In the computer animation "Legacy" by Darrin Butts, the painted image of an animal frees itself from the walls of a cave. The 2- dimensional animal now roams the cave until it is hit by spears.

The idea for "Legacy" grew from my interests and research into myths and storytelling of different cultures and regions of the world. I had recently written a story romanticizng childhood memories of stories that were told to me about visits to Africa and encounters with its cultures and its wildlife.

The cyclical nature of life, the concepts of birth and death, man's relationship with the earth, and the continuation and evolution of culture by passing down "living" artifacts from one generation to the next, intrigued me. Images, stories, and customs permeate beyond generations and link the past to the present to form a linear progression which is typically representative of humankind.

I wanted to create an animation that conveyed the ideas that I was contemplating at that time. The images painted on the walls of caves and cliffsides around the world are, in this sense, storytelling and are much more than merely a physical link to the past. These images have a living quality to them which convey an aura of what has happened before. The images painted on the cave walls embody the essence of what that culture was. We are no different. We tell stories, we create things, and what we create continues in the work of others after us.

"Legacy" draws on these real and imaginary elements and blurs the distinction between history and myth, to create its forms. It is about continuation and connection: continuation of artistic forms, and of cultural forms, and a connection between the past and the present, between us and our ancestors. These links with the past are continued through storytelling, passing down stories from one generation to the next. "Legacy" is a recognition that all current socia1 forms are rooted in the past. It is a recognition that imagination draws its inspiration from what has happened before.

"Legacy" was created over a nine month period at the Texas A&M University Visualization Lab in the Graduate Visualization Program. It was a student project completed as the fulfillment of requirements for two graduate level courses. All aspects of production, including conception, design, animation, lighting, editing and sound were completed by me though with generous input and assistance from students, Kirk Kelly, Matthew Brunner, and Michele Robinson, now my fiancee, and from my animation professor Susan Van Baerle. The animation was completed entirely with the use of commercial software.

Technical Background
HW: Silicon Graphics
SW: Softimage