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The influence of steve jobs media essay

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Chapter 2: Influence of Steve Jobs in Pixar

In brief, Jobs was born in 1955, in California USA (Isaacson, 2011). During his high school times especially during summers, Jobs worked at HP Company, it was there that Steve Jobs first met Steve Wozniak, his future business associate. As an undergraduate, he studied literature, poetry and physics, at Reed College, Oregon. Formally, Steve Jobs, only attended one semester, although, he remained at the same college crashing on auditing courses and friend’s sofas including calligraphy classes, which he actually attributes as being the main reason his developments had elegant typefaces. The brilliant mind of Steve Jobs informed and even invented in a manner that spanned industries, audiences and technologies. His great contribution to the movie production, particularly storytelling by animation, was basically a complete turning point in the annals of the advancement of the animation movie sector as a mainstream feature of film.

Steve Jobs as the Pacesetter

Pixar started as a division of LucasFilm, under George Lucas, working on the creation of imaging technology as well as its own imaging computer. However, some were more fascinated in making animated films and not expensive machines, and soon LucasFilm lost interest in this venture. In the mid 1980s, LucasFilm was basically on the verge of disposing the unwanted division specifically to a partnership of General Motors and Philips Electronics subsidiary Electronic Data Systems. However, this deal went haywire. With this, came along Steve Jobs to save the situation. The Apple founder bought Pixar in early 1986, and set in motion a series of activities that would engender some of the 20th century films that are best-loved as well as resulted in 2006 acquisition of Pixar by Disney for about $7. 4 billion. The initial price Jobs used to acquire Pixar was roughly $5 million, plus the $5 million more made him largest shareholder at Disney as well as one of the most influential persons in Hollywood and the entire film animation industry. Believed that Pixar would someday be a great hardware corporationEven when Steve Jobs was the only and last buyer available in the mid 1980s, George Lucas had to dispose off Lucas-Films, Pixar’s graphics arm; he never expected that the corporation would one day make money on animated movies (Blumenthal, 2012). Instead, David Prince as Pixar historian indicated in the Pixar touch, that Steve Jobs believed that Pixar Company was actually going to be one of the greatest hardware corporations. In fact, not even a visionary person such as Steve Jobs could actually foretell what unfolded at Pixar Corporations, yet to his great acclamations, he fully supported cofounders John Lasseter and Ed Catmull as they trailed their dream of making a digitally animated movie right from day one. For Steve Jobs, he safeguarded their aptitude to build small bets specifically on short movies in order to learn the way to make a full-length characteristic film specifically in Toy Story.

Creating a new industry

Pixar, in the 1990s, was actually not the only corporation working on computer animation specifically for movies, but through the effort of Steve Jobs, they were the first company that succeeded and also showed nearly everyone how to do it proper, both creatively and technologically. In fact, the degree to which that actually changed and continues to change the backdrop entertainment is very hard to overstate. For instance, ” Toy Story” one of the movies made using these grate technology and creativity hit theaters all over, making Disney the only successful maker of animated movies in the US. Based on the success story of ” Toy Story” as well as that of subsequent Pixar films, an entire animation industry was actually born in Hollywood. In the present day, there is an Award for a Best Animated Feature, meaning that, on average, at least one such movie or film is released on a monthly basis. Before Pixar and Steve Jobs, that would have not been possible. As someone once asked, would that have happened without Pixar and Steve Jobs?

Driving Pixar

There are many things that propelled the success of Steve Jobs at Pixar-a great creative team led by Catmull and Lasseter. The major impact of Steve Jobs was on the company’s strategic direction. He had the essential insight that, in the field of animation, Pixar Company could one day be on the same level with Walt Disney Corporation (Paik, 2007). He lived up to this vision by successfully overseeing the Pixar IPO in 1995, just one week after the release of ‘Toy Story’. This was premised on the fact that with enough capital, it would actually give them the sovereignty to build a great work and also make them a powerful brand in entertainment just like Disney. This was in fact real as Pixar’s twelve feature films, over the years, have generated approximately $7. 0 billion worldwide. According to the stakeholders in the animation film industry, even without the collection of films as well as influence on the entire computer animation industry, the impact of Pixar, under Steve Jobs, on Hollywood and the entire entertainment industry may still have been insightful. Today, RenderMan software is not only employed at Pixar, but as well at studios right through Hollywood and the international film industry (Price, 2009). In fact, that software alone would have basically made Pixar a major company and key player to the film industry. Furthermore, Pixar’s calling card stands out as its long record of generating top-quality movies that bring a lot of returns. In addition, the ability of Pixar studios to succeed over and over again, when nearly everyone in the entertainment industry has been having it rough, is attributed to the ethos getting each film right instilled by Steve Jobs.

3D animation Section

Video GamesBy years, Steve Jobs helped bring forward computer video games. Even though, it is well known that at one time Steve Jobs was fired from Apple-the corporation he co-founded. Of course, he returned later, but during his time away he again founded a corporation known as NeXT with the inspiration of developing a better operating system (Paik, 2007) by creating an API which actually made it easier for writing computer programs. In a nutshell, it reduced the programmers’ workload so they were at least able to spend a lot of time innovating and not writing computer codes. Specifically, John Carmack was one of the innovators who greatly contributed to the success of this sector. In fact, all game lovers should know that he is the co-founder of ID software and co-created Wolfenstien 3D (Price, 2009). John Carmack made significant contributions to the history of video game with the game Doom. The Video game Doom was actually written using the API’s created by Steve Jobs and in fact, today, is still considered the only machine capable of facilitating this process. Steve Jobs Developed WIMPAlthough Steve Jobs invented the system, he identified the potential of the Icons, Menu’s, Windows as well as the Pointer in short the WIMP user interface created by Xerox. Apart from this, he went further to enhance it and avail it to the people. In fact, Xerox did not even envision such potential; therefore, Steven Jobs created an attractive WIMP operating system and went further, in 1984, to incorporate it on the Mac. Further, this system inspired imitation basically of Windows operating system. Indeed, modern operating system which makes use of pointer and windows are part of a copy of Steve Jobs system.

Inventions and designs

Steve Jobs greatly contributed to the success of Pixar and 3D animation because of his drive to invent good products and developing designs that meet the market demand. The aesthetic design of Steve Jobs was highly influenced by the Joseph Eichler architectural style as well as the Braun Rams industrial designs. His sense of design was as well significantly influenced by the Buddhism (Isaacson, 2011). Furthermore, his sense of insight was as well influenced by the religious people with whom he interacted with. To prove this, prior to his death he was listed in 346 US patents as either co-inventor or primary inventor of a range of technologies right from actual computer systems to user interfaces and packages. He has over forty three issued United States patents on inventions including that on the Mac OS X with magnification feature. Even though, Steve Jobs did not do much in the technical and engineering side of the products his companies created, he used his position as the CEO to involve himself directly with product design.

Conclusion

In about 1975, specifically, on Long Island, the group currently known as Pixar pulled together with the vision to make the first digital movie. The group severally changed their name from NYIT to Lucasfilm and lastly to Pixar but under the three wealthy patrons George Lucas, Alexander Schure, and Steve Jobs held to the vision. The three patrons spent a lot of time right from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s learning the idea of animation from professionals, contracted their first animator and managed to make their first animation, and established a very powerful connection with Disney Company by digitizing its process of cel animation. From there Steve Jobs, in 1986, came on the limelight, providing the capital so that they could actually develop Pixar as a spinout company from Lucasfilm. Whilst waiting for the famous law drafted by moore also known as Moore’s Law to get rid of the cost of computing movies into a range that was reasonable, they managed to manufacture an equipment for producing high-performance graphics and with managed to do short animations. Finally, Disney, in 1991, approached Pixar to create Toy Story, their first movie. At this point, Steve Jobs took over the leadership of Pixar from Ed Catmull who had managed it from 1986 to 1994. Taking in account the pre-Pixar history, Steve Jobs worked and saw the project completed in late 1994. With this, Steve Jobs took the corporation public, an impressive business move for a corporation with more or less no returns, and with Disney managed to negotiate movie deals, as well as the taking over of Pixar by Disney. In a nutshell, the appearance and vision of Pixar Company all emanated from inside and by not more than ten years predated Steve Jobs. Specifically, Steve Jobs was a critically significant investor man for Pixar, and at later times a great business dealmaker for the company. In addition, he was at the center of creating its look and feel. In fact, the messages for marketing seem to have been made in such as a way to connote that what was actually true for Apple Company was as well true for Pixar.

Chapter Three: The Future of 3D Animation

Animation as a form of art is just nearly ten years younger when compared to motion picture movies. Since then, Animation has evolved alongside with the many technological discoveries and advancements in filmmaking (Paik, 2007). It is true that the basics of animation will never change, but the techniques employed to animate things are continuously evolving. Basically, with technology continuously updating and new as well as stronger tools are generated, animators will actually have much more chances and opportunities to develop their skills. Generally, a few of the latest technologies employed today as well as the way these technologies are likely to influence the field of animation in the near future are actually discussed below.

Historical Developments

Basically it commenced with making real drawings on the stock of the film in order to create visual effects past what can be provided in a practical set. After this, came conventional animation where images of objects were drawn by hand frame-by-frame, where clay as well as other materials were not only mechanically moved one at a time, but also were shot frame-by-frame. As soon as computers came, they lessened the burden of filmmakers of having to actually draw many frames for an animated footage that would run for just a few minutes. All these happened right in 2D space, until potent software programs and computers allowed film producers to create images generated by computers featuring 3D visuals. Even though, still viewed using 2D systems, already these 3D visuals offered more texture, depth, as well as details to all animated film products. Also, motion capture technology came to actually offer more ways and avenues for 3D animation technology to grow. As at this point, 3D films already are being viewed through stereoscopic 3D in their 3D platforms.

Realism in the prospect of computer animation

In computer animation realism can actually mean making all frames to look photorealistic, in the manner that the scene is actually made to resemble a real photograph, or to actually make the animation of movie characters lifelike and believable. Specifically, with the discovery of video games way back in the 1980s, today computer graphics are making an exponential growth as each year unfolds. Normally, each generation of video games employs more realistic textures and higher polygon characters on these models (Blumenthal, 2012). Basically, these computer graphics have actually developed some very realistic or natural-like videogame characters. Nonetheless, the models developed by computer graphics are supposed to be animated to make them seem natural. The conventional way of animating characters in video games has been to physically move each part of the character. Obviously, with technological advancement came ways to make more natural animations much more efficient, than they had been in the past. Based on the reason that animating characters physically is very complicated and can easily create movements that are not natural, motion capture then became a very popular, technology. In fact today, much more features can be incorporated into animations because of the fact that motion capture is capable of capturing all the small details that would generally be overlooked in manual animation. A good example would be the distribution of the weight of characters or even with motion capture techniques slouching can easily be captured. Generally, the way motion capture operates is simply dressing actors and actresses in a complete body suit. Basically, this body suit has unique sensors that are capable of detecting the movements of actors and actresses. The bottom-line is that, if the suit has more sensors, then, there will be greater accuracy of the technology of motion capture. In future, alongside full body motion capture, this technology can be employed for more advanced or detailed animation like facial animation. At the moment, the issue with animation basically is in the difficulty of capturing the small facial details particularly when a character is conversing. Therefore, with more developments in the technology of motion capture, the need to manipulate the face of a character manually and then synchronize the lips of character to his or her words can actually be curtailed. With these likely advantages, motion capture processes also have some demerits. Generally, cost can actually be a big issue as the current tracking devices of motion are very costly and also very large. Motion capture, with the present technology, still is not quite perfect enough to entirely get rid of the manual animating feature. Additionally, there actually is no fine way to animate objects like monsters which are not human with motion capture technologies. In fact, animators are currently limited by what human beings can actually do (Paik, 2007). Nonetheless, even with these demerits, motion capture has a great and exciting future. For instance, as the technologies continue to improve; the aspect of motion capture hopefully will become economical that even the laypersons could as well make use of the technology.

3D films and Movies

For decades now, 3D films have been amongst the largest attractions in the film industry. Even though, this kind of technology is not related directly to the way specific scenes are animated, in the future, 3D will basically be a vital technology specifically for animated films. Generally, this kind of technology, 3D film technology, has been around from the 1950s, therefore is not new. Also, IMAX has been showing movies using this kind of technology for many years in its theaters. For instance, Disney Company has employed 3D technology for its programs such Bug’s Life attraction (Price, 2009). Nonetheless, the present 3D technology has actually evolved from where it first started. The contemporary 3D technology makes use of techniques such as polarization by utilizing glasses that will show at least two or more different screens. Usually, a different image is shown by each lens, and also the image that is shown quickly alternates on the screen showing diverse images. In future, because of the new advancement in technology, the feeble looking glasses will likely be replaced with more comfortable and robust looking glasses. Also, this kind of technologies comes with an added advantage specifically for studios as it cannot be pirated easily (Price, 2009). Because users in homes do not have access this technology, they will not be in the position to copy the latest movies to watch in 3D at their homes. With this, the theaters and studios will basically regain their position of selling offerings that are unique. In fact, recent movies releases are starting to adopt this technology. For instance, movies like Monsters in recent times have been a hit in box office. Specifically, the movie opened on a high note posting grossed income of about $59. 3 million in the first year of release (Isaacson, 2011). The performance of the movie was much above the expectations and also beat out its rivals who heavily depended on conventional movie techniques. For 3D animation, the future is too looking very bright. Directors and major theaters are actually banking on this kind of new technology. In addition, DreamWorks, the corporation that employed 3D technology in order to develop Monsters, mad an announcement that all of movies in future will be made using in the 3D technology (Paik, 2007). Furthermore, movies such as Shrek four and Toy Story three will as well be produced using 3D technology. From this exploration, 3D technology seems to the way to go in future as regards the production of animated movies. In short, with all of the mentioned examples of the way technology is fast changing both the way animation is viewed and created, there will actually be no deficit of ingenious ideas to further the progression of 3D animation technologies (Paik, 2007). Therefore, it goes without saying that the future seems very bright for animation. This is based on the fact that, with corporations such as DreamWorks and Pixar already making use of the newest animation technology, technological developments is likely to continue enhancing the audience’s experiences of viewing. Precisely, one possible progression of 3D technology is specifically the establishment of holographic images especially where an actual volumetric 3D object would basically be floating in space (Price, 2009). For instance, holographic animation would actually put before the audience straight in the film. Also, there will be developments in the way these films are animated and even created (Blumenthal, 2012). Possibly, there are innovative ways of motion capture that requires little sensors to make it a suit, and with this the whole suit becomes a sensor. Specifically, this technique would actually be able to capture one hundred percent of the movements of an actor and would also make characters in video game even more realistic. Furthermore, by just having more strong computers, the issue of synching character mouths and their voices in the near future is likely to be automated in order to get rid of the strange shapes characters presently make with their mouths.

Military Training and Practices

To be specific, all around the world of 3D graphics as well as digital animation are changing the way that people go about their every day undertaking. It does not matter if it is in advertisements, cinemas, or smart phone applications, progressively more images or objects that were developed in only a few years ago in two dimensions, basically look like there is another one on the way. Possibly a good number of people have not actually come from far, but for many persons, computer simulations are actually lifting them to a level of near reality that some have actually looked forward to, but thought to be some prospect of Asimovian just like of robotics and travel space (Price, 2009). Basically both of the mentioned two technologies are actually full of prospects in the near future.  Although, whilst the these possibilities are in fact opening up, and the integrated reality and 3D animation in its early stages, this does not basically mean that what engineers of computers or technologies are developing is not many steps ahead of what is actually was going on. People have either taken part or even seen specifically in the virtual simulations which have been used for many years: for instance, pilot training programs which entail golf courses or virtual roller coaster rides (Blumenthal, 2012). In the mid 1990s, people flocked in light-pistols and headgear, fought their own way through a maze of virtual reality (Paik, 2007) all spending more than ten dollars and ending up being frightened by the way or how close it actually drew them close to what they had basically come across in Sci-Fi movies. However, this took place in a world where, to be specific, animated features were actually still two-dimensional as well as underscores in the manner in which the 3D animation changes have basically brought people to a point where they could not return (Isaacson, 2011). In fact, with this, the question of the manner in which this kind of technology should be employed from the entertainment realm and make it more realistic, and also if not fundamental, employ it in other relevant areas. Pilot training simulations, has basically been one well-known use, but other institutions and even companies have as well taken the responsibility to develop 3D technology in order to aid train their own members. Not surprisingly, the United States military is actually leading the way as regards training their members. For instance, Leon Panetta, the US Secretary of Defense mid lat years was requested to try out the newest training tool, Dismounted Soldier Training System, with United States Army. The DSTS system basically is meant to give real-world simulations, specifically both for single combatants and larger squads and fire-teams. Apparently, the Dismounted Soldier Training System was basically inspired by a video game, first-person shooter, that was very trendy and popular in the United States military as well as the training circumstances that it offers are actually thought to be highly practical in terms of moving as a group as well as hiding behind any cover that is available (Price, 2009). Also, the United States military has of late announced the acquisition of a system for training that has been previously employed to train athletes in the NFL league. Specifically, the device functions by positioning the trainee into an interactive training setting of 3D, and then starts to test that the reflexes of person through an array of audio-visual stimuli (Paik, 2007). Furthermore, professional sportspeople have actually been making use of the system to assist enhance their field responses, and the United States military anticipates that it will start to assist special commandos to hone their skills that, in the fast changing world, have actually become so indispensable to anti-terrorist missions, surgical, where maintaining civilian casualties to a bare minimum is more imperative than ever before. Also, there is an inspiring account in relation to a man from North Carolina who offered emergency first aid to car accident victims, in 2008. The man basically had no any training in the medical field, but had been using examples derived from America’s Army, a first-person video game, that the United States Army had launched a long time ago (Price, 2009). Specifically, one of the levels of the game was that which dealt with the role of a medic as regards some of the fundamentals of aiding soldiers in the battlefield. Specifically, the man indicated that he was able to rise to the occasion based on what he had learned and acquired from playing the video game. Therefore, whilst it is not strange that the United States force is actually taking a big role in pursuing the prospects offered by the 3D training, it definitely looks like the trend has actually been set for the future. In addition, more and more companies both private and public are actually going to change the way employees are actually honed, particularly for high-risk and dangerous occupations (Isaacson, 2011). This also connotes that trainees will actually be put in a simulated surroundings and be made ready for whatever dangerous scenarios before entering them. Furthermore, today, with technologies such as this taking their prompt right from entertainment such as video games, it is fascinating to think about the way that technology is likely to be re-packaged and even marketed back to end users in the near future (Isaacson, 2011). Specifically, if consoles such as the Xbox Kinect are by now developing in reality hands-free gaming, it is not very hard to envisage this sort of virtual simulation technology becoming a part and parcel of home entertainment on daily basis in the near future. In a nutshell, with this kind of end user hardware available, it will likely make everything right from car repairs, cooking, to cooking, to a lesson specifically with a simulated tutorial (Price, 2009). This technology would basically open doors to study and even learning new things that previously have been impracticable. 3D’s big challengeAs much as the 3D animation technology has a lot of advantages, it also has its fair share of disadvantages. Perhaps the biggest problem to the likely growth of 3D animation technology is the fact that less than ten percent of movie screens in the United States are well equipped to actually handle digital 3D movies. This is based on the fact that the recent economic recession has badly hurt the ability of theater chains to borrow money in order to fund their digital conversion as required by the 3D animation technology. However, nearly everybody in the sector recognizes that studios actually have a lot to gain by adopting the 3D revolution (Paik, 2007). This is premised on the fact that 3D movies are able to command not only higher ticket prices, but as well availing digital copies of films will likely cost much less than what film prints are known to cost. Stakeholders in the entertainment industry believe that digital delivery is likely to cut down on piracy that is rampant in the film industry. However, all these secondary advantages aside, 3D animation technology will likely die or even live at the box office not as an end but as a means. This is premised on the fact that no one actually wants to be entirely immersed in a movie that is bad. Because in any dimension, what audiences do not like is actually bad movies. That is why ” Pixar, as at this point in time, is more victorious with 3D animation technology because both their stories and movies are better.

Stereoscopic 3D

Basically, the employment of 3D glasses in order to watch animated films and movies has actually become a fad that is expensive and interesting for many years. Even though, there are very a few movies in the mainstream that do not actually purge out to the pressure of 3D technology, most animated movies and films of are currently set for 3D stereoscopic releases.

Breakthroughs in Technology

Most popular allies of computer animation comprise the Adobe Flash programs as well as After Effects specifically for motion graphics and 2D animation and 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, as well as Light-wave 3D specifically for special effects and 3D animation. Furthermore, there are many other available programs to support the current animators their work. Particularly, with the emergence of stereoscopy, organizations such as Autodesk, Quantel, Cineform and Spatial View live up to the realities of growing demand specifically for post-production of 3D professional offerings (Paik, 2007). Furthermore, when producing their animated movies and films, big movie animation studios and companies such as Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Lucasfilm Animation and DreamWorks Animation combine software and equipment from top organizations as well as their own proprietary programs (Price, 2009). For example, Pixar build its own software called Marionette and is designed as an insightful animation program specifically for animators based on conventional cell animation.

Prospective Technologies

Generally, as more inspiring technologies surface, the prospection of animation basically looks bright. That is even going the 4D direction where the other senses, largely the sense of touch and smell, become part of the watching experience in movies is actually one of the most rational possibilities that people are likely to see in the coming days. Generally, 3D looks like is a trend that is likely continue advancing. There is basically much to explore specifically in the format such as transitioning to the viewing experience of 3D without the support of 3D glasses. In fact, this is fast becoming a reality as many monitors and consoles are getting organized for 3D viewing devoid of the glasses. Furthermore, even many television programs are already adopting holographic images in order to relay true three-dimensional objects and also to transmit them in real-time. Also, animation opens great prospects to relive the much loved movie personalities of yesteryears. Making use of 3D animation as the main medium, most companies are also looking into the possible construction of digital actors who take after the original film stars to act in the movies in the near future.

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