Pacific Data Images

Background
Pacific Data Images was founded in 1980 by Carl Rosendahl in Sunnyvale, California (a suburb of Silicon Valley and San Francisco); his partners Richard Chuang and Glenn Entis wrote the company's computer software one year later on a DEC PDP-11/44, which transitioned into a DEC VAX-11/780, which was to be a part of the studio's goal to incorporate computer graphics into the entertainment field. Some of its early projects included the TV special The Last Halloween with Hanna-Barbera, the 1989 PBS logo with John LePrevost, the NBC "Let's All Be There" ID promotional film with Harry Marks, and the "Homer³" segment from The Simpsons S7 episode "Treehouse of Horror VI" with Gracie Films and Film Roman. In 1998, PDI collaborated with the feature animation division of DreamWorks SKG to produce the feature film Antz. The studio was purchased by DreamWorks in 2000 and was renamed PDI/DreamWorks, in which the two companies worked within a single entity, comprised of the original PDI studio in Redwood City and the DreamWorks campus in Glendale, which became DreamWorks Animation. On January 22, 2015, PDI/DreamWorks closed its doors as part of a restructuring of DreamWorks Animation due to the box office flop of Penguins of Madagascar. The studio's biggest hit was the 2004 film Shrek 2.

1st Logo (1987)
Visuals: On a light brown background with brown dots, we see a wavy blue line with a white stripe through the middle at the top of the screen, and what seems to be part of a sombrero at the bottom of the screen, all which resembles a beach setting. In between them is "serif" in white Italics and "Impact" in big, magenta letters. A small red triangle is shown below the words. Copyright information is below.

Technique: None.

Audio: None.

Availability: Only seen on two PDI tech demos from 1987.

2nd Logo (1988-1997)
Visuals: On a marble background, we see a large rectangular black box on the left side of the logo. Within the box is a gold border surrounding a gold, kneeling stickman that is holding up an analog television. On the right side is the words "Pacific Data Images" stacked in black with a line underneath. Below is "Presents" in small gold letters.

Variant: This time the logo, which now has "PDI" in gold inside the box below the stickman, is in the middle of a white background decorated with various company logos (such as the 1986 NBC logo) and other objects. "PRESENTS" is seen below in big, red letters. Sometimes the logo is absent.

Technique: None.

Audio: None, or the opening/closing theme of the demo reel.

Availability: Only seen on demo reels from the time.

3rd Logo (June 5, 1989)
Visuals: On a black background, we see a golden 19th century decorated design of the words "serif" with "Serif" in an arc and "Times NEw Roman" inside a scroll. Underneath it is "Times New Roman".

Technique: Computer animation from PDI themselves.

Audio: The opening theme of the short.

Availability: Seen only on the CGI short Locomotion.

4th Logo (1996-2000)
Visuals: There is a stickman jumping in and somersaulting. He lands on a floor with white dots and causes the wooden letters "PDI" to shake. A film camera drops from above, which the man then catches, making him kneel, and the dots fade out.

Variants:
 * Sometimes the logo is still.
 * There is a variant where the logo is featured as a large statue with the company name stacked in front of it. Two spotlights orbit the logo in different directions.

Technique: A mixture of 2D and 3D animation. This was animated by the animation division of DreamWorks Pictures (now DreamWorks Animation).

Audio: None, or the ending theme of the demo.

Availability: The regular version only appeared at the end of Antz. The other variants were seen on demo reels at the time.

5th Logo (April 22, 2001-November 26, 2014)
Visuals: An in-credit logo. The words "Times New Roman" and "Times new roman" appear next to each other in the DreamWorks font. The words are separated by DW's "Moon Boy" symbol, which is rotated to the right in this logo.

Later Variant: Starting with Shrek the Third, only the Times New Roman text is used, and the logo is now centered and larger.

Technique: None.

Audio: None or the closing theme of the movie.

Availability: The original version appears at the end of Shrek (the logo's debut), Shrek 2 and Madagascar as well as the short film The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper. The later version is seen on the later films from the studio, starting with Shrek the Third and ending with their final film, Penguins of Madagascar. This variant also appeared on the short films Megamind: The Button of Doom and Rocky and Bullwinke as well as the television special Shrek the Halls. This logo does not appear on Shrek Forever After or Puss in Boots, as they were not produced at PDI, but rather at the main DreamWorks studio in Glendale.