Terry Choate and her videographer partner started this video graphic and animation business in 1986, with several ArtStar computers by Colorgraphics. Terry's daughters Tammy and Shannon Manning soon joined, there and using the same computer to do weather graphics at ABC news in New York and Chicago. Most of the work was producing graphics for video presentations in paintbox style, what is now acheived by PowerPoint. We also did some fun 3-D animation projects, which were pretty advanced for the time. We started shifting our focus to web development, and Mac-based animation and video in 1994.
Produced by Terry Choate, Tammy Manning, and Shannon Manning at Animation Station Ltd. and 4-Front Video in New York.
In use 1994-1997, the debut years of the United Center. Also used in Space Jam.
This was state-of-the-art in 1994, 4-Front actually put sensors on bulls to get data for more accurate motion. One day I'll digitize the original tape but for now, someone put it on Youtube below. My favorite memory of this was deciding that the lion should recoil which ended up costing us in time and money, but I love the move. Later copycat animations used the same bit!
Bulls are calmly grazing somewhere on the South Side of Chicago. Lightning
strikes which starts the bulls stampeding.
After dodging taxicabs in the Loop, the bulls charge into the United Center
and enter through the players' entrance.
This was an interactive video game module kids would sit in, and it would shake in response to the action. At Animation Station Ltd., we made video animations (dinosaurs, underwater adventures, a land of candy) using the ArtStar computer by Colographics and the machine in the pod would select video clips to play, based on the child's selections. The machine was created by the same guy who invented the toilets at O'Hare that have the automatic plastic cover. I don't know how widely they were distributed but the stories were really fun to write. My 8-year old niece now has software that can do the same thing in minutes.
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Partial client list: Abbott Labs, Allstate, Ameritech, Arthur Andersen, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, FDIC, GE, JC Penney, McDonald's, Museum of Science & Industry, Mitsubishi Diamondvision, Motorola, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Price Waterhouse Coopers, People's Gas, Rand McNally, Smith Barney, United Airlines, Waste Managment.
