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Ballistic Publishing is pleased to announce that Diana Walczak, co-founder of the pioneering animation house Kleiser-Walczak, will be one of the distinguished members of the EXPOSÉ 2 Advisory Committee. Kleiser-Walczak coined the term ‘Synthespian’ in 1988 while creating animated 3D characters featuring believable life-like motion.
Kleiser-Walczak was founded by directors Jeff Kleiser and Diana Walczak who led the way in creating convincing digital actors, or Synthespians, in the late 1980s. Coining the term ‘Synthespian’ years before it came into popular use, they first used the term in 1988 to describe their animated 3D characters which moved with life-like motion. In 1989, they created their first female Synthespian performer, Dozo, for the music video ‘Don’t Touch Me’ and an earlier digital human by Kleiser-Walczak appeared in the film ‘Sextone for President’ which premiered at SIGGRAPH '88.
Clay sculpting for fun
Diana Walczak is a classically trained sculptor, and her talent has been instrumental in the studio’s success creating believable 3D characters. “I still sculpt in clay for fun”, admits Diana. “I just completed a Ganesha sculpture as part of a series of sculptures of animals with human bodies. There are some truly satisfying aspects to clay-sculpting that are most difficult to describe in words. Working both ways gives me a unique perspective which embraces an ancient medium along with its most state-of-the-art counterpart.”
When Jeff and Diana created their first synthespians, and for the following eight years, clay sculpting, casting, and three-space digitizing, were instrumental in the computer animation process.
“I even created a Michael Jackson sculpture as the first step in a labor-intensive process just to create a digital still for the 1995 album cover of "HIStory". This was probably the last of the digitized sculptures as it took 2 solid weeks just to place the grid lines on the 4-foot sculpture! As virtual digital sculpting is most certainly fun, I have not yet utilized the technology purely for artistic expression. However, in the back of my mind the potential seems very much alive.”
Digital sculpting
Being involved in digital modeling and animation for over 15 years Diana has moved with the evolving digital tools. “Though in personal sculpture I still work traditionally”, she explains, “for computer animation, I have completely replaced my original sculpting/digitizing methods with SensAble Technologies digital sculpting system”. This ground-breaking invention allows me to feel the digital clay with a tool while manipulating it in a similar way to real clay, but with many digital advantages such as working from the inside, instant mirroring, and the most beloved ‘undo’. The model can then be efficiently made ready for animation without ever leaving the digital realm.”
Image Credits: Pubtender Duncan from the stereoscopic ride film "Corkscrew Hill".
© 2001 Busch Entertainment Corporations. All rights reserved.
Photo courtesy of Kleiser-Walczak. (Top & Bottom Left) | Portrait Photograph of Diana Walczak,
Photo by Franziska Walczak. (Middle Left) | 'Ganesha', Traditional Clay Sculpture, Diana Walczak (Bottom Right)
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