Week 7 (10/31): An Alternate Future

I. Preparation Before Class:

Come to talk about your user.

II. In Class Discussion:

Guest:

Ken Perlin (Wikipedia)

One Bio: From 1979-1984 Ken worked as a research scientist for Mathematical Applications Group, Inc. (MAGI) in Elmsford, NY. During this time, Ken began working on special effects for the movie TRON. The creator, Steven Lisberger, understood the technological limitations of the time and worked within those constraints. While Ken enjoyed working on the movie, he found himself frustrated with the “machine-like” look that existed due to the technologies being used. Moving forward, he believed there was a way to break free from the current look. One of the motivating factors for Perlin was MAGI’s use of mathematical models to produce shapes. Most companies at the time were using polygons to produce shapes. Instead, work at MAGI was done by adding various mathematical models such as ellipsoids, truncated cones, and cylinders to produce shapes. With this background, Ken thought of textures in terms of volumes rather than flat surfaces. Filling these volumes with controllably generated noise allowed produced realistic, interesting, and believable effects and images. He wrote a language to produce these results, essentially the first shader language and presented his work at a SIGGRAPH class in 1984 with a publication the following year. He did not patent his ideas.

Ken’s blog

NYU home page with great experiments. Take a look!!