CAMPER ( Computer Aided Movie PERspectives) was an early 3D Computer Animation System developed by Woody Anderson for his Masters Thesis at Syracuse University in 1967. It initially ran on an IBM 1130. It was declarative in style and aimed at non-programmers. It consisted of a library of basic wire-frame shapes and the user could create objects from the basic shapes. Both the objects and viewing position could be animated. This was early on and so was defined as a deck of 80-column computer cards!
Below is a program that uses the box and cross basic shapes to create a clock on a wire. The variables 1 and 2 are incremented to define different views as the time increases and the clock rotates. Variable usage is defined by 901 and 902 in a command. We will not go into to details but it gives you a flavour of what CAMPER was like. If you are interested a Manual for the system still exists.
NUORG 1. .5 SET 3D ORIGIN BOX 2 1. 4. 4. 4. SET UP A BOX IN S2 TNSFR1 10 1. 8. 2. 1. 1. TRANSFER FRONT + TOP SETCV1 2 4. 4. 0. RIGHT SIDE EXPAR1 2 4. 0. 0. EXPAR1 2 4. 0. 4. CROSS1 3 0. 4. 4. 4. SET UP A CROSS YZROT1 3 4. 4. -90. ON TOP OF CUBE SETLN1 4 2. 4. 2. SET UP SUSPENDING EXPAR1 4 2. 7. 2. WIRE MULTV 1 0. CLEAR VAR 1 ADDV 1 25. VAR1 OVER 25 DEGREES MULTV 2 0. CLEAR VAR 2 ADDV 2 12.25 VAR2 TIME=12.25 MULTV 3 0. CLEAR VAR 3 ADDV 3 1.0 DO 4. CLOCK1 5 2. 2. 4. 1.5 902. SET UP A NEW CLOCK SDRAW1 0 901. 30. 15. 2. DRAW A FIGURE ADDV 1 10. OVER = OVER + 10 DEG ADDV 2 .25 TIME = TIME + 15 MIN LOOP FRAME
Figure 2.1: CAMPER Animated Frames
An example from an original CAMPER system is shown below.
Figure 2.2: CAMPER Aeroplane (excerpt from a 1971 Tomorrow's World Programme)
The two main objects built in the the system are the set of basic shapes and a single font illustrated below.
Figure 2.3: Example of Basic Shapes (Circle, Triangle, Cross, Box, Rectangle)
Figure 2.4: 3D Font