Chapter 376: CAPS

In sequential progression and in the spirit of technical advancements that have been made...

Programs like Wireframing, the TearDrop, Particle Systems, Motion Blur, Self Shadowing, and all these other computer imaging innovations were tested out.

Catmull and the rest really wanted their little boss to see the extent of what they'd accomplished.

Or maybe they just wanted him to find bugs and act as a pest control personnel of coding.

In any case, Alexander was just interested to get a closer look at their progress and trying to pare it with his own.

If they really worked it out some more with the complications that they'll need to solve with the Cybertronian Chronicles project, their repertoire and capabilities are sure to expand some more.

Sure enough. When all of what they've done is merged into an animating collective like the RenderLess, it was even better than what one could expect.

Just with that, the snail-paced and sluggish Computer Animation suddenly drank Nitro and Turbo-ed to a stupendous upgrade.

Setting aside Alexander's consideration of that silly snail-racing flick, the metaphor really gets you wondering...

What happens when processing and computing power is through the roof?

What are the implications of 1 second per frame rendering as opposed to the usual frame rendering that gets increasingly arduous and long as the complexity piles up?

By how much is production cost going to be cut? How much production time is saved? What sort of productivity can one expect when talents are armed with such a ridiculous aid?

These are questions whose answers are very, very interesting to touch upon.

Suffice to say, Pixar Studios was headed in a direction that was quite different from how it should have been.

At this point, they should have been peddling their special computers and systems to make some buck or two.

Ranging from hospitals for their medical imaging and "3D" diagnosis, a particular mapping approach for geophysics, and kid-you-not applications for weather and meteorology.

Pixar or the Pixar Image Computer would have been made purchasable at around 135,000 dollars or so.

It was advanced but with such pricing and low demand, its demise was inevitable.

Now, the Pixar Image Computer was detained in-house for exclusive use.

Instead, it was the Creed Chaos System that took to market and took the market, it did.

Crediting the new Pixar Studios for a much more special and more profitable "computer" and "system".

Also, their days of making Chuck e Cheese commercials and the like to survive weren't going to happen anytime soon.

There's still animated short production and custom-fitted commercials for Creed-related stuff, of course.

For others, it's a big NO.

It's such a NO that even a semblance of old Pixar's tilted collaboration with Disney wasn't going to happen.

It was no secret that the struggling Pixar had always clung to Disney and made Disney the greater beneficiary throughout all of it.

A Pixar-Disney partnership could still work out but how likely is that?

Alexander, the new owner, was not too chummy with the House of Mouse, especially with Eisner's recent move on Marvel.

Then again, the 2D-catering CAPS still existed.

Of course, it's not the accessory apparel that one wears on one's head.

It's also in "all caps" for a reason but not as a simple examplification of the typography.

It's the Computer Animation Production System. CAPS for short.

A proprietary collection of software, scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company and Pixar in the late 1980s.

The Walt Disney Company part was out of the equation though.

It may not yet be at its full potential but it's going to utilized to its fullest, of course, by his very own animation studio.

For a system that succeeded in reducing labor cost, ink and paint expenditure, and streamlined the post-production processes of traditional animation... how could Alexander not ramp it up and introduce it to his animation team?

As of current, it's all operational and being familiarized with by the very people who are meant to be making use of it.

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Which was why Alexander took the time for a stroll to his other animation facility to see it in action.

"DIOOOOO!!!!"

"JOJJOOO!!!"

"Ehm... don't you find this peculiar?"

"Didn't you read the title when you signed up? It's not peculiar. It's supposed to be bizarre."

"Is this how all Americans view us?"

"Eh! Who's to know?"

See it in action?

Hear it in action is more likely as distinct echoes from English-accented voice actors could be heard practicing and talking by the sound compartment of this place.

Alexander figured that he's done so much animation checking that he might as well see or "hear" through all that he has of it.

Anyways, after Pixar, this was Creed Animations...

A very important business endeavor with a lot of progress and happenings but not much to show for.

For a while, everything would have been another Old Edward Williams and failed Troy-jan debacle.

It was really getting there.

Fortunately, something was finally happening. Soon...

In any case, it's just good to look to the future than be bogged down by grim pasts.

There's even a new animation project in the works already.

Alexander wasn't here for the bizarre sounds coming from the recording studio though.

He was here to observe the changes that are apparent in the animation compartments.

Specific places where there's a whole lot of paper, a whole lot of ink, a whole lot of drawing, and a whole lot of cels going on.

It's an animation studio, after all.

Only that computers and a whole lot of digitalization have taken over.

As covered, it's the Computer Animation Production System.

With a "scan and paint" system... cel colorists have put down their special pens, brushes, and carcinogenic colors.

Opting to master the trackball mouse and in-computer paint tools instead.

Flexibility, fluidity, and blending were down a notch but colors couldn't be any more vibrant.

With quick fill technology and other handy functionalities, progress couldn't be any faster as well.

As for all the tedious and previous cel layering practices like placing character cels on top of background cels... it's gotten more optimized.

The P or Production part of CAPS couldn't be any more prominent as post-production, editing, and overall blending couldn't have been made easier.

The system was optimized to be that way and this whole animation atmosphere is really looking to the future, is it not?

Of course, the apparent lack of drawing pads is a technological burden that is yet to be solved.

Also, these people are still getting used to the very freshly introduced upgrades but they're getting there.

If they weren't flexible and adapting, they wouldn't have been hired and they would have literally been fired.

Creed Entertainment is a fast and progressive business, trying to take the helm on many field-ly advances, so stubborn people that want to stick to the old status quo can take a hike.

All in all, the current spectacle he's strolling around to was quite gratifying and that's saying something.

Alexander had really locked on the vision that he has set for himself, after all.

It even had a hint of Jessica Barry, his peculiar client from the past-future, in it. Tuning it down on the ambition for cartoon porn, of course.

Clearly, animation is a very interesting field to tackle. There's the futuristic 3D and there's the traditional kind with cartoons and other whatnot.

Without a doubt, it's a foundational medium that Alexander put great importance on, so he plans to put his stake in all of them.

An animation ambition of his own and it's going to be a grandly glorious one at that...

The indispensable CAPS, alongside Pixar's RenderLess, is just an "accessory" and a part of it.