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Tony de Peltrie

March 07, 2024

Tony de Peltrie is a Canadian animated short film from 1985. The short shows the first animated human character to express emotion through facial expressions and body movements, which touched the feelings of the audience.[1][2] The film was produced from 1982 to 1985 at the French-speaking University of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada.[3]

Tony de Peltrie
Directed byPierre Lachapelle,
Philippe Bergeron,
Pierre Robidoux,
Daniel Langlois
Produced byPierre Lachapelle
Music byMarie Bastien
Release date
  • 1985 (1985)
Running time
8 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

The four team members, Pierre Lachapelle (including production), Philippe Bergeron, Pierre Robidoux and Daniel Langlois, are all credited as directors.[3][4][5]

Plot edit

Philippe Bergeron described the character animation with the words: "…Tony de Peltrie, about a piano player who is recollecting his glory days (…) Tony is not all that life-like in appearance, but the animation is so realistic that by the end of the short, you are really feeling for him.“

The film portrays the last part of Tony's career, as seen from his own perspective. Now alone and nostalgic, he recollects his past in a dreamlike state before it all fades away. The emotions of the story range in a melancholy way from joyful memories to the sad ending.[5][6]

Production edit

The four co-directors were young programmers and started the computer animation on their own. Daniel Langlois had trained as a designer and computer animator for movies and was an artist and programmer in the team. The face and body were sculpted by Langlois in clay and re-modeled according to the desired feeling of the expressions. Every time a new network of black lines with control points was drawn on the faces, which were required for the animation.[2]

For the software development and interactive creation, the team worked with the 3-D interactive graphics program Taarna and the mainframe computers CDC CYBER 835, 855.[1][7] To calculate an image with the mainframe computers then, took five minutes. The computer monitor was a GRID TECHNOLOGIES ONE / 25S screen with a 24er card that had a range of 16 million colors. The image resolution of the monitor was 512 x 512 pixels. The images were calculated with four times the resolution so that no staircase effect emerged. For conversion of the face and body from analog to digital, a GRADICON digitizer was used, and for the rehearsal and filming a Bolex 16 mm and an Animation Oxberry 35 mm camera.[4]

Publication edit

On the 12th SIGGRAPH Film & Video Show in San Francisco in July 1985, Philippe Bergeron and Pierre Lachapelle presented the film Tony de Peltrie for the first time. Bergeron gave at the conference the lecture: "Controlling Facial Expressions and Body Movements in the Computer Generated Animated Short Tony De Peltrie".[8]

Reception edit

Critics and audiences were enthusiastic about Tony de Peltrie. It received more than 20 awards worldwide and garnered coverage in hundreds of magazines.[5] In the week after the show in San Francisco, Time magazine concluded a two-page article about the Festival with the words:

"But the biggest ovations last week were reserved for Tony de Peltrie. Created by a design team from the University of Montreal, it depicts a once famous musician, tickling the keys and tapping his white leather shoes to the beat of his memories. De Peltrie looks and acts human; his fingers and facial expressions are soft, lifelike and wonderfully appealing. In creating De Peltrie, the Montreal team may have achieved a breakthrough: a digitized character with whom a human audience can identify."

— Phillip Elmer-DeWitt: Time Magazine, 5. August 1985.[5][9][10]

John Lasseter, one of the festival’s judges commented:

"Years from now Tony de Peltrie will be looked upon as the landmark piece, where real, fleshy characters were first animated by computer."

— Maclean’s, September 9. 1985)[5][10]

Economic success edit

Typically, the success of a film is calculated in US dollars, which are paid by the visitors at the box office. The short film, produced not for profit at the box office, showed its success a few years later. The film is one of the reasons why Montreal has become one of the global centers of the computer game industry.[citation needed]

Tony de Peltrie was created with mainframe computers. This was complicated because every change had to be reprogrammed. Philippe Bergeron told 2012 in a video how tedious and frustrating this work was. He talked about the fact that Daniel Langlois also saw it and had spoken of wanting to change that.[11] After the completion of the film, therefore, Langlois worked with two programmers to create a new program, and founded the company Softimage in Montreal. The program Softimage 3D and its further developments advanced in the 1990s to become an industry standard.

George Borshukov, responsible for the special effects of the movie The Matrix, said: "Without Softimage 3D and mental ray, specifically, those phenomenal bullet time backgrounds just wouldn't have been possible."[12]

Special effects for blockbusters such as Jurassic Park or The Matrix and many other films were produced with it. Many companies in the computer game industry also used programs by Softimage. The presence of Softimage in Montreal was one of the reasons why Ubisoft established their North American headquarters in the city, where French and English are spoken.[13] Ubisoft Montreal was launched in 1997 with 50 employees and in 2015 is the world's largest studio for the development and manufacture of computer games. By 2014 there were more than 2,700 employees.

As of June 2015 there were 52 small and large companies in Montreal, working on PC games.[14] As a result, the city of Montreal has benefited from Tony de Peltrie in real money terms.[15]

Awards edit

(selection) Tony de Peltrie won several international awards and prizes:[4][5]

  • 1985: Special Mention for Technical Innovation, International Film Festival, Kanada.
  • 1985: Grand Prize for Animation, Eurographics, Frankreich.
  • 1985: First Prize Computer Animation, First Los Angeles Animation Celebration, USA.
  • 1985: First Prize OG'85 Supreme Award, On Live International Computer, Animation Film Festival, England.
  • 1985: First Prize, SIGGRAPH, International Computer Graphics Association, Video Gala, USA.
  • 1986: Prix Pixel-INA, Imagina, Monaco.
  • 1997: Scientific and Engineering Award, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, USA.

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Friday Flashback #60". eX-SI. 2012-03-09.
  2. ^ a b Philippe Bergeron, Pierre Robidoux, Pierre Lachapelle und Daniel Langlois: Tony de Peltrie (1985), Website The Daniel Langlois Foundation: Image du Futur collection.
  3. ^ a b Infographie et cinéma numérique, Website der Faculté des arts et des sciences. Département d'informatique et de recherche opérationelle der Université de Montreal (PDF 437 KB).
  4. ^ a b c Kanada Schaltstelle im Netz (Katalog), Netzwerk Art. Barke Verlag, München 1990, ISBN 3-926167-00-9, S. 35.
  5. ^ a b c d e f ICE, scripting and other tech stuff about Softimage, auf der Webseite eX-SI.
  6. ^ http://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/PDFs/ani-papers/Bergeron.pdf%7C Bergeron P. (1985) Controlling facial expressions and body movements in the computer-generated animated short "Tony de Peltrie".
  7. ^ http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/cdc/cyber/cyber_180/60459960A_Cyber_170_Model_825_835_855_General_Description_Jul82.pdf Control Data Corporation, Juli 1982 (PDF 20, 71 MB)
  8. ^ David Sturman: The State of Computer Animation. In: ACM SIGGRAPH. Band 32, Nr. 1 (February 1998).
  9. ^ Tony Sito: Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation. In: Time Magazine. ISBN 978-0-262-01909-5, S. 69.
  10. ^ a b "Adventures in Animation 3D". adventuresinanimation.com.
  11. ^ Philippe Bergeron on animating "Tony de Peltrie", YouTube 21 May 2012.
  12. ^ "The Matrix". pauldebevec.com.
  13. ^ Mathew Kumar: The French-Canadian Connection. A Q&A with Yannis Mallat, Ubisoft Montreal. In: Gamasutra.
  14. ^ "gamedevmap". www.gamedevmap.com.
  15. ^ http://www.hindawi.com/journals/usr/2013/957630/ The Case of the Video Games Clusters in Montreal and in Los Angeles

External links edit

  • Tony de Peltrie Video on YouTube
  • Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology

March 07, 2024
tony, peltrie, canadian, animated, short, film, from, 1985, short, shows, first, animated, human, character, express, emotion, through, facial, expressions, body, movements, which, touched, feelings, audience, film, produced, from, 1982, 1985, french, speaking. Tony de Peltrie is a Canadian animated short film from 1985 The short shows the first animated human character to express emotion through facial expressions and body movements which touched the feelings of the audience 1 2 The film was produced from 1982 to 1985 at the French speaking University of Montreal Quebec and Canada 3 Tony de PeltrieDirected byPierre Lachapelle Philippe Bergeron Pierre Robidoux Daniel LangloisProduced byPierre LachapelleMusic byMarie BastienRelease date1985 1985 Running time8 minutesCountryCanadaLanguageEnglishThe four team members Pierre Lachapelle including production Philippe Bergeron Pierre Robidoux and Daniel Langlois are all credited as directors 3 4 5 Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Publication 4 Reception 5 Economic success 6 Awards 7 References 8 External linksPlot editPhilippe Bergeron described the character animation with the words Tony de Peltrie about a piano player who is recollecting his glory days Tony is not all that life like in appearance but the animation is so realistic that by the end of the short you are really feeling for him The film portrays the last part of Tony s career as seen from his own perspective Now alone and nostalgic he recollects his past in a dreamlike state before it all fades away The emotions of the story range in a melancholy way from joyful memories to the sad ending 5 6 Production editThe four co directors were young programmers and started the computer animation on their own Daniel Langlois had trained as a designer and computer animator for movies and was an artist and programmer in the team The face and body were sculpted by Langlois in clay and re modeled according to the desired feeling of the expressions Every time a new network of black lines with control points was drawn on the faces which were required for the animation 2 For the software development and interactive creation the team worked with the 3 D interactive graphics program Taarna and the mainframe computers CDC CYBER 835 855 1 7 To calculate an image with the mainframe computers then took five minutes The computer monitor was a GRID TECHNOLOGIES ONE 25S screen with a 24er card that had a range of 16 million colors The image resolution of the monitor was 512 x 512 pixels The images were calculated with four times the resolution so that no staircase effect emerged For conversion of the face and body from analog to digital a GRADICON digitizer was used and for the rehearsal and filming a Bolex 16 mm and an Animation Oxberry 35 mm camera 4 Publication editOn the 12th SIGGRAPH Film amp Video Show in San Francisco in July 1985 Philippe Bergeron and Pierre Lachapelle presented the film Tony de Peltrie for the first time Bergeron gave at the conference the lecture Controlling Facial Expressions and Body Movements in the Computer Generated Animated Short Tony De Peltrie 8 Reception editCritics and audiences were enthusiastic about Tony de Peltrie It received more than 20 awards worldwide and garnered coverage in hundreds of magazines 5 In the week after the show in San Francisco Time magazine concluded a two page article about the Festival with the words But the biggest ovations last week were reserved for Tony de Peltrie Created by a design team from the University of Montreal it depicts a once famous musician tickling the keys and tapping his white leather shoes to the beat of his memories De Peltrie looks and acts human his fingers and facial expressions are soft lifelike and wonderfully appealing In creating De Peltrie the Montreal team may have achieved a breakthrough a digitized character with whom a human audience can identify Phillip Elmer DeWitt Time Magazine 5 August 1985 5 9 10 John Lasseter one of the festival s judges commented Years from now Tony de Peltrie will be looked upon as the landmark piece where real fleshy characters were first animated by computer Maclean s September 9 1985 5 10 Economic success editTypically the success of a film is calculated in US dollars which are paid by the visitors at the box office The short film produced not for profit at the box office showed its success a few years later The film is one of the reasons why Montreal has become one of the global centers of the computer game industry citation needed Tony de Peltrie was created with mainframe computers This was complicated because every change had to be reprogrammed Philippe Bergeron told 2012 in a video how tedious and frustrating this work was He talked about the fact that Daniel Langlois also saw it and had spoken of wanting to change that 11 After the completion of the film therefore Langlois worked with two programmers to create a new program and founded the company Softimage in Montreal The program Softimage 3D and its further developments advanced in the 1990s to become an industry standard George Borshukov responsible for the special effects of the movie The Matrix said Without Softimage 3D and mental ray specifically those phenomenal bullet time backgrounds just wouldn t have been possible 12 Special effects for blockbusters such as Jurassic Park or The Matrix and many other films were produced with it Many companies in the computer game industry also used programs by Softimage The presence of Softimage in Montreal was one of the reasons why Ubisoft established their North American headquarters in the city where French and English are spoken 13 Ubisoft Montreal was launched in 1997 with 50 employees and in 2015 is the world s largest studio for the development and manufacture of computer games By 2014 there were more than 2 700 employees As of June 2015 there were 52 small and large companies in Montreal working on PC games 14 As a result the city of Montreal has benefited from Tony de Peltrie in real money terms 15 Awards edit selection Tony de Peltrie won several international awards and prizes 4 5 1985 Special Mention for Technical Innovation International Film Festival Kanada 1985 Grand Prize for Animation Eurographics Frankreich 1985 First Prize Computer Animation First Los Angeles Animation Celebration USA 1985 First Prize OG 85 Supreme Award On Live International Computer Animation Film Festival England 1985 First Prize SIGGRAPH International Computer Graphics Association Video Gala USA 1986 Prix Pixel INA Imagina Monaco 1997 Scientific and Engineering Award Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences USA References edit a b Friday Flashback 60 eX SI 2012 03 09 a b Philippe Bergeron Pierre Robidoux Pierre Lachapelle und Daniel Langlois Tony de Peltrie 1985 Website The Daniel Langlois Foundation Image du Futur collection a b Infographie et cinema numerique Website der Faculte des arts et des sciences Departement d informatique et de recherche operationelle der Universite de Montreal PDF 437 KB a b c Kanada Schaltstelle im Netz Katalog Netzwerk Art Barke Verlag Munchen 1990 ISBN 3 926167 00 9 S 35 a b c d e f ICE scripting and other tech stuff about Softimage auf der Webseite eX SI http design osu edu carlson history PDFs ani papers Bergeron pdf 7C Bergeron P 1985 Controlling facial expressions and body movements in the computer generated animated short Tony de Peltrie http bitsavers trailing edge com pdf cdc cyber cyber 180 60459960A Cyber 170 Model 825 835 855 General Description Jul82 pdf Control Data Corporation Juli 1982 PDF 20 71 MB David Sturman The State of Computer Animation In ACM SIGGRAPH Band 32 Nr 1 February 1998 Tony Sito Moving Innovation A History of Computer Animation In Time Magazine ISBN 978 0 262 01909 5 S 69 a b Adventures in Animation 3D adventuresinanimation com Philippe Bergeron on animating Tony de Peltrie YouTube 21 May 2012 The Matrix pauldebevec com Mathew Kumar The French Canadian Connection A Q amp A with Yannis Mallat Ubisoft Montreal In Gamasutra gamedevmap www gamedevmap com http www hindawi com journals usr 2013 957630 The Case of the Video Games Clusters in Montreal and in Los AngelesExternal links editTony de Peltrie Video on YouTube Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art Science and Technology Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tony de Peltrie amp oldid 1210735828, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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