BBC Micro Live 1986 - Computer Animation

[ifyoucatchmydriftbud]

It's funny how different the animation looks with what we have today with computers.

[xxfrandsxx]

i love how we can now do practically the same thing with powerpoint.

and 2:54...wtf

[ravebritt]

that guy looks like a virgin computer animator

[Bra1th]

@ravebritt He still is lol

[rippleway123]

If loveable Fred Harris was on QVC etc, you'd buy it! ADMIT IT!!

[SwedenZooFilm]

LOL

[XFactorHater]

2.30 ....you could have lots of characters.....yes, if you had 15 hours to spare waiting for the processor to work out what the hell was going on.

[uriituw]

Amigas were 32-bit within the CPU. The first ones had 16-bit external data buses.

[zacatetas]

did any one else notice the square, circle, and triangle in the lower right corner of the paint software? EA! look at those sons of bitches now! destroying black ops

[heiderpederneiras]

what is the name of this software in animation

3d?

[sKratch1337]

Holy shit that 3D was old school, lmfao! Loving this! xD

[AaronM9552]

Litlle do they know that my computer is more advanced than there chunky old computers!

[AaronM9552]

32 Bit was created after 1986?

I bet it was a time travel!!!

[eariesmile1]

cant wait until it come out

[KiraBlackwater]

I miss this y'know. When home computers were something magical and amazing. Today's generation have grown up with them as something everyday and mundane.

[KiraBlackwater]

Fred Harris is a legend.

[davidsan01]

The Amiga was and still is the best games based entertainment system ever for it's price!

[TheHarecat]

Fuck me I've lost the will to live.

[xDoubleZer00x]

wow i never knew they had a mouse pointer.

[cookie123456789012]

Snazzy

[DdlyHeadshot]

I miss "Buttons and Dials"!

[Drathgore]

i wish i could just go back to that time period and show every1 maya

[robthebloke]

@Drathgore Maya (or more precisely Softimage/Power-Animator) took all the fun out of 3D. Suddenly you could use a mouse and move things interactively. I started off with HP-UX machines doing 3D using nothing but pages code. A bit of a shock for someone with an arts background I can tell you!!

Maya1 sucked. It wasn't until version 4.5 that it stopped crashing all the time. I thought it was a bit lame when I first saw it, certainly not as powerful as the code we'd all gotten used too....

[robthebloke]

@Drathgore FWIW, Maya is starting to show it's age pretty severely these days (having been conceived in a time before SIMD, Multi-core CPUs and GPUs). Apps such as Z-Brush, morpheme, euphoria, nuke, mari, show what is possible in 3D these days. The only problem is that no one is insane enough to try to develop such a monolithic beast ever again. My prediction is that it will have gone the way of the dodo within 10 years..... having been replaced by numerous smaller, more specialise apps....

[blueluny]

pah! these "computers" will never catch on

[JohnnyTheWolfLupino]

Used to use the BBC Micro at school with the awful dot matrix printers.

[Dangoxs]

"lesser forms of technology"... LIKE~!

[kinmanyuen]

lol she talks like she knows what shes talkin about^^

[RanmaChanAndKunoKun]

its macromedia flash mx of the 80s, to compare it to todays standards would be unfair as computers have come along since then a great bit but for the period of its existence it was pretty advanced

[hawkmannn]

i remember this program from all those years ago, i was 12. i remember thinking WOW i want 1, now i thinking wtf was i thinking ha ha

[mistofoles]

(Groans) Not Fred bloody Harris again! Was there any educational/childrens' programme you could watch in the early 80s that he WASN'T in?!

[voon100]

Ok so I came here specifically to see if I was imagining the few bar of the opening theme was actually used for Windows XP shut down music. Looks like it is!

[He101A]

32 bit computer back in 1986, the Amiga was truly ahead of its time. I used to see commercials of the Amiga 500 back in 1987 for $500. My parents bought me the Apple II c and Apple II e which cost much more. Graphics were crappier than the Amiga 500, I wish I had the Amiga 500. It is the computer I never got to own, but I always wanted it.

[SynthWho]

I think people would be much more interested in I.T at our school if you had to get down and dirty with the programming. Tedious, but I can imagine lessons being quite fun :)

[MOSTechnology]

I was too busy looking at Lesley Judd.

[IntellectualAmy]

LOL

[ORUPRANKSTAZ]

Behold Amiga, in all its former glory.

[masteratadobe]

the computer looks really old

[MOSTechnology]

thats because it is

[ExtremeBogom]

Britian looked so strange in the 80's

[m134mr]

so glad i had an amiga!

[lndac02]

its unclear to me how a programme maker funded by license fee ever got involved in computer manufactering.

[UncleFeedle]

The BBC wasn't involved in that way. The BBC Micro was developed and manufactured by Acorn. Seeing the increasing importance of computers, the Beeb decided to badge a machine as part of the BBC Computer Literacy Project, intended to educate the public about computers (TV series such as Micro Live were also part of the project). Several manufacturers vied for the contract, including Sinclair, but only Acorn's machine, then known as the Proton, met all the requirements the BBC had laid out.

[uvmedraco]

i was 3 when this was around lol, no wonder i think its pretty terrible xD

[BrightSoul80]

I'm actually impressed by what they managed to do back in 1986.

The software at 1:30 looks like a prototype of Adobe Flash. They had already developed some key ideas like management of the timeline, layers, frames.

[Feenicks01]

That's pretty snazzy isn't it then?

[Markjuk]

The dear old BBC Micro computer. When i was at primary school in the early to late 80's we only had two of these for the whole school (300+ kids). These came with the cumbersome 5 1/4 inch (bendy) floppy disks that stored 360 kilobytes. Kids nowadays have it good at school using modern PC's and not the BBC Micro and Acorn Archimedes that us oldies were subjected to.

[killdoser666]

there is an old bbc computer hooked up to a CNC lathe in a technology class in my school but it is never used because of the new computers hooked up ne CNC milling machenes.

[PDauto]

Remember this program or was it ' The Mighty Micro' forst being on on the late 70's early 80s with Ed McNaught? anyone confirm this?

[GrandPrix55]

Ian McNaught Davies I think: Making the Most of the Micro c.1983

[jvc85]

I Remember when i started at school when i was 6 years (Im 15 but 16 in about 2 months from now) the Amiga computer was on every classroom :-) I miss thoose times had it really fun with that computer (F@cking it up etc :P, anyhow a really good computer)

[BionicChango]

Well now I feel old. About 10 BBC model B's were introduced to my school in my last year.... whatever they call that these days. In my day it was called 5th year.

[agghtee]

Ok, was feeling old... about 1988 I started at high school and there was a BEEB in almost every classroom - all hocked up by ECONET.... The *best* thing you could do was send a:

10 PROMT / delay 60

20 PRINT "I CAN SEE YOU"

command... 60 minutes later and all the first years we;re shitting themselves 'cos the computer "talked to them"!

[The32xGuy]

I finished High School in 2007.

We used the Command Prompt to change the Tech Supports administration passwords.

For some reason it took them weeks to realize we were using the Command Prompt to do it.

I'm probably the first person to ever be suspended from school for cyber crime.

[christo930]

All that animation at the end done with the proprietary computer could have been done with an Amiga 1000, or more preferably. an Amiga 2000 with a hard disk (which was available around the time of this taping, maybe slightly later). He is using home user level software for his animation and much better stuff was avail for the Amiga. Anything in this video could have been done with an Amiga.

[Gameboygenius]

3:27 Check his eye blinking

[mubd1234]

"realism"

[mrwidjet]

I love the way he calls them "little screens" and not Windows. Oh I miss the days when a whole workbench would fit on a floppy and have the blue screen of life :)

[RaggedTiger70]

The Amiga is still cutting-edge compared to Macs and PCs. And at the time, it would be another 10-15 years before Macs/PCs could do what that Amiga was doing for the price.

[mikeyo1234]

Hmmm this sounds like you are being emotional rather than reasoning properly. That's like saying a steam engine is cutting edge compared to the space shuttle.

[christo930]

The Amiga really was much better than macs or pcs until around 2000. But even today, there are things you can do with an Amiga that you couldn't do with a pc without an add on. A nice advantage of the Amiga was it's ability to output broadcast quality compatible video.

It's funny, now pc's are designed more like an Amiga with dedicated hardware for video and sound. Up until the mid-late nineties, video cards were "dumb" and relied on the cpu, now they are more like the Amiga with ded hardware.

[oc5nsli341nforce4]

That is how the multimedia revolution got started now we got what many at that time cold only theorize as sci-fi and far off fantasy. Like crysis at 5000/5000 64x custom aa and af models, multi gig textures max settings and get 100+fps with real time particle and fluid physics. In addition to that beyond quad even six way sli or crossfire. would be today with that still in development 80core Intel cpu that can run at 6ghz but only with cryogenic cooling.

[glenntoogood]

The decay that taste forgot! LOL Look up the Micro game "Revs" The car tone is horrible! XD

[Wcross34]

Grizzly, that's British Broadcasting CORPORATION, not "Cooperation" !

[FrostbiteUK]

OMG, the bad old days, LOL

[TheOneTheyCallVi]

nice

[billabongodrum]

i agree with mrs t, please shut up fred

[geoffart]

wow! thats prtty advanced for 86! I bet that looked well hightech back then!!!

[gamer2284]

Fun to emulate on your psp

[Grizzly696]

omg my first computer was a BBC had hugggee floppy disks for games! i miss that computer!

[Cochese]

BBC computer?

[Grizzly696]

British Broadcasting Cooperation.

[celshader]

I remember learning deluxe paint 4 in high school before I moved on to photoshop professionally.

[eezlewax2]

I loved that guys knobs at the end lol

[DAVIDRCGRAY]

i remember the old monitors for it they weighed a ton and burnt like fuck. cheers

[tallblokefour]

That brought back some memories. I had a BBC B, Amiga, Amstrad 64, Spectrum +2....

[TheNumber4q]

Yeah was definitely 16bit. And he said PAINT! GET IT RIGHT! IT'S DPAINT! ;)

[westgoten]

Gotta love those analog 'knobs' at the end...

[tossbaguk]

It's amazing, this is still how Flash basically works using tweens and stuff :)

[snevelin]

Only difference that this is raster based, Flash is vector.

[elagrotaa]

que listo el tio!

[OldRockSongs]

What the fuck do you mean by: "that the uncle listed!"?

[inachu]

OMG this is so high tech!  Better than Linux!

[alizta]

You are such an retard.

[snevelin]

Can't understand the concept of sarcasm? The retard is you, sadly. ;)

[alizta]

I understand that concept, i just don't get what you are getting at with your witty, sarcastic comment. If you think those machines where crappy, you should have seen what we had before.

[spicyswiss]

Just think that was the cuting edge in technology

[LosBee]

Did he say "32 bit Amiga"?? Hang on, the Amigas of 1986 were only 16 bit! The A1200 was still 8 years away..

[jowie74]

I think they were advertised as 32-bit, but the architecture was only 16-bit. I could be wrong...

[KiraBlackwater]

@jowie74 same way thew N64 was marketed as "64 bit".

[MightySharpAndOceans]

@jowie74

16 Bit data bus, but 32 bit register file.

Mostly like a 80386SX but without the retardedness of the x86 architecture, which was a compromise.

[robthebloke]

@jowie74 Today we measure a computer in terms of it's data bus (which connects the CPU to the other components). The Amiga CPU could add/subtract 32bit numbers, but it's data bus was 16bit, so multiplexing was required to read/write a 32bit number in two 16bit steps. The Nintendo64 was another example (32bit databus, 64bit computation). Using the same old school metric, a 486DX would be 80bit, a Pentium3 would be 128bit, and the newest i7's would be 256bit. [And a GPU would be off the scale]

[10p6]

@jowie74 The 68000 is a 32 bit internal CPU with 16 bit Data Bus. Remember the Atari ST (Sixteen Thirty two)

Sorry for the 3 yr wait to reply, I had a headache. lol

[pushvanjay]

@jowie74 The Amiga used a 68000 Motorola CPU which was a 32bit processor with a 16bit data bus.

[thatguyontheright1]

@jowie74 The early Amigas were 16bit, but by the end, they became 32bit with the PowerPC processors.

[NicsoftInc]

Well, the Motorola 68000 (Amiga 1000)

processor is 32-bit internally

and 16-bit on the "bus" (externally).

The Amiga 1200 is 32-bit on the "bus"...

[billlydark]

another comparison would be the intel 8088 processor, which ran on most IBM XT, was internally an 16 bit processor but it was 8 bit on the bus...

[kasi7777]

The 68000 have a 24 Bit Adressregister, and a 32 Bit Dataregister, much better than a 8088. Better comparison would be a 80286 or 80386.

[richardmaudsley77]

@LosBee the amiga is 32bit and always has been. the whole "bits" thing is marketing tosh anyway, really it means bugger all.

[aseglkj]

@LosBee the 68000 is a 32 bit processor, so yeah, it's a 32 bit computer

[pathammond]

@LosBee (from wiki) While the 68000 is a 32-bit chip internally, it has a 16-bit data bus and 24-bit address bus, providing a maximum of 16 MB address space

[TheCarambah]

@LosBee I think the Motorola 68000 could be called a 32-bit processor. Internal and external data buses were both 16 bits wide. However the Amiga graphics was 16 bit until the 1200 with it's AGA chipset.

[matt9741399]

@LosBee The 68000 processor (used in Amigas) had 32-bit registers and could perform some operations 32-bits at a time, but had a 16-bit bus.

[Ahle2]

search for "XASnGpemk_M" if you are interrested in a graphic comparison between Atari ST and The Commodore Amiga !

[shakeyphil]

TV's Fred Harris ???

[beverins]

The Amiga was cutting-edge. No quotation marks around cutting-edge needed. Its a fact, it was cutting-edge.

Made PCs and MACs of the time look pretty sad in comparison.

[OrmondRender]

Before Amiga,, today iPhone is 1000 times stronger than 20 years ago!,so what happen next 20 years?

[tommyjones1978]

Only Amiga makes it possible!

[beverins]

Wow, Deluxe Paint 1 and Deluxe Video 1.

And check it = Deluxe Video is NODE BASED.

Only NOW are the latest compositing and 3D programs using NODE BASED interfaces.

Later on, Deluxe Paint 3, 4 and 5 allowed for cel animation, limited only by storage space and your talent for making cel animation (hint - draw. every. frame.)

[mtthwhole]

pretty snazzy

[gocaitygo]

oh wow this is the ancestor of sony vegas lol

[fraserkatie]

My friend Chris worked with fred once when Fred did End of Part One on LWT. Wonder if he still remembers the sketch in which Denise Coffey gripped my friend's ear and Fred was in the sketch too. I loved Micro live too, I had a BBC Micro in my school classroom I used to love!

[numpty1972]

The ancestor of "Scratch".

[looseSpark]

All this old stuff is such a great educational resource for new Computer Science students! Even with today's more powerful tools a lot can be learned from looking at how it was done in the past.

[tyronix]

the spectrum could do that actually hehe just the mapping was abit cack cos there was only 4 colors lol 2 of them black and white haha

[metafis]

amazing how many ideas got 'borrowed' by Microsoft

[tyronix]

borrowed lol more like "hijacked"

[placuchoww]

Deluxe Paint is better than Paint or Painbrush.

[tyronix]

deluxe paint was amazing offered blur and smear too which at the time was the biz then with animation and anim brushes ,light table!!, just mind blowing not alone the upgrade versions of the software is defo a first choice paint prog forever!

[therealcaldini]

So that's Macromedia, sorry, Adobe Flash only a good decade ago. Wow.

[pcmarriott]

Wow!!! That's Fred Harris from the old Chockablock TV show :)

[jowie74]

More importantly, it's Fred Harris from Playschool :)

[andythesoupdragon]

any clips of Fred "losing" his temper at Big Ted being unable to sit up? I remember this on an unshown scenes prog..  creased myself wi laughter!

[jowie74]

I've been looking out for that Play School clip for ages, let me know if you find it!

[andythesoupdragon]

swift reply! YouTube's about the only place I can think of that would eventually have this sort of clip. Keep watching!

[sirrahderf]

You'd have lost your rag too. He was for ever trying to upstage us!

Fred

[Rumpio]

wow! a hero to a generation :) kids today just use computers, we used to program! Fred always seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. Did you take your work home with you?

[sirrahderf]

Sure did! I used to do most of the demonstrations, so I had to know what to say without looking at the autocue - my head was constantly on the monitor or inside the machine. It paid off one day when the stupid prompter girl loaded the wrong script, and I had to adlib my way through the item despite totally alien words on my prompter. Brown trouser time!

Best,

Fred

[jowie74]

Is that really you Fred? I used to work at BFBS... Do you remember ever receiving the "Fred News" newsletter? You gave me a couple of signed photos... heh :)

[sirrahderf]

Can't say I remember "Fred News" - have you been drinking? I'm working at BFBS tv myself now - not stacking shelves as one contributor suggested a few months ago! Not yet, anyway. Still, a man can dream... Best, Fred

[jowie74]

Maybe I was drinking at the time! No it was a silly newsletter my friend and I put together. We're talking about hmmm 13 years ago now! I remember having a conversation with you in the canteen about your son taking up the drums (or something?). My Dad (who still works there) gave you a copy of "Fred News" and you gave him a couple of signed photos (I still have mine!). I worked again at Chalfont a couple of years ago, but didn't see you around. Glad to hear you are back and not stacking shelves!

[invertedbeardthe2nd]

"Choca bloke, checking in!" lol

[banditer]

these make me laugh so hard...

I remember the windows 95 when I was 3. and I thought that was good. lol.

[hagiadzo]

Sure, we can do these same 3D effects much more easily these days than the guy with Virgin could, but he was working back in 1986! That was 21 years ago! I think he did an excellent job with what he had to work with.

[mynamesforest]

32bit Amiga in 1986? I thought it was 16bit :s

[jowie74]

16-bit processor, 32-bit bus/architecture. Pretty pointless, really. :)

[mynamesforest]

OK cheers for clearing that up!

[jowie74]

Fountain of useless information, me :)

[KRAFTWERK2K6]

Cool. That part with the head. That's how they made the CGI heads for the Kraftwerk music video of Music Non Stop.

[TheMorMor]

Lesser forms of technology :P

[Arcain101]

he's probably working at some game company using Maya or 3D Studio Max and doing the boring job of importang+cleaning-up motion capture data for game characters. Of course, it's only a matter of time before his company discovers a piece of software that can do his job automatically and they'll then give him the sack. he's obviousely pretty old now, so he'll have trouble finding a job in the trendy young games industry. so youll probably sspot him at your local Tescos staking shelves

[snapdragon69]

LOL, he's a TV presenter, he used to present Playschool and other kids programmes, has done comedy recently.

[librarychair]

wow, the high tech of 20 years ago. Amazing what kind of advances have been made since then. I wonder what that guy is working on nowadays...

[polarbear60]

Very good point, what is he working on now?

[whirlyfan]

i know great advances!