mike (06/23/82)
The following message is from Tom Duff of Lucasfilm Ltd's Sprocket Systems group. Subject: STII Computer Graphics Jim Blinn did NOT do the stuff unc!wm claims in net.movies. The work he/she/it mentioned was mine. Texture mapping was invented by Ed Catmull (the director of our lab.) Blinn first pointed out that using a texture map to perturb surface normals (bump mapping) is a useful technique. Saying that Blinn is responsible for the cratered planets is like saying that Benoit Mandelbrot is responsible for Loren's fractal pictures. I can't imagine where unc!wm heard that Blinn had worked on ST2. He left Lucasfilm 5 months before we became involved in ST2. I found seeing him credited with my work extremely disquieting (in an UNSIGNED message, no less.) To set the record straight, the computer graphics in the Genesis Demonstration in ST2:TWoK were generated by the following people: Retina identification scene: Pat Cole Alvy Ray Smith Capt. Kirk's Right Retina played by Rob Poor's Left Retina Dead Crystal/Live DNA transformation: Bob Langridge Simulated Genesis Planet Transformation Star Field rendering, Paint System, Compositing, Green Organizational Charts: Tom Porter Cratered Planet & Cloud Covered Planet: Tom Duff Cloud Covered Planet Matte Painting: Chris Evans Evolving Fractal Surface, Atmosphere, Star Catalogue Crunching, Camera Motion: Loren Carpenter Genesis Torpedo and Shock Wave: Pat Cole Expanding Ring of Fire: Bill Reeves Motion Blur: Ed Catmull, Rob Cook Film Controller Interface: Rob Poor Whips and Chains: Alvy Ray Smith Bob Langridge is at the University of California at San Francisco. Chris Evans is a matte painter at Industrial Light and Magic. All the other people are on the staff of the Lucasfilm Computer Research and Development Division Computer Graphics Project. Yours Truly, Tom Duff Lucasfilm Computer Research and Development Division