGI was still relatively new. Pixar had only produced three shorts by that time and they tended to be extremely simple. And, such projects took years and were still created using massive mainframe computers--as PCs were not fast enough or complex enough to do this sort of work. And, most importantly, rendering software had to be created by anyone wanting to do such work. It was a very primitive time for the most primitive sort of CGI, this short film is an animation that was used to demonstrate the new physics of the polygon animation.
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If you don't understand the context in which this short animated film was made, you'd probably quickly dismiss it. However, this would be a huge mistake as it's super-important to the history of computer generated animation.Back in 1987, CGI was still relatively new. Pixar had only produced three shorts by that time and they tended to be extremely simple. And, such projects took years and were STILL created using massive mainframe computers--as PCs were not fast enough or complex enough to do this sort of work. And, most importantly, rendering software had to be created by anyone wanting to do such work. It was a very primitive time for the most primitive sort of CGI.If this film had been made in the 1990s or beyond, I wouldn't have been impressed. After all, the balloon man and balloon dog were incredibly simple CGI characters. However, given the severe limitations of software and computers, this is awfully good--and the bright and colorful look tends to make up for some of the deficiencies of the style of animation. Worth a look--particularly if you are a fan of early CGI.