There are a lot of books about computer graphics, but some demand more attention than others. One of those is a book by Tom Sito called Moving Innovation, published a few months ago.
The book offers a behind-the-scenes history of computer graphics, featuring a cast of math nerds, avant-garde artists, cold warriors, hippies, video game players, and studio executives.
Computer graphics has changed the way we experience the art of moving images. Computer graphics are the difference between Steamboat Willie and Buzz Lightyear, between Ping-Pong and PONG. It began in 1963 when an MIT graduate student named Ivan Sutherland created the first true computer animation program. Instead of presenting a series of numbers, Sutherlands Sketchpad program drew lines that created recognizable images. Sutherland noted: Since motion can be put into Sketchpad drawings, it might be exciting to try making cartoons. This book, the first full-length history of CG, shows us how Sutherlands seemingly offhand idea grew into a multibillion-dollar industry.
In Moving Innovation (MIT Press / MAY 2013 / $29.95), Tom Sito-himself an animator and industry insider for more than 30 years-describes the evolution of CG. The history of traditional cinema technology is a fairly straight path, from Lumi re to MGM. Writing the history of CG, Sito maps simultaneous accomplishments in multiple locales-academia, the military-industrial complex, movie special effects, video games, experimental film, corporate research, and commercial animation. His story features a memorable cast of characters-math nerds, avant-garde artists, cold warriors, hippies, video game enthusiasts, and studio executives: disparate types united by a common vision. Computer animation did not begin just with Pixar; Sito shows us how 50 years of work by this motley crew made movies like Toy Story and Avatar possible.
Tom Sito has been a professional animator since 1975. One of the key players in Disneys animation revival of the 1980s and 1990s, he worked on such classic Disney films as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and The Lion King (1994). He left Disney to help set up the DreamWorks Animation Unit in 1995. He is Professor of Cinema Practice in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Below, Sito details the book and provides a glimpse at the industry in an interview with Karen Moltenbrey, chief editor of Computer Graphics World.
Tell us a little about yourself. I am a veteran Hollywood animator. My movie credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Shrek. I am currently a full-time professor of animation at the USC Film School. Other books I have written include Drawing the Line, the Untold Story of the Animation Unions and Timing for Animation (Second Edition).
What made you decide to write this book? In 2006, when I was completing my book on unions, I felt I needed to explain the origins of the digital revolution in Hollywood. How the new influx of technologies and people changed the century-old studio culture. When that particular chapter grew too big, my editor cut it by two thirds and proposed: You have another book here. I thought, I can do this . I was present at many of CGs landmark steps and knew many of the pioneers. I looked around for comparable books on computer graphics history and found to my surprise that there really werent any, other than some websites. Editors note: This past summer, Jon Peddie released The History of Visual Magic in Computers , prior to the interview with Sito.
What does the book cover? Moving Innovation is the first complete history of computer graphics in hard-cover book form. It took seven years, and I interviewed 75 of the top people in CGI to get the story firsthand. I go back to the first experiments by scientists and experimental filmmakers with analog devices in the 1930s to the present. Moving Innovation covers avant-garde film, interactive games, military sponsored projects, motion picture VFX, cartoon animation. I trace the slow evolution of these categories along their separate paths, until in the late 1980s they all merge to create our modern digital media.
Tell us about a few things that you were surprised by when researching the book. That many things we think of as recent innovations can be traced back much further than we previously thought. For instance, the motion-capture suits that created films like Avatar can be traced back to the Walt Disney audio-animatronics of the 1960s, like Ask Mr. Lincoln. And I was surprised to learn much of early CGI was developed under-the-table guerrilla style. That there was never a master plan or corporate strategy to develop CG. All these artists, nerds, beatniks, hippies, military men and women, non-conformists and engineers worked together and shared their ideas under a common dream. Where there were no organizations for them to share their discoveries, they created their own, like SIGGRAPH.
CGI was something nobody asked for, and nobody really wanted, but these people invented it anyway and conquered Hollywood with it. Now no one can conceive of our modern media without it.
What events do you recall most fondly? I remember watching Peter Foldes Hunger in 1974, Tron in 1982, Tony de Peltrie in 1985 and Luxo Jr in 1986. I was working in the Walt Disney Animation development department when the Toy Story team from Pixar would come out of meetings with Disney management rubbing their butts in anguish. Later [we saw] their film and Jurassic Park triumph and change the way we make film forever. I was working on the Disney film Dinosaurs, where the software program Maya was perfected. I recall going to SIGGRAPHs Electronic Theater presentation and watching the crowd go into wild cheers over something as simple as a digital portrayal of a glass of milk.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
The new solution is industry's first multi-channel receiver available for L3Harris's resilient tactical high-frequency data waveforms....
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile as its preferred communications provider and said all of its reporters will be equipped with SuperM...
23/10/2025
RASTATT, Germany Broadcast and media workflow technology vendor Lawo has tapped Mike Wright as VP of sales, North America....
23/10/2025
MONTREAL European cultural broadcaster ARTE has selected Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras and Creative Grading solution as part of its move from SDI/1080i to a nati...
23/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has named Daniel Parsons as its new chief information security officer, effective Oct. 20....
23/10/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Northern Michigan broadcaster WWTV recently completed a major IP-based upgrade that connects its new Traverse City studio with its control room ...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS will use generative AI from Amazon Web Services to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia platforms, the network an...
23/10/2025
Back to All News
The Resurrected' Marks First Chinese-Language Series to L...
23/10/2025
RT is today publishing a statistical summary from the Register of External Activities for the second quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities ...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
There are a lot of books about computer graphics, but some demand more attention than others. One of those is a book by Tom Sito called Moving Innovation, published a few months ago. 
