(Stayner goes recruiting over at Lucasfilm)

After 3 months and over 6,000 hours of relentless rendering, The Uniface Project is finally ready for viewing. “There were times when we were sure we had bitten of we can chew,” admits an exhausted Ken Stayner a project manager at Pixar who donated his time to the project, “But once you start something of this magnitude, it gains its own momentum and you have no choice but to ride the beast to the end.”

(the desk Stayner was glued to for 25% of a year)

Stayner got volunteers from his own company as well as top competitors Lucasfilm and DreamWorks Animation until a total of 347 people had contributed their unique expertise. “The goal was to do a modern version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’ video but using the very latest technology.” After that, his vocabulary becomes a dizzying collage of technical terms like “Final Cut Pro” and “cross dissolve” but the end result is a cutting edge piece of video art any layman can enjoy.

(a fraction of the hard drives required to store the project)

“We ran out of money halfway through. Some of us went mad from lack of sleep. There were even rumors of a divorce being linked to this project but it’s done and that’s what matters” Stayner sighs, “Now we just sit back and enjoy the WOWs.”
So, without further ado, we present the most head-popping piece of digital technology since Jacko’s original stab at it back in 1991.

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