Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pixar!efo
From: efo@pixar.uucp (efo)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: synthetic -> hologram
Message-ID: <6490@pixar.UUCP>
Date: 27 Aug 89 22:10:07 GMT
References: <4791@portia.Stanford.EDU> <1746@dover.sps.mot.com>
Sender: news@pixar.UUCP
Reply-To: efo@pixar.uucp (efo)
Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California
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>>Plate #22 in Upstill's RenderMan companions is the "shattered globe" image
>>that recently appeared as a National Geographic cover hologram.
>>Could someone explain how this synthetic image was converted into a hologram?
>>Thanks.
As many have pointed out, the December cover hologram was live-action,
made by exploding a real glass sphere.  Our computer-generated shattered
earth was made independently, although also for the Geographic.
The idea was to create an image that was evocative of a shattered glass
globe -- perhaps more evocative than an actual photograph.
We produced a short sequence of the earth "exploding;" this was shown
in the marketing film presentation at Pixar's Siggraph booth.

We have produced holograms from our images, however.  The image on the 
cover of the July 1988 IEEE CG+A was a hologram of the baby and toy
in "Tin Toy".  We supplied ABN with a sequence of high-resolution
images of the scene rotating about its center; through expensive
magic, ABN turns these into a single hologram.