History of Scanimate

Presented at Notacon 8 (2011), April 15, 2011, 5 p.m. (60 minutes).

David Sieg has managed to coax useful computer animation from some of the slowest computers in

the world. The oldest of them, a machine called Scanimate was built entirely of analog circuitry!

For almost a decade, if you saw computer animation on television, it probably was generated by one

of the eight Scanimates that were ever built. Sieg owns and maintains the only surviving Scanimate.

Interestingly enough, Scanimate can easily do things that can't be duplicated by today's digital

technology.Sieg produced "The Dream Machine", a documentary about Scanimate, its history, the people and companies who used it, including many of the famous animations it produced.

He raises questions about how quickly we trash our older technology, and what we lose along the way.

And he makes the case for preserving and maintaining the few remaining machines that can playback

obsolete media formats before we lose our past forever.More info at scanimate.com.


Presenters:

  • David Sieg
    Ran camera, loaded tape, shot newsfilm, and repaired transmitters at WKPT-TV in high school. Chief Engineer at the University of Mississippi Center for Media Services while graduating. Chief Engineer at Image West in Hollywood, where they had 2 Scanimates. Director of R&D; at Omnibus, built facilities at Paramount Studios in Hollywood and in NYC. Partner at International Graphics Consultants, Burbank CA Owner of ZFx in Kingsport, Tennessee Started first ISP in Eastern Tennessee Moved to Asheville, NC, currently consulting with a variety of clients. More info at davesieg.com

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