Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpfcdc!stroyan
From: stroyan@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Mike Stroyan)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Max Headroom
Message-ID: <5040009@hpfcdc.HP.COM>
Date: 29 May 89 18:28:23 GMT
References: <688@corpane.UUCP>
Organization: HP Ft. Collins, Co.
Lines: 24

> I know this is a bit away from the mainstream technical topics of this
> newsgroup, but please indulge me :-)

It's farther away than you think.

> I was wondering:  How was Max Headroom animated?  It looks an awful like
> computer animation, but I heard somewhere that he was created using
> standard animation techniques?

Max was Matt Frewer in blocky makeup and a plastic suit.  They used a
frame store to hold the image and produce the jerky updates and repeated
sequences.

> If he was created using normal animation, how did they make it look so
> computerized?  Incredible shading.  Is it possible using todays
> techniques to create a digital puppet that would perform as Max does?

The shading was from makeup and lighting.

It is possible to produce a similar computer generated effect.  There
was a real time "face puppet" demonstrated at the SIGGRAPH conference
film and video show last August.

Mike Stroyan, stroyan@hpfcla.hp.com