“Ray Tracing: A Silent Movie & Some Slides” by Sweeney and Forsey – ACM SIGGRAPH HISTORY ARCHIVES

“Ray Tracing: A Silent Movie & Some Slides” by Sweeney and Forsey




  • ©


Title:


    Ray Tracing: A Silent Movie & Some Slides

Conference:


SIGGRAPH Video Review:



Director(s):


Company / Institution / Agency:


  • University of Waterloo

Description:


    This presents a series of stills, in the old-time tradition, explaining ray tracing, and ends with 30 seconds of animation. The animated sequence is a flight through a synthetic lake scene.

Hardware:


    HARDWARE: VAX 11/780, Genisco frame buffer, Ampex
    frame store

Software:


    SOFTWARE DEVELOPER: Images are ray traced by software produced by
    Michael Sweeney. The text was prepared with a
    program by David Forsey. Doris Kochanek?s spline
    interpolation was used for the ?tweening.


Additional Contributors:


    Michael Sweeney, David Forsey
    Produced at: The University of Waterloo, Computer Graphics Laboratory, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 1984


Additional Information:


    Format: 4:30; 3/4″; sound

    Technical notes:
    The raytracing program used is capable of rendering
    texture mapped fractals (the mountains in the
    animated sequence) and free-form B-spline surfaces
    (the two central columns of the sequence).

Animation / Video Overview:


Type:



Submit a story:

If you would like to submit a story about this animation, please contact us: historyarchives@siggraph.org