Pixar '1984' Ray Tracing Image
After reading Mark's GeForce GTX 400 post I started reviewing the technology behind OptiX, Nvidia's real time raytracing engine. I noticed that one of the examples on their sample page was inspired by 1984, a computer generated image of motion blurred pool balls first published in a 1984 Siggraph paper.According to coauthor Robert Cook, this landmark image in photorealism was created by Thomas Porter while they were working in the Computer Graphics division of Lucasfilm. An interesting note is that none other than John Lasseter of Pixar fame illustrated the environment map for the balls.
I still remember first seeing this image in a book at the local library and being blown away by the realism of the motion blur, reflections and soft shadows.
Last year, fxguide posted a nice article about the image's 25-year anniversary and had invited 3D artists to replicate the shot using modern 3D software and hardware. I thought it was quite interesting to see the differences and read about the methods they used for their recreations.
posted by Robert at March 28, 2010
3 Comments:
I downloaded the 1984 Siggraph white paper. It's an amazing final render that holds up to the recreations made today.
One question though, why does the modo render look a bit dirty? Specifically the cue ball.
It was the artist's choice to dirty up the scene, probably for the intent of not making it look computer generated. The challenge was for each artist to give their own take on the 1984 image which is also probably why no one tried replicating Lasseter's environment map.
After listening to the fxguide podcast, I discovered that I attributed the 1984 image to the wrong person. It should be Thomas Porter. I changed the post to reflect this now. I blame Nvidia for naming their OptiX example, Cook! ;)
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