When you think of computer effects, your mind probably jumps to modern blockbusters. But the story of computer-generated imagery (CGI) begins way back in the 1950s, when a legendary director and a pioneering graphic designer teamed up to create something audiences had never seen before. Which classic film kicked off the digital revolution?
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The answer is: Vertigo
The birth of CGI came from an unlikely marriage: an Alfred Hitchcock thriller and a repurposed weapon of war. Actually, that sounds extremely on-brand for Hitchcock. To help create Vertigo's groundbreaking opening sequence, innovator John Whitney Sr. looked at a WWII anti-aircraft gun computer and thought, "Hey, this could make art!"
Working alongside design visionary Saul Bass, Whitney used this converted computer to control the movement of lights and shapes, creating those now-famous hypnotic spiral patterns. The process was painstaking but revolutionary. Instead of needing to hand-draw each frame, Whitney's mechanical computer precisely choreographed the mesmerizing animations and sent our heads spinning in record time.
The success of those dizzying spirals did more than just set the perfect tone for Hitchcock's psychological masterpiece. Whitney went on to found Motion Graphics Inc., pioneering new ways to blend technology with art. Modern audiences might find those first computer-generated images laughably simple, but it was 1958, the comics for "Avengers: Endgame" weren't even printed yet!
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