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The history of 3D graphics is filled with fascinating stories that can help us to better understand our new artistic medium. We are happy to share with you some of the classic “greatest hits” in the art and science of computer generated imagery.
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Some of the coolest ideas in 3D graphics have actually been around for a long time. The techniques of image-based modeling allow 3D objects to be synthesized from two or more photographs. This is a form of photogrammetry, which was invented by Edouard Deville in the late 1800s.
While at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Christian Greuel (President of Realtime Arts) had his face scanned by Dimensional Imaging. The resulting raw mesh was very “heavy” — it had a high polygon count. Greuel did a quick optimization on the model in 3ds Max and composited this image in Photoshop. |
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The computer graphics industry has a mascot: the Utah Teapot! This little guy really gets around. It's been used as a test object for computer rendering since the 1970's. It gets its name from the University of Utah, where graphics pioneer Martin Newell created it in 1975. Other researchers, most notably Jim Blinn, popularized the teapot. It's a simple but non-trivial 3D model to test rendering algorithms.
The Utah Teapot has become an inside joke in the industry. You'll find it as a Standard Primitive object in 3ds Max. It has made many other appearances over the years, such as in the movie Toy Story, and in Blur Studio's opening animation for the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater in 2001. |
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