Stuff about the JPL Flyby movies
Videos about the movie making process
SIGGRAPH 2017 History of the JPL Computer Graphics Lab
A talk about my work at JPL. I had more to say than I had time for, so the last part is in fast forward mode. See next video
A somewhat more leisurely version of the second half of the above talk.
Some Textures
These were generated from the Voyager 1 Jupiter flyby images and were used in the Voyager 2 flyby movie. Each pattern is 512x256 pixels, and originally had only 8 bits/pixel going through a color map to the screen. The files shown here have been upconverted to 24 bits/pixel for showing on modern displays.
Jupiter
;)
IO
Europa
;)
Ganymede
;)
Callisto
Internal Notes
Mission Simulation Programs
A user manual for the Space simulation programs, written in 1979. OCR’ed and Re-typeset into a PDF taking care to preserve the original typography.
Systems Aspects of Computer Image Synthesis and Computer Animation
A writeup about the whole system, written in about 1981. This also talks about the Cosmos DNA animations. OCR’ed and Re-typeset into a PDF taking care to preserve the original typograpy. (updated 7-30-2019)
Published Papers
Light Reflection Functions for the Simulation of Clouds and Dusty Surfaces
SIGGRAPH 1982 Conference Proceedings, pp. 21-29.
Lighting model used for rings of Saturn.
Where am I, what am I looking at?
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, July 1988, volume 8, issue 4
Reprinted in: Jim Blinn’s Corner: A Trip Down the Graphics Pipeline, Chapter 8
A generalization of the lookat transformation that I used in space movies.
Optimal tubes
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Sep 1989, volume 9, issue 5
Reprinted in: Jim Blinn’s Corner: A Trip Down the Graphics Pipeline, Chapter 11
A simple modelling primitive for long cylinders that takes into account the viewpoint.
The truth about texture mapping
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Mar 1990, volume 10, issue 2
Reprinted in: Jim Blinn’s Corner: Notation,Notation,Notation, Chapter 4
Storing texture maps as tiles increases locality of access in virtual memory situations.
How To Draw a Sphere — Part 1, Basic Math
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Jan 1995, vol. 15, issue 1
Reprinted in: Jim Blinn’s Corner: Notation,Notation,Notation, Chapter 1
Homogeneous mathematics of second order surfaces.
How To Draw a Sphere — Part 2, Coordinate Systems
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Mar 1995, vol. 15, issue 2
Reprinted in: Jim Blinn’s Corner: Notation,Notation,Notation, Chapter 2
Tricks of picking coordinate systems for fast sphere drawing.
How To Draw A Sphere — Part 3, The Hyperbolic Horizon
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Sept. 1995, Vol. 15, issue 5
Reprinted in: Jim Blinn’s Corner: Notation,Notation,Notation, Chapter 3
Optimizing the inner loop of the sphere drawer
Videos
Several strangers have posted some of the Voyager flyby videos to YouTube. That’s fine with me, but many of them only have part of the final film and they also appear to be second generation VHS copies. But until I get a chance to restore my versions to their original pristine state they will have to do.
And Then There Was Voyager This documentary has several brief clips of my animations that are the best image quality that I have seen.
Voyager 1 at Jupiter This is actually the Voyager 2 flyby movie mislabled as Voyager 1
Voyager 2 at Saturn (a brief clip from the end of the movie)