reynolds@RAND-UNIX.ARPA (05/25/84)
From: "Craig W. Reynolds" <reynolds@RAND-UNIX.ARPA>
Date: Tue 22 May 84 00:37:45-EDT
From: Peter G. Trei <OC.TREI@CU20B>
Subject: The Last Starfighter.
... Digital Productions' work for the movie THE LAST STARFIGHTER:
The work is being done on a Cray X-MP, printed on 70 mm film
at a resolution of 4000 x 6000, at a pace of about one minute per
day. Unlike TRON, the images include transparency and reflections,
as well as fractal landscapes. ...
That last sentence is correct, except for the fact that the imagery in
TRON included transparency, reflections and fractal landscapes.
The production rate mentioned above is about 5 times faster than the
rate at which frames were produced for TRON (at triple-I on a Foonly
F1).
Also, I am 98% certain that their computer output is on 35mm vistavision
(an 8 perf horizontal format) since DP purchased, and I assume they are
using, the same film recorder (the "DFP") that we used at triple-I
during TRON. This would eventually be printed up to 70mm for release.
The max resolution we used back then was 3000 pixels across, more
typically it was 1500. The "correct" number, based on spot size and
film bandwidth is between 1000 and 2000. Pixel densities above this
tend to be for the purpose of "solving" the aliasing problem by brute
force -- super-sampling reduces the intensity of the aliasing artifacts.
[This is much like solving the problem of spoiled meat by grinding it
into little tiny pieces before eating it.]
-c