American Cinematographer - October 1989 - 85

it has to know is how far the car went and
how big the wheel is and the wheel will
roll the right amount."

Perhaps the idea of animating
geometric shape in a 3D world inside
a computer is beginning to make sense.
Computers, mathematics, algorithms-
those words seem to go together well in
an explanation. Enter Dr. William Reeves,
the quiet Canadian and father, of sorts,
of Billy the baby. Nothing is less easily
defined, less geometric or less regular
than an eighteen-month-old baby.
a

centered

Reeves' doctoral dissertation
medical uses of computer

on

imaging, "Though I
make

a career

never expected to
of it. I faint every time I get

hospital." Neither did he ever
imagine himself as a filmmaker. But, like
Ostby, he did imagine solving complex
imaging problems on the computer, and
Billy was definitely complex.
"I thought the baby would be
an interesting problem. This was my first
attempt at doing human forms, but sev¬
eral people in Siggraph (a professional
organization for computer graphic artists
near a

and technicians) had done work with
humans. We based some of our conclu¬
sions on what they had done. And we did
a lot of experimenting. We had story¬
boards and John was busy animating

Tinny long before the baby ever worked.
I think that's sort of typical special ef¬
fects, though. Often there's one problem
that takes

a

lot

more

time to solve than

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anyone planned for. I still think that if I
had had two more months I could have

made

Billy more lifelike. We achieved
probably 90% of what we'd hoped with
the gross motions, but that last 10% is
really great to be able to get," said
Reeves.

Billy actually began

as an

oversized clay scuplture from the
of John Lasseter. He was sculpted

hands
in two
parts-the body and then the head. Of
course, a sculpted baby does not mean
anything to the computer. One of Reeves'
first tasks was to digitize the pieces.
Digitizing reduces the 3D baby to mathe¬

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matical information that the computer
can use to reconstruct the form. To be¬

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gin with he had to etch a grid on the
surface of the baby. Then using a

► Complete stock of parts for all Editing

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entered the coordinates of each intersec¬
tion on the grid into the computer. He
chose this method rather using CT scan
information from a real baby because he

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83
American Cinematographer - October 1989

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