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The first graphic images
Ben Laposky created the first graphic images, an Oscilloscope, generated by an electronic (analog) machine. -
Whirlwind computer
The first computer with a video display of real time data. -
The light pen
The light pen is introduced -
SpaceWar
The first videogame, SpaceWar, ran using an oscilloscope as a display. -
Line Drawing Algorithm
Jack Bresenham invents the “ideal” line-drawing algorithm. -
Pong
Nolan Kay Bushnell creates video arcade game Pong -
Star Wars movie is released
its only computer effects were vector-based, and then filmed. -
Apple II
The apple II is the first graphics personal computer. -
Commodore 64 personal computer
used raster graphics so that regular televisions could be display devices. -
VGA graphics standard introduced.
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Jurassic Park was the first big-budget CGI effects movie
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Toy Story, the first fully CGI movie, is released.
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Final Fantasy movie is released.
Rendering tears and water are now possible; the movement of hair still un-renderable. -
Doom 3 graphics engine for games.
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Computations fluids
Computations fluids and fluid structure interactions now possible on laptop PCs. -
Home computer graphics
It is now possible to create, on virtually any home computer, the kind of computer graphics that would have been unimaginable even just 10 years ago. -
Developers start to take advantages of mistakes in rendering
like this one by Pillow Castle, called The Museum of Simulation Technology. -
Big data
We're now getting into a period where “big data” is being used to construct animations that show us things we could not otherwise see/appreciate, like time-lapse changes in large structures -
Animation by mapping from a source to a target in real time
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Advanced graphics on phones.
It is now possible to do fascinating and “realistic” graphics on phones. For instance: -
Generation of CGI-based human faces in real time
