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For more than 30 years, Cornell professor Donald Greenberg has been at
the forefront of a field he essentially created: 3-D architectural
modeling and rendering on computers. In 1973 he founded the Program of
Computer Graphics (PCG). Students of his have gone on to start such
companies as Wavefront and Lightscape, developed much of Autodesk's
technology, and even won an Academy Award. Here are a few of the PCG's
greatest hits over the years.
By Jonathan Ringen
June 2002
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1970
Greenberg's first three-dimensional computer simulation was this little
red schoolhouse, done with Bob Hastings at General Electric's space
flight simulation laboratory in Syracuse, New York.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1972
The rendering of I.M. Pei's Johnson Art Museum was done at the GE lab
two years before the building was completed. It uses an early form of
direct illumination.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1979
A computer-generated Fred Flintstone. The pencil sketches and background
were scanned and colored using an automated animation system. Hanna
Barbera adopted the method, developed with Marc Levoy, Bruce Wallace,
and Chris Rogers, and used it on many of their cartoons.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1981
Rob Cook and Ken Torrance used rudimentary data on the reflective
properties of twenty or so materials (including these below) to create
reflection algorithms that more accurately depicted the behavior of
bouncing light, making subsequent renderings more realistic.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1984
The Cornell Box is a simple physical environment for which the lighting,
geometry, and material reflection properties have been measured. A
rendering of that environment is then created, using algorithms like the
ones Cook devised, and then compared to images of the actual box
captured with a camera. This image is the first Cornell Box rendering,
done with Cindy Coral and Ken Torrance; it's extremely simple--a white
cube with one red and one blue wall. The bouncing light causes the white
walls to appear as if they've picked up some of the color.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1985
This steel mill rendering proved that the reflected light algorithms
that were improved by experiments with the Cornell Box could be used in
very elaborate environments. The image, done with Eric Chen, John
Wallace, and Michael Cohen, took 190 hours to generate.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1986
The most famous room in the Soane Museum in London, and one of
architecture's great domestic spaces, the Breakfast Room is small but
complex, with a domed ceiling, concealed skylights, and more than a
hundred pieces of mirror. (With Alan Polinsky.)
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1990
A simulated image of Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp,
France, done with Keith Howie, Eric Haines, John Wallace, and Kells A.
Elmquist.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1991
This set for the opera Tales of Hoffman, done with Julie Dorsey,
is interesting because not only does the theatrical lighting have to be
simulated, but also the scenery which--rather than being painted on
backdrops--was actually projected onto the wall.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1993
A technique called "discontinuity meshing" made it possible
for the first time to simulate detailed shadows, like those cast by the
window. Done with Filippo Tampieri and Dani Lischinski.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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1995
I.M. Pei's Louvre pyramid--with its glass skin, narrow cables, and
complicated hardware--was a particularly challenging rendering. Sean
Barry and Ben Trumbore's simulation, one of the most complicated ever
made, is composed of 32 million polygons--although you can only clearly
see the three closest connections, all are rendered to the same level of
detail.
Photo by Courtesy Cornell Program of Computer Graphics
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2001
Upon leaving Cornell in 1981 Rob Cook was hired by Lucasfilm's recently
launched computer group. His contribution to RenderMan, the software he
went on to develop with colleagues Ed Catmull and Loren Carpenter, was
an extension of the material- reflection work he was doing at the PCG.
RenderMan, now owned by Pixar, is the technological foundation for its
animated movies, like Monsters Inc. Last year Catmull, Carpenter,
and Cook won an Oscar for their contribution to moviemaking technology.
Photo by Courtesy Disney/Pixar
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