giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) (07/26/84)
I just saw *the Last Starfighter*, and I for one saw the polygons!
Specifically, whenever you passed very near a starship or a planet, I
could make out the one frame when the polygons were HUGE. (Guess that's
what I get for studying yoga). Oh yes, did anyone else see the workmen
in spacesuits welding on the outside of the death star as the Empereor
boarded her in SWIII? I saw it the first time!
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As to what computer-generated images were used *for*, yech. The first
time I saw `Centari' (gag that scriptwriter with a nubian worm) and his
car I knew it was a spaceship. Here is the way it should have been done:
Centurus (better) drives up to the trailer park in a red Ferrari. Alex
gets in, `beta' (double yuch) steps out, and C. drives down the mountain
side at less than (but not my much) 100 mph. He is filmed in real-time,
not this speeded-up &^*$ which makes the car bounce funny. Same deal with
the tunnel, then
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they drive off the cliff, (empty shell weighted like a
Ferrari), then a switch to the computer generated image of a Ferrari.
**NOW**, using some sort of coordinate mapping so everythings sort-of
flows for the next 1-2 seconds, the nose of the car pulls forward and
narrows, the passenger compartment shrinks and rises, with the windows
stretching over the cab, the tail lights enlarge and merge, and the fenders
stretch out into little stub wings. Overall there is a slight glow, but
quiet (if any) music. Tail lights glow, and you are looking something like
a cross between the Shuttle and a F-16.
I've seen an early computer aided cartoon (line drawings in B&W) which
used this sort of distortion. WOW! You would have to see it to believe
it. As long as it did not fill too much of the screen, you could have the
Ferrari drop over the edge, a red spacecraft climb above the distant
mountains, and some intermediate craft in between and it would occur so
fast and look so real that everyone would just sit there numb for a few
minutes. THAT is where computer generated images can be put to a good use.
Where they did not belong was
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in the drawing of the Starfigher base.
A couple of hokey asteroids hit the side of the mountain, ridiculous
looking explosions shoot out, and the next thing we see: the ends of
the base neatly severed, with no evidence of either the missing parts
of the base, nor of damage to the supporting rock.
Bruce Giles
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