Wavefront Technologies

Background

Wavefront Technologies was an American computer graphics company that developed and sold animation software used in various industries. It was founded in 1984 in Santa Barbara, California.

In 1995, Silicon Graphics purchased Wavefront Technologies and Alias Research and merged them to create Alias/Wavefront, which would later be renamed to Alias Systems Corporation in 2003, and would completely be acquired by Autodesk, Inc. on January 10, 2006.

Logo (April 18, 1988)

Opening
Closing

Visuals:

Opening: The sequence starts in a jungle with a river and some cliffs. In the background, there are two yellow snakes fly towards the right. A yellow snake with blue spots, green and magenta hair, and a blue pair of glasses pops up from the bottom of the screen and looks at us as it twitches its eyes. A metal claw comes in from the right side of the screen. The snake looks at it and tries to flee, but is grabbed through a spaceship hallway with a blue light flashing into a room with a machine. As the screen zooms towards the room, the spaceship doors close. The screen then cuts to the inside of the room, where the snake is on the machine being examinated, is under a lamp, and is surrounded by the claws. The machine brings down a claw with a hair trimmer, and trims off all but one of the snake's hair. The snake is then hit with a blue cloth, causing white dust to surround all over it and turn it into a stone structure. As the dust disintergrates, the structure is sprayed, and another claw comes in and grabs the structure. The screen then cuts to a scene where four metal-like S-shaped structures are displayed, and the stacked text "WAVEFRONT TECHNOLOGIES" are surrounding them. The claw from before sets another S-shaped structure left to the other ones, and leaves the screen. The structures turn into glass-like ones, tinted with the colors (from left to right) red, yellow, green, dodgerblue, and violet.
Closing: Against a space background, we see multiple stars shooting towards different sides of the screen. An illustration of the Wavefront Technologies logo from before then fades in at the center of the screen, zooms towards the camera, and settles when it takes over most of the screen. After a few seconds, it slowly zooms away from us as the screen fades to black.

Technique: CGI.

Audio:

Opening: First, we hear a jungle-themed tune, accompanied by crickets and birds chirping. We then hear the snake's high-pitched voice, who seems to make a giggling-like noise as it looks at us. A sound of a claw is then heard, and the snake makes a "Hmm?" noise when it looks at the claw. It then makes a squealing sound when it is grabbed by the claw. As the snake is grabbed through the hallway, we hear spaceship alarm noises, a held low-pitched electronic noise, and a snare-like tune. At the operating room, we hear a soft synth tune, accompanied by some beeping noises and the sounds of the machine which examines the snake. As the snake's hair gets trimmed, it makes another squeal, and yet another when it is hit by the cloth. As the stone structure is sprayed, spraying sounds are heard. The machine makes its usual sounds when another claw comes in and grabs the structure. At the end, we hear a held, eerie noise, accompanied by a portion of the snare tune from before.
Closing: An eighteen-note triumphant synth fanfare, which is a rendition of a portion of "Also sprach Zarathustra".

Availability: Only appeared on an engineering demo reel from the company from April 18, 1988.