Wavefront Technologies

Wavefront Technologies

Formerly	Wavefront Technologies, Inc.
Industry	Software
Founded	1984(1984)inSanta Barbara, California
Founders	Bill Kovacs
Fate	Acquired byAlias Research
Headquarters	Palo Alto
Website	www.wavefront

Wavefront Technologieswas acomputer graphicscompany that developed and soldanimationsoftware used inHollywoodmotion picturesand other industries. It was founded in 1984, inSanta Barbara, California,byBill Kovacs,Larry Barels, Mark Sylvester. They started the company to produce computer graphics for movies and televisioncommercials,and to market their own software, as there were no off-the-shelf computer animation tools available at the time. In 1995, Wavefront Technologies was acquired bySilicon Graphics,and merged withAlias Researchto form Alias|Wavefront.

Products

Wavefront developed their first product, Preview, during the first year of business. The company's production department helped tune the software by using it on commercial projects, creating opening graphics for television programs. One of the first customers to purchase Preview wasUniversal Studios,for the television programKnight Rider.Further early customers includedNBC,Electronic Arts,andNASA.

Some of Wavefront's early animation software was created byBill Kovacs,Jim Keating, andJohn Grower,after they leftRobert Abel and Associates.Roy A. Hall, and others after him, developed the company's flagship product, the WavefrontAdvanced Visualizer.

In 1988, Wavefront released the Personal Visualizer, a desktopworkstationinterface to their high-end rendering software. As with Wavefront's other software, it was developed forSilicon Graphicscomputers, but it was later ported toSun,IBM,Hewlett-Packard,Tektronix,DECandSonysystems. Wavefront purchasedSilicon Graphicsfirst production workstation after their offer to buy the prototype they were given a demo of was knocked back.

In 1989, the company released the Data Visualizer, an early commercial tool forscientific visualization.

In 1991, Wavefront introduced Composer, an image manipulation product. Composer became a standard for 2D and 3Dcompositingand special effects for feature films and television.

In 1992, Wavefront released two new animation tools that worked with the Advanced Visualizer.Kinemationwas a character animation system that usedinverse kinematicsfor natural motion.Dynamationwas a tool for interactively creating and modifyingparticle systemsfor realistic, natural motion.Dream Quest Imagesused Dynamation and Composer to create over 90 visual effects sequences for the filmCrimson Tide.

In 1994, the same year that rival Alias made a deal withNintendo,Wavefront partnered withAtarito develop the GameWare game development software. GameWare was the exclusive graphics and animation development system for theAtari Jaguar.Electronic Arts' Richard Taylor, said that Wavefront's software was "so beautifully designed that even a non-technical person could learn it. Wavefront was a major reason that CG took a leap forward."

Wavefront software was used in numerous major films, includingLuxo Jr.,The Great Mouse Detective,Akira,Technological Threat,All Dogs Go To Heaven,Rock-a-Doodle,Off His Rockers,Outbreak,Aladdin,True LiesandStargate.

Acquisitions and mergers

Wavefront was involved in several mergers of major computer graphics software companies through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988, Wavefront acquired Abel Image Research, a division ofRobert Abel and Associates,where founder Bill Kovacs had previously worked. The acquisition was partially financed by theBelgiangovernment, following Wavefront's establishment of an office inGhentin association withBarco GraphicsofKortrijk.Acquiring Abel Image Research increased Wavefront's presence inJapan.The Japanese conglomerateCSKbecame a part owner of Wavefront Japan in 1990, helping to expand the company further in Asia.

Wavefront acquired rival computer graphics company Thomson Digital Imagesof France in 1993. TDI's software featured innovations inNURBSmodeling and interactive rendering. The company also had extensive distribution channels in Europe and Asia.

On February 7, 1995,Silicon Graphicsannounced that it would purchase Wavefront Technologies andAlias Research,in a deal totaling approximately $500 million.SGI merged the two companies to createAlias|Wavefront,with the goal of creating more advanced digital tools by combining the companies' strengths and reducing duplication. At the time of the merger, Wavefront had a market value of $119 million, and 1994 revenues of $28 million.

What partially motivated this merger wasMicrosoft's purchase of Alias and Wavefront's competitorSoftimage.SGI saw Microsoft's entrance into the market as a threat and merged Alias and Wavefront to compete with Microsoft. Alias is now owned byAutodesk,as is Softimage as of October 2008.

Academy Awards

In 1997, whilst working at Wavefront,Jim Hourihanreceived an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for the creation of Dynamation. Bill Kovacs and Roy Hall received aScientific and EngineeringAcademy Awardin 1998 for their work on the Advanced Visualizer.

In 2003, Alias|Wavefront was awarded anAcademy Awardfor scientific and technical achievement for theirMayasoftware, which had been created from a combination of the earlier software of Wavefront, Alias, and TDI.

References

• Alias Systems Corp."Alias Wavefront History".Archived fromthe originalon 2004-06-22.
• Wayne Carlson."A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-05-28.
• Wayne Carlson (20 June 2017).Computer Graphics and Computer Animation: A Retrospective Overview.The Ohio State University.
• "The California 500".San Francisco Chronicle.24 Apr 1995. p. D17.
• Clive Davidson (11 Jul 1991). "Computer: Spotting tigers in the thicket - How pictures can stop us drowning in the deluge of data".The Guardian.