Vol Libre on Vimeo

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1. Vol Libre

4 months ago

I made this film in 1979-80 to accompany a SIGGRAPH paper on how to synthesize fractal geometry with a computer. It is the world's first fractal movie. It utilizes 8-10 different fractal generating algorithms. I used an antialiased version of this software to create the fractal planet in the Genesis Sequence of Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan. These frames were computed on a VAX-11/780 at about 20-40 minutes each.

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Eric Nordlund
21 days ago
Hampus Högberg
21 days ago
porofix
22 days ago
GOAB
22 days ago
Kollektivet Livet
22 days ago
David Sandberg
29 days ago
Brian Lee
1 month ago
2AM
1 month ago
Gary Friesen
1 month ago
Taine H-R
1 month ago
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Priyésh Puthan Valiyandi 4 months ago

Is this where the famous teapot was "born"? ;-) Thanks for sharing!
m.h. rubin 4 months ago

No, it's a tribute/homage to the already-famous icon.
Michael Heilemann 4 months ago

It remains impressive to this day. The final zoom shot which finishes up by craning down to the teapot is epic; I can't even imagine the complexity of staging that back in '79.

And there are still moments where it captures the sensation of gliding through a mountain pass, even without me having to squint. That's no mean feat.

Thank you for sharing this.
Donald Edinborough 4 months ago

Okay, so while I was playing my Atari 2600 in 1984.... You were sitting on "the Rosetta stone of video graphics Technology" Why did I play Yar's Revenge again?

Thank you, Your work is epic... I love the opening!
Ed Stern 4 months ago

Hurray!—29 years later... I was 6 and the best video I had my imagination and a back yard—I'm thankful for both...

Thanks for being one of the pioneers of the progressive cg movement.
Josh Kirschenbaum 4 months ago

I just finished Droidworks the other day - and I was searching all over the intertubes for this...thanks for posting it!! Phenomenal work - I don't even want to think about hand-coding b-spline camera animation...yikes.
Daniel Hayek 4 months ago

Thank you for posting this piece of history on Vimeo Mr. Carpenter. It's awesome.
Snow 4 months ago

History in the making.
Great to get see visuals after reading the great Droidmaker. Thank you Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Rubin.
Joseph Francis 4 months ago

Very cool. I blogged it.
digitalartform.com/archives/2004/11/benoit_mandelbr.html

:D
Sebastien LABAN 4 months ago

Amazing! :o)
I think Lasseter/Stanton/Unrich talked about it in "The History Of Pixar" on the DVD of Wall-E!
In the contexte : Impressive stuff! :o)
Thanks for sharing Loren!
Damien Ivan 4 months ago

For those who haven't done the math, the full render took about 75-80 days to complete!!
Vishang shah 4 months ago

The music is amazing in Vol Libre
Torley 4 months ago

I smiled so much. As part of the virtual world Second Life, I regularly fly over terraformed peaks and craters — and to think this preceded what is taken for granted. Thanks for sharing, Loren.
Romeo Reidl 4 months ago

I used Vista Pro and Terragen in the '90s to create such things more than 10-15 years after you! Uhhhh! Amazing man, I t hink you must be some kind of pioneer of this "landscape generator" programs on home computers.
David Llopis 4 months ago

I can't believe it. Incredible piece of ancient 3d art. ;)
Alan S. Muir 4 months ago

Outstanding! Glad I stumbled across this. Any additional details on the software used and the details of the hardware? How about some more details about the Genesis Sequence, too?
Brent Roady 4 months ago

What is the music used in the video?
Brainy Smurph 2 months ago

The song is 'Flying' by The Beatles. Which is the icing on the cake!
Suchan Bajracharya 4 months ago

I was not even born at that time...Is this the true beginning of 3d. WoW, such detail and complexity in that time =)
ExplosiveGraffix 4 months ago

So inspiring - thank you for all of your contributions to the 3D world!
farhaad_yousefi 3 months ago

oow..history..!! :D
benoit saint-moulin 3 months ago

Ohhh thanks for sharing, what's remember :-)
Ben Aqua 3 months ago

luvin it
Rick Umali 2 months ago

Fantastic! I just finished watching "The Pixar Story" (off the "WALL-E" DVD), and I looked around for this video. It's amazing to look at it now.
David Sandberg 29 days ago

You are my hero