TonyPritchett.co.uk
british computer-animation pioneer
TONY PRITCHETT
explorer quote
"I was labelled a 'drifter'"
> 1938 Tony is born. He was a happy and creative child who loved inventing languages, worlds, and train signalling systems.
> 1962 After a tough time in education, he hits "rock bottom", and feels "on the scrap heap".
> 1963 After a chance meeting with a computer on a sales course at Elliott Automation, he learns to code...
" Finally, something I can do!"
> 1963 Tony becomes staff at EA, where he makes a compiler and programs weapons trajectories.
1966 Keen to do something more creative, he answered an advert by the BBC, who were looking for people who could use computers.
1966 He meets presenter and computer sceintist benedict nixon, whilst working on a show called "MATHS IN ACTON!" (link)
> 1967 Ben gets tony fired up about the possibility of using computers for animtion.
> 1967 FUNDING
In 1967, Tony Pritchett created the world's first computer- generated character animation, 'THE FLEXIPEDE'.
Back in 1967, this was not easy.
One particular challenge was previewing his animation (the computer he used had no monitor!)
To export his cartoon, he had to go to a nuclear fusion research laboratory.
Culham Atomic Weapons Research Establishment was home to the UK's only (accessible) microfilm recorder, the BL120 *
Tony: "This was the Magic Machine - that put it [THE FLEXIPEDE] onto film".
Here is a clip from a 16mm film in Tony's collection (kindly digitised by Jez Stewart at the BFI National Archives).
It shows the sort of thing usually put onto film at Culham.
(ie. plasma physics, not "computer caterpillars.")
* PDF from Tony's archive, digitised by Professor Bob Hopgood. Many thanks, Prof Hopgood!
The Illusion of life and my findings
"It was fun making computers make pictures"
Tony;s career 1968 - 1963
He created computer animation at the dawn of the computer-animation industry.
> He used a scientific computing language (FORTRAN V) and BASIC to create his animations.
> He also developed his own computer language (GRAM), to help him “work out how to make computers draw pictures”.
Likeminds many friends...software generation
Tony was an artist and technologist. He was a modest man and was often not credited for his work. This includes:
Development work for Superman I (1978)
Animation for Alien (1979) & Bladerunner (1982)
The original Ch4 logo (1982) (There's a great story about that!)
Many advertisements and educational materials for UK Television.
LOOKING AT FILM IN TONY'S HOUSE.PHOTO BY EWAN MULLIGAN
OPEN UNI
RCA
CAS
thanks james holcombe
Other work and projects
NON-COMMERCIAL
MAKING STUFF (C. 2016)
TONY USING ADOBE SOFTWARE TO EDIT TIME-LAPSE FOOTAGE HE SHOT WITH HIS GO PRO.
> clip above is from THE NIGHT FERRY....
> Although he was a very rational person, he was also very open-minded and interested in what he called "whacky" things.
> Tony cared a lot about the environment.
> Here is time-lapse work he made with Power Up North London
> In 2017, he left us at his humanist funeral service to the sound of The TARDIS dematerialising.
> Many people miss him very much.