Young Sherlock Holmes (Paramount, 1985), "Stained-Glass Knight" Master Painting Used to Create the Firs...

Description

The master painting used by Industrial Light & Magic to create the "Stained-Glass Knight" from Young Sherlock Holmes; the first fully CGI character integrated into a live-action film, a watershed in visual effects history.

Young Sherlock Holmes (Paramount, 1985), "Stained-Glass Knight" Master Painting Used to Create the First Computer-Generated Character in a Feature Film. The early 1980s saw a revolution in computer graphics, with George Lucas' ILM leading the charge. Recruits including Edwin Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith, and John Lasseter formed ILM's Graphics Group-soon renamed Pixar-whose work on Star Trek II paved the way for a greater challenge: an entirely CGI sequence for Young Sherlock Holmes. Funded by Steve Jobs, the team combined cutting-edge computing with traditional matte work to create the groundbreaking Stained-Glass Knight, forever altering the trajectory of animation. Created by matte artist Chris Evans in acrylic on 14.5" x 16.75" board, the work depicts a knight with a bloody sword above a fallen priest. Scanned into Pixar's system, the painting became the foundation for Lasseter's animation, who, using ILM Model Shop employee Jeff Mann for movement reference, rendered the Knight's dimensions, textures, and fluid motion. The result: cinema's first fully integrated CGI character, leaping from a church window to pursue Reverend Nesbitt (Donald Eccles). The painting exhibits minor edgewear and scuffs to the black border with verso pencil notation, "Young Sherlock Holmes". Provenance: From the collection of Jeff Mann, who stewarded the work since ILM's Matte Department transitioned to a digital process and moved to new offices at the San Francisco Presidio. Included are a May 1986 Cinefex issue detailing the process and a June 1986 Time magazine noting the revolutionary technique that earned the film an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. Both show signs of handling. Comes with a COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: The dawn of the 1980s saw a revolution in computer graphics that spread from technical institutes and research labs to the budding animation studios in Hollywood. George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic was at the forefront of this innovation, with fresh recruits from the New York Institute of Technology including Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, and an aspiring animator named John Lasseter. Their recruitment formed ILM's Graphics Group, soon renamed Pixar, and after the success of creating the Genesis effect for Star Trek II (Paramount, 1982), the group was tasked with a new challenge: creating an entirely computer animated sequence for a new live-action project – Young Sherlock Holmes. Using state-of-the-art computing technology and funding from a new investment from pioneering tech inventor Steve Jobs, the race was on. The team faced unchartered territory head on, using a combination of high-tech computing systems and meticulous digital renderings alongside matte painting and live-action footage to bring this concept to life. The resulting sequence in Young Sherlock Holmes became the first use of computer graphics imagery integrated into a live-action feature, a watershed moment that would change the trajectory of both Pixar and the field of animation as a whole. 50 years after its release, Heritage is proud to offer here the master painting used to create this landmark use of computer animation. Accomplished by matte artist Chris Evans in acrylic on 14.5" x 16.75" illustration board, depicting in super-fine detail a knight wielding a bloody sword standing above a dying priestly figure clutching his side, the artwork was the fundamental building block of the animated sequence to follow. Once accomplished, the matte painting was scanned into Pixar's paint computing system. From there, animator John Lasseter employed a technique similar to rotoscoping using test footage from ILM Model Shop employee Jeff Mann to simulate the exact movements the Stained Glass Knight would need to make. Once the painting was scanned into the Pixar system, and using the reference footage featuring Mr. Mann, Lasseter and additional members of the Pixar animation team went through several rigorous rendering phases to create the shape, dimensions, color, and crucially, texture. The result is a scene that shows a fully posable Stained Glass Knight leaping from his window in a church and moving piece by piece through the church, the camera sweeping from the front to the back of this revolutionary animated figure as he stalks Reverand Nesbitt (Donald Eccles) through the church and outside to his snowy demise. This truly collaborative, groundbreaking process was a trial in experimentation and the innovation that produced a landmark moment in computer animation history. This matte painting was an instrumental part of that process and remains in wonderfully preserved condition exhibiting minor edgewear and some scuffs to the black acrylic border paint. Unframed, with verso handwritten in pencil, "Young Sherlock Holmes". This painting comes directly from Jeff Mann, head of the ILM Model Shop for over two decades, who was used to simulate the Knight in the test footage, who has stewarded the artwork since the ILM Matte Department transitioned to a digital process and moved to new offices at the San Francisco Presidio. Accompanying the matte painting is a May 1986 issue of Cinefex magazine with a detailed explanation of the process used to create this sequence, as well as a June 16, 1986 copy of Time magazine with a short blurb on the revolutionary technique which earned Young Sherlock Holmes an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. Both supplemental materials showing signs of personal use and wear including split seams and bumped corners. Comes with a COA from Heritage Auctions.


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