Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!jp
From: jp@Apple.COM (John Peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: 3D Block letters
Message-ID: <37743@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 10 Jan 90 20:14:23 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 24

From article <7351@shlump.nac.dec.com>, by ellenberger@tle.decwrl.dec.com:
> Does anyone out there have a public domain 3-D title generator (ala TITLE from
> the BYU MOVIE Package) that I could use with one of the public Ray Tracing
> Packages (MTV or Rayshade)?  I'm in the mood for flying logos and I don't the
> time to digitize my own font.


Gordon Romney's PhD. thesis from the University of Utah ("Computer
Assisted Assembly and Rendering of Solids") has an appendix in the
back listing the coordinates for a complete 3D block letter alphabet.
It came out in 1969 or 70, you should be able to order a copy from
University Microfilms for $20-30.  Graphics folks in SLC might enjoy
looking up the copy in the U of U library, it contains what must be
some of the earliest 3D color shaded pictures. 

If you can get your hands on a scanner and a Really Good OCR
package you might be able to save yourself some typing.  I suspect the
digital data was lost when the original graphics lab was scrapped to build
the new one in 82 or so.  (Oddly enough, nobody there preserved any of
the "classic" data - they didn't even have a copy of the teapot until
somebody pulled it off the net a few years ago...)

Enough rambling,
jp