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 Cartoons, 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 (1983)
Logo: On a black background, the words "Pacific Data Images, Inc " in white Italics is seen. Copyright information is below. The logo then fades into the beginning of the demo.

FX/SFX: None

Music/Sounds: None

Availability: Extinct. Only seen on a CGI demo reel from 1983.

2nd Logo (1987)
Nicknames: "80's PDI"

Logo: 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. In between them is "Pacific Data" in white Italics and "IMAGES" in big, magenta letters. A small red triangle is shown below the words. Copyright information is below.

FX/SFX: None

Music/Sounds: None

Availability: Extinct. Only seen on two PDI tech demos.

Editor's Note: The bright colors may be an eyesore to some.

3rd Logo (1988-1997)
Nicknames: "Man with a TV", "Man Holding a TV", "Pre-Cameraman PDI", "PDI TV Guy", "Action Man"

Logo: 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 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.

FX/SFX: None.

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

Availability: Extremely rare. Only seen on demo reels from the time, which can be found on Youtube.

4th Logo (June 5, 1989)
Logo: On a black background, we see a golden 19th century decorated design of the words "PACIFIC Data Images" with "PACIFIC" in an arc and "Data" inside a scroll. Underneath it is "Times New Roman".

FX/SFX: The logo shining.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the short.

Availability: Extremely rare, only found on the CGI short Locomotion.

5th Logo (1996-2000)
Nicknames: "The Cameraman", "Man with the Camera", "Man Holding a Camera", "PDI Cameraman" "Action Man II"

Logo: We see a stickman jumping in and somersaulting. He lands on 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.

FX/SFX: A mixture of 2D and 3D animation. Ironically, this was actually animated by DreamWorks.

Music/Sounds: None, or the ending theme of the demo.

Availability: Rare. This only appeared at the end of Antz. It was also seen on demo reels at the time, which can be found on Youtube.

Editor's Note: It is worth noting that the animation for the main logo was done by DreamWorks, as mentioned earlier.

6th Logo (April 22, 2001-May 27, 2005)


Logo: An in-credit logo. The words "PDI" and "DreamWorks" appear next to each other in the DreamWorks font. The words are separated by DW's "Moon Boy" symbol, which is rotated to this right in this logo.

FX/SFX: The text scrolling up in the credits.

Music/Sounds: Whatever music is playing over the credits.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen at the end of Shrek, Shrek 2 and Madagascar. Don't expect to find this at the end of Shark Tale, which is DreamWorks' first CGI film without PDI's involvement.

Editor's Note: None.

7th Logo (May 18, 2007-November 26, 2014)


Logo: On a black background we see the white letters: serif fading in.

FX/SFX: Just the fade in.

Music/Sounds: None or the closing theme of the movie.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen at the end of the last PDI/DreamWorks films from the time until the company shut down, which are Shrek the Third, Megamind, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and Penguins of Madagascar. Don't expect this logo to appear at the end of Shrek Forever After, as the animation of said film was outsourced to the main DreamWorks division. As of 2015's Home, the main DreamWorks division animates all of their newer films.

Editor's Note: