In 1990 I joined a small team of animators, at Post Perfect in New York City, to work on a high-profile image piece for Sony titled, "Infinite Escher".
Title Design by CELEFEX
This project was intended to demonstrate Sony's development of a new technical standard for high definition (analog) video.
The team included Blaine Cone, Karen Goulekas, Steve Blakey, and 3D Technical Director Scott Gordon. Our role was to recreate several of M.C. Escher's famous artworks in high definition video using 3D computer animation.
Here's a helpful summary of the video by Steve Diggins from his review of the LaserDisc release...
"Infinite Escher integrates 3-D computer animation with High Definition video to tell the story of a boy who moves between reality and a fantasy world, where computer graphic replicas of the works of the Dutch artist M.C. Escher come to life."
Yes, the video may have been cutting edge, "technically", and completing it using the limited high definition equipment available at the time was a great accomplishment for Post Perfect and REBO Studio.
However, when it comes to the creative aspects of a production like script, acting, dialog, editing, story-telling, etc., "Infinite Escher" was... not a success. And, this kind of failure is usually the responsibility of the director(s).
At the time, I don't recall being impressed by all the "big names" associated with this production, and it was only years later I came to realize how special the project was.
The 8 minute video starred Sean Lennon as "The Boy", and also included Yoko Ono in the closing credits.
Sean Lennon as "The Boy"
My assignment on the project was to recreate a section of M.C. Escher's "Metamorphosis II" woodcut print.
Metamorphosis II (full print)
Metamorphosis II (section to be animated)
I've always been a big fan of Escher's work, especially this print, and was excited by the challenge. This sequence was mostly a "stand-alone" piece in the video, which (thankfully) gave me a lot of freedom when creating the animation.
The first problem to tackle was working out Escher's tiling schemes, which didn't remain consistent and transformed across the artwork.
The second problem was to build 3D geometry that could accurately match, transform, and morph with those tiling schemes.
Below is a link to the surviving "Studies" I used to test and build geometry and calculate the tiling and morph details.
Of course, Escher's tiling and transitions are works of genius. But, after going down the "Metamorphosis II" rabbit-hole, it became clear there were some awkward sections using "cheats" you could only get away with in a flat, 2D illustration.
Also, since "Metamorphosis II" was being recreated in "3D" I wanted to take it beyond the flat layout of the original artwork. That meant using animated camera moves to view the geometry from different angles, and separating the tiled layers to created more depth.
Below are a few images from the final animation.
I remember using Wavefront's "Preview" animation software running on the SGI workstations, but can't recall which 3D rendering software we used on the production.
All the geometry morphing effects in "Metamorphosis II" were created using custom code I wrote in "C", and the texture maps were created on the Quantel Paintbox. (Looking back, I wish I had used a more refined color palette.)
Below is the full "Metamorphosis II" sequence.
Infinite Escher (Metamorphosis II segment)
Below is a link to the full "Infinite Escher" video, (at various high resolutions), on YouTube. Many thanks to "Reely Interesting" for posting this.
Note: All images from the "Infinite Escher" video are Copyright 1990 Sony Corp.
Blaine Cone created the "Other World", "Mobius", "Curl Up", and "Relativity" segments.
Karen Goulekas and Steve Blakey worked on the "Simurgh".
This was a nightmare element to create and animate. Several facial expressions were built by, literally, pushing and pulling hundreds (thousands?) of individual points on the Simurgh's face, using only a mouse and the viewport.
Karen and Steve forever earned my respect for all the hard work they put into completing these segments.
Scott Gordon created the "Bulge" effect.
The CG animation tools were quite primitive at the time and it was an extremely challenging project for everyone involved. But, it was a great team and we all enjoyed working together and helping each other when we could.
Looking back over the years, the "Metamorphosis II" animation segment now stands out as one of the more creatively rewarding commercial projects I worked on.
Pages from an article by Ken McGorry in the April, 1990 issue of Post magazine.
(page 1 of 6)
(page 2 of 6)
(page 3 of 6)
(page 4 of 6)
(page 5 of 6)
(page 6 of 6)
One final comment...
Sometime around 2015 I was browsing the internet, searching for a higher resolution version of "Infinite Escher", and came across these images of Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1990 "Infinite Escher" LaserDisc release.
I'm a big fan of Sakamoto's work and was proud to see the re-rendered image from my animation on the cover of the LaserDisc. However, I would have appreciated being notified and credited for the artwork.
Post Update: August 3, 2022
Thanks to "M.O." of "Reely Interesting" (You Tube) for the following information:
The "Metamorphosis" segment (only) was included in Sony's 1990 HDVS Demo (appropriately) called "Metamorphosis".
Also known as, "1990 Analog HDTV HDVS High-Definition Dolby Surround Demonstration Videodisc", it was heavily used by Sony to promote the HDVS system at various venues, including trade shows.
When the Sony PlayStation came out in 1995, the "Metamorphosis" segment was again featured, without credits or context, in the PS1 Developer Demo Disc.
