View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7bmz3iBRHc
In 1990 Miramar Images released The Mind's Eye: A Computer Animation Odyssey, the first full-length film to be 100% CGI. The film is a compilation of tech demos, promotional graphics, and other short sequences provided by computer animators from around the world and edited together into a series of instrumental music videos. Three sequels were produced - Beyond the Mind's Eye (1992) (featuring music by Jan Hammer, the guy who scored Miami Vice), The Gate to the Mind's Eye (1994), and Odyssey Into the Mind's Eye (1993). Miramar also produced a number of spinoff CGI films, including Imaginaria (1993), which used a combination of recycled Mind's Eye footage and new material to tell a kid-friendly story about how great using your imagination is. (Remember when everyone was convinced kids wouldn't imagine things unless an adult told them to do it?)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwEfnWz_78Q&list=PL68DB046DE5F9F973
This YouTube playlist is a good place to start if you're interested in checking the series out. It has all four main entries in the highest quality possible, as well as side-by-side comparisons between alternate cuts. It's also all available for download from the Internet Archive. If you're interested in going down a rabbit hole, every entry has an extensive credit sequence listing all the original animation sources and the people who worked on them. I've been able to find many of the original animations online and it's interesting to see what was changed to make them all fit together. There are also a number of animations contributed by people who would later go on to be famous in the CGI world, like John Lasseter of Pixar fame and Wayne Lyttle, who went on to make the Animusic series of animated music videos (worth its own thread.)
I'm sharing the series here because it's perfectly in line with the forum's aesthetic (Eco Virtual lifted heavily from the soundtrack) and because I've got a lot of personal nostalgia related to Imaginaria. It was my favorite VHS tape to rent from the library as a kid, and I must have watched it dozens of times at both home and at school. I think it's also a really cool example of pre-internet "remix culture." Miramar's producers Jan Nickman and Steven Churchill were able to create something new and original by remixing other people's work, and they did it in a responsible way that gave full credit to the original creators. Best of all, the Mind's Eye series really shows off the excitement and creativity that surrounded early CGI. The imagery still seems fresh and original 32 years later thanks to all the the technical experimentation that was going on and the lack of anything resembling a conventional style. I think it's a breath of fresh air when compared to the current state of computer animation.
Virtual Cafe Awards
