This is now five years (plus) out of date. I have never been able to write a biography that is both concise and gives some feeling for the work.
Biography
of Michael Wahrman
Michael
Wahrman is a pioneer of computer animation and digital visual
effects. His work includes the prototype of the rendering system at
Robert Abel & Associates, design of the animation system that
became the Wavefront Advanced Visualizer, producer of the first
behaviorally animated film, design of an early computer generated
character animation system, the design of a real-time “performance
animation system” for character animation and set design in
real-time for use in both motion pictures and early virtual reality.
In 1988 he co-founded deGraf/Wahrman, inc an important early computer
animation research and production company which produced one of the
first real-time computer generated character performances, a
ride-film for Universal Studios Florida, two stereo ride-films for
Landmark Entertainment, and visual effects on several motion
pictures, all pioneering work as this was before computer animation
was considered a mainstream technique. As a consultant he has worked
for many well-known companies and projects including IBM Research,
IBM Multimedia, Walt Disney Imagineering, Sony, New York University,
the American Museum of Natural History, Viacom New Media, Pacific
Title & Arts Studio, Viacom Interactive Television and dozens of
others. He contributed to the IBM Digital Production Studio Project
(which founded Digital Domain) and was Visual Effects Consultant on
the NASA Digital Galaxy Project as part of the rebuild of the Hayden
Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. On several
occasions he has collaborated with Ken Perlin of NYU on various
character animation and user interface research projects. He has
received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts & Sciences and a research award from the Chicago
Film Festival. He has served many years on the computer animation
jury of Prix Ars Electronica. He has served two terms on the Board
of NY SIGGRAPH and been a speaker at ACM SIGGRAPH, Imagina (Monte
Carlo), Media Tech (Milano) and performed live computer animation at
TED and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Lee Breuer.
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