“TEAPOT: The Movie Teaser” by Engle
Conference:
Experience Type(s):
Title:
- TEAPOT: The Movie Teaser
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Description:
Presented as part of the SIGGRAPH 2001 Electronic Theater pre-show entertainment, this piece plays homage to the teaser trailer originally produced for the film “Alien” and, of course, to the Utah teapot. “In space, no one can hear you steam …” Technical Overview The model of the teapot was created in Maya from the original Utah teapot Bézier patch control points. All of the imagery of the teapot was rendered using Pixar’s PhotoRealistic RenderMan and Sony Pictures Imageworks’ proprietary lighting interface. The bumpy surface of the shell (meant to evoke the look of the egg from the “Alien” teaser), and the ground cracks were produced using displacement shaders. The moving star field at the beginning of the piece was captured from a Microsoft Windows screensaver using a video camera. The final shot featuring actress Sigourney Weaver was captured on DVCAM and composited in Inferno. The sound effects in the piece were sampled from a gas stove and a whistling tea kettle, and manipulated using PC-based sound editing tools.
