OXFORD, Miss. – With a few simple pen strokes, most anyone
can draw a stick figure, but producing today’s cartoons
requires more than artistic ability.
Although artists are still needed in filmmaking, the
industry is undergoing a digital revolution brought on by
advances in such areas as computer technology,
computational physics, geometry and approximation theory,
said Tony DeRose, senior scientist and leader of a research
group at Pixar Animation Studios, based in Emeryville,
Calif.
Speaking Thursday at the University of Mississippi, DeRose
said that all Pixar’s movies except the first “Toy Story”
in 1995 were produced using a new mathematical algorithm
called subdivision surfaces, which, in the field of 3-D
computer graphics, is a method of representing a smooth
surface using a polygonal model.
“These days, any shape you see in our films is done with
subdivision surfaces,” DeRose said.
DeRose, a 2006 Academy Award winner, delivered UM’s 13th
Dalrymple Lecture in Mathematics. He provided a
behind-the-scenes look at the role mathematics plays in the
production of motion pictures, including the use of global
illumination, an algorithm to add realistic lighting to 3-D
scenes, and harmonic coordinates, a mathematical technique
that helps improve the motion of characters.
“We want the public to understand that mathematics is used
in so many facets of everyday life,” said Tristan Denley,
UM mathematics chair. “Tonight, we learned firsthand, from
the only Academy Award-winning mathematician I know that
math has some wonderful uses.”
DeRose received a doctoral degree in computer science from
the University of California-Berkeley in 1985. From 1985 to
1995, he was a professor at the University of Washington.
He moved from the classroom to the movie studios 11 years
ago to put his ideas to real-world use.
“I basically made the move to filmmaking because of
first-person technology transfer,” DeRose said. “I wanted
to take my laboratory ideas and use them in a practical
industry.”
A single Pixar movie requires up to four years to complete,
from starting with thumbnail sketches to the final
rendering. The greatest challenges facing digital
moviemakers are reducing cost and saving time. DeRose said
it requires an average of four to six hours, and sometimes
up to 48 hours, of computing to create each of the 75,000
frames in a full length movie. The solution, he said, is
not faster computers, but rather more powerful mathematical
algorithms.
So, are the days of a sketch artist limited in the future
of moviemaking? In short, no, as Pixar’s digital movies can
require up to 150,000 thumbnail sketches, DeRose said:
“Artists are not going out of style. We employ lots and
lots and lots of them.”
Pixar Animation Studios merged with Walt Disney Co. last
year. The company uses its own proprietary software called
Marionette, built and maintained in-house, to produce
films, including “A Bug’s Life,” “Finding Nemo” and
“Ratatouille.”
The Dalrymple Lecture series in UM’s Department of
Mathematics was endowed by Mr. and Mrs. Arch Dalrymple II
of Amory. It brings distinguished speakers to discuss
mathematics and mathematics research. To learn more about
mathematics education at UM, visit