Drew Olbrich’s first job after earning his computer science degree at CMU in 1992 is with Pacific Data Images. The company has just made a deal with DreamWorks to make Antz, an animated movie that will use computer graphics to show cartoon ants in three dimensions, rather than the flat two of hand-drawn animation. To do so, graphics experts called “lighters” have to work with a program to create the ideal amount of light, shadow, and reflection in every scene. With the tool the lighters have now, they can see a pixelated approximation of what their changes will do in 15 seconds, but to see what it will truly look like, they have to wait 30 minutes, which is unacceptable.
Olbrich and a team of just two others need to create something that shows the real impact of lighting changes in seconds. Nothing remotely as fast exists. No matter, the young programmers devise the technology. “I’m still kind of surprised we were able to do it,” says Olbrich.
Antz became a box-office smash. Since then, the animation lighting system has been used regularly, including in the animated films Shrek, Madagascar, and Kung Fu Panda, as well as in live-action movies such as Mission: Impossible 2. The cumulative box-office total is more than a billion dollars.
Olbrich and his colleagues recently won an Academy Award at this year’s Oscars for their technical achievement.
—Michelle Bova (DC’07)
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Shedding Light Behind-the-Scenes
